This is really very important, because if a person has to constantly look for the necessary papers, turn around in search of stationery, and so on, this can take the lion’s share of working time. If you use comfortable work accessories, then many problems are immediately solved. For example, a paper tray with several sections will allow you to keep at hand all the necessary documents that are convenient to take, and a diary – do not forget about important meetings and calls.
High-quality optimization of the employee’s workplace is the key to success and the simplest answer to the question of how ways to improve work performance. Here are some examples of improving work performance.
Planning the working day
There is such a stereotype that remote work reduces the efficiency of work. In fact, if the features and advantages of the remote format are taken into account when organizing work, the results will be higher than in the office.
Plan your work. The main difficulty of remote work is that the manager cannot physically control the employees and the process of doing the work. But you can still control the result. Set tasks and deadlines for their implementation.
Create a common information space. It is important to organize an environment for team communication. These can be general chats for free communication or regular video meetings to synchronize on tasks, their priorities and results.
Take a lunch break
For many, a new era has come – the “epoch of self-organization.”
At the same time, experts warn against falling into the other extreme. When the boundaries of working time are blurred, work captures more and more time, taking it away from other things and not allowing you to fully relax.
Experts advise you to clearly set a break time for yourself and not try to do all the household chores during this hour. Even better – go for a walk outside: 20-30 minutes in the fresh air will increase both mood and performance. At the same time, try to walk a new path every time: even if you are walking in your residential area, you can explore all the yards. For example, I have been living in my area for 30 years, but only during quarantine I went into one of the nearby courtyards and found that it reminds me of a Tbilisi courtyard.
Also, clearly indicate the end of the working day – for example, by turning off the computer. And finally, try not to work on weekends – evenings and weekends can be spent on more interesting things.
The atmosphere around
In order to complete any task efficiently and on time, you must be in love with the work. Otherwise, it will be extremely difficult to concentrate. Each time the tasks will be given more and more difficult. And sooner or later you will want to go to the office again.
There is no need to replace the unloved work in the office with the unloved work at home. If you do the right thing, you will not have to feel exhausted and empty. Many beginner remote workers suffer from a lack of movement. It’s not about physical activity, it’s about change.
Try to change jobs regularly. If you spent the last week at home, why not work at the nearest cafe, in the park or on the beach this week?
This must be done at least once in a lifetime, in order to later tell all the curious how great it is to choose the place and time yourself. Joke – this is done to eliminate stagnation.
Mode of the day
Remote work and home are mixed. Therefore, it is important not only to have a dedicated place for work, but also a certain time for doing tasks. Otherwise, it will seem to you that you can always work – and then you will quickly burn out. And if you don’t believe in burnout, you’ll just get tired.
Fix the schedule. Work at the same time that you are used to working in the office – from 9 to 17, or from 12 to 20, or whenever you like. It is important that the schedule should be in order not to accidentally start working around the clock. The framework of the working day is sometimes erased, and you can work all day and go to bed hugging your laptop. A good plan is to disable all work programs after a certain amount of time.
Measure time. At first, it is very easy to overwork or underdo. At first, a timer or a time tracker helps a lot – they are different and easy to google.
Turn off notifications in work chats after hours and on weekends, and try not to answer work questions during this time. This is generally true for office workers, but at a distance, the boundaries are less clearly defined.
Don’t work next to the bed
At first, it seems that the coolest thing about working remotely is working while lying in bed, or whatever. But you will quickly realize that it’s cool to sleep in bed and watch TV shows. But to tune in to the working mood – so-so. The place of sleep and rest should remain for the brain, and let the work be somewhere else.
Plan your work
Jobs still need to be done. Therefore, you need to organize everything so that the process does not differ from what usually happens in the office.
Eat frog. First – unpleasant tasks. In any job there are unpleasant tasks – you always want to postpone them for later. Often this “later” comes too late. If the task cannot be skipped in principle, then it is better to do it at the beginning of the working day. This way you don’t lose focus and prematurely submit the task to the queue.
Don’t bear it. No need to postpone work tasks for later because no one sees what you are doing. So the working regime gets lost, and everything merges into one long day.
Don’t take it easy. If suddenly you completed the plan for the day in just a few hours and you, in theory, have a lot of free time, this does not mean that the working day is over. At this time, you can do some other work, sort out the backlog, or ask the manager what to do next. Or you can not do it if you have closed lists or Forster.
The day’s work must be scheduled. My practice has shown that it is better to make it at the end of the day. It turns out that you plan the working day of Tuesday on Monday evening. Plus approach: this way you will surely be able to plan an important thing that really needs to be done the next day. Day-to-day planning can clog your schedule with fluidity. It seems that they worked, but they did not advance in solving the strategic problem. A clear plan, drawn up the day before, will not let you go astray.