Working from home in India comes with its own set of challenges. From access to fast WiFi to efficient smartphone support and a lack of other essential tools make it a tough job to work from home. So the factors vary from a niche’s requirements to others’, but the number of challenges remains the same. We all need some handy tools and tips to improve work from home productivity.
According to Buffer, here are the top problems we face while working remotely:
Image Courtesy: Buffer
It was stated in a survey that around 90% of Indian employees who work from home feel the need for better connectivity. More than 20% of them faced issues while sharing big files. Nearly 19% of these people feel lonely after working from home on a long stretch. Some 7% of work from home employees feel that if no one’s keeping a check, then they can take such a regime for a vacation as well.
The worst of all, maintaining work-life balance. Most of us find it hard to unplug into their normal routines. A number of individuals start questioning their working from home reasons and eventually become less productive.
Also, a lesser-known fact about the pertaining work culture in India is that more than half the employees are either working remotely or from their home at least once a week. Irrespective of these statistics, a widely accepted and healthily understood work from home culture is still a far fetched dream.
Related: 18 tools to stay productive & organised while working remotely
While there is are those who accept such an approach wholeheartedly. According to a recent survey, 60% of Indian millennials seek flexible jobs that allow them to work remotely. But what is often left unsaid is that the majority of employees in emerging economies like us may not adhere to the required work ethics and exploit the flexibility offered this way.
In the wake of current COVID 19 outbreak, when a number of organizations are resorting to long-lasting working from home options as their primary precautionary measure, a need to lay down some ground rules to maintain productivity becomes necessary.
Wondering how to work from home? Here are 10 tips to improve productivity while working from home in India:
1) Come up with a designated work from home desk
The foremost step in pepping up your work from home productivity is to set up a designated workstation.
This helps you slide into workflow easily and in maintaining work discipline while at home.
Coming up with a workstation is something that adds to your professional demeanour and adds to the productivity substantially.
2) Maintain your remote workspace hygiene – Declutter
Just setting up a designated work from home desk wouldn’t cover the lengths of productivity. You now have to keep it hygienic enough to maintain healthy work habits.
Decluttering is the key to attaining this, simply get rid of all the non-work related articles from around your workstation.
And having this done, you are now keeping away from the most of distraction that can hamper your productivity.
3) Wake up to a workday attire – Change out of your pyjamas
Waking up to your laptop in the couch you slept last night wearing the same Pyjamas you wear at home isn’t going to help. Instead, wake up earlier than you intend to. Change into your workplace attire and get going on the work for the day.
When working from home in India, the challenge is not getting to work, but getting to work with the same temperament is. So dress up the way you do for your workplace and keep the workflow same as usual.
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4) Allocate strict working from home hours
The biggest of challenges in improving your work from home productivity in India is allocating work hours. So the next step in maintaining productivity is to strictly set apart work hours with specific breaks in between.
Say you work in an 8-hour shift, then allocate 3 hours, 3 hours and 2 hours with breathers of 10-15 minutes in between.
Allocating work hours would help you make sure that the work at hand is being delivered regularly, productively and always quality centric.
5) Set Ground Rules With People Around
Setting ground rules with people around is the next step in the ladder.
Making sure that you are not constantly distracted by the family members can fetch you a good amount of work from home productivity.
Simply ask them to maintain the same temperament towards your work as of when you are at a workplace.
This will help your transition into a productive working from home option on a longer run.
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6) Make an actionable remote working plan & don’t procrastinate
Coming up with a list of things to be done and ensuring all of which is done is imperative to improve your work from home productivity.
Also, make sure that you complete every of the task allocated for a day. Leaving out one of 10 things you had planned for the day is only going to pile up unattended work by the end of the month.
So don’t resort to procrastination, but take up what needs to be done wholeheartedly.�Even when you’ve completed the allocated tasks today, you should start prepping up what’s left in the pipeline for tomorrow. Just do not compromise on the work hours allocated by you anyhow.
7) Don’t let your friends drop by while you’re working
It’s just another day at home, and who knows if I am logged in or not, well, it doesn’t work that way. When you are on a work from home schedule, you need to adhere to its prerequisites.
And inviting friends over during your work hours is a huge distraction from your usual workday regime. Like normal workdays, restrict your social time to after-office hours.
Having clear cut segmentation of your daily work from home regime really helps. So, plan your meeting with friends for the week-offs and non-working hours.
8) Take breathers not vacations
It is often observed that we take more than what can be defined as a break while working from home. In order to really juice out productivity, one must ensure that the breaks are plenty but time-bound as well.
Taking undue breaks and breathers won’t help you induce work from home productivity, it will only make you lazy at everything. So, while planning your work sprints for a 9 hour work day, count in 3 breathers of 15-20 mins each. Don’t over-do these or overindulge in getting out for breaks more than these.
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9) Leave household chores to post-work hours
Household chores are important, but not when you’re at work. Leaving them for post-work hours is what needs to be done.
During the COVID 19 outbreak, the entire point of working from home is to isolate yourself and refrain from getting to contagious places. Whereas going to the market for getting things would only make you more vulnerable to Coronavirus infection.
Therefore, refrain from getting to such places as much as you can and leave these things for the times when you’re not working.
10) Get out daily
When on a consecutively longer work from home regime, getting out for a stroll regularly is also suggested.
Such a habit would ensure your productivity outflow and help your creative juices flowing.
For creative individuals and those who sit behind a desk for long, it helps induce new ideas and stimulates enthusiasm & will to work within.
Amidst COVID 19 outbreak it is pretty necessary to prevent possible contagion. But working out a productive outflow cannot be kept out of the picture and improving productivity at home does not require drastic changes as well.
It simply means you adhere to a similar approach that you consider at your workplace. So when at home, be productive, be safe and let’s make things easier for one and all.
To know more on COVID 19 prevention at workplaces, click here.
11) Listen to music & beat out the workday blues
Listening to music works wonders in improving your work from home productivity. Play the favourite alternative rock band, some instrumental bliss or anything that keeps you productive enough.
The thing you need to make sure is that it shouldn’t be distracting enough, but should sync in your flow. Keeping the volume low but audible is one thing you can do. Choosing a work-specific playlist is another. Music can definitely elevate your work from home productivity and plugging into it zones you out from everything else but your work.
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FAQs:
Q. How do you measure your work from home productivity?
A. There can be a number of ways to improve work from home productivity, however, the best way around is to measure your input time and output results. If the input time is more than ideal for the output, then you need to look for gaps. If it’s not, then you can work upon improving the number. Either way, there’s no cap on what’s the limit of output when you need to improve your work from home productivity.
Q. What are some tools and applications that help me improve my work from home productivity?
A. That’s relative to answer. There are a number of tools that help you improve productivity depending on your domain. The most relevant ones are the time tracking applications that can help almost every kind of domain in improving work from home productivity.
Q. How do companies measure work from home productivity?
A. Again, different companies measure work from home productivity differently. But the gist element is to measure the input-output scale of the work done. Within a set timeline, if the target is not met, then the productivity is bad. If it isn’t, then it’s good to go with, along with efforts for improvements.
