Working From Home - Plan Ahead For When Disaster Or Tragedy Occurs
If you're lucky enough to be working from home, it's a great perk of your job. You can work at your own pace and in the comfort of your own home. But this luxury comes with a little drawback - being "home" means that you are away from all the usual distractions, like eating meals with friends or going out for coffee. If you work from home, you have to get creative and make sure that you remain productive. Here are some tips for staying productive and making the most of your time at home. Plan Ahead
Planning is key to success, whether at work or in life. When you're working from home, it's important to plan out your day before you begin working on the first project. Set goals that you want to accomplish and then break down each goal into small steps. For example, if one of your goals is to draft a letter for a new client, brainstorm a few topics for the letter and jot down ideas about what content or information should be included in the letter. Once you have a list of potential topics, you'll know what to prioritize and what order to write them in. The more prepared you are when working from home, the less likely it is that you'll lose focus or fall behind. If the thought of staying focused is scary to you, try these 5 tips for keeping your mind sharp.
Pareto Principle: 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts. Working From Home: Plan Ahead For When Disaster Or Tragedy Occurs [ARTICLE END]
Forbes found that just four productivity rules could increase your personal productivity by an average of 169 percent, or about 25 times! That's right... 25 times!
To put this into perspective, here's a list of 25 rules to increase your personal productivity:
1) Turn off your iPhone on Friday night. Your phone will be in the bathroom, your laptop in the bedroom, and you'll be snoozing at home. With no distractions, your computer is all yours.
2) If you need a work break during the day (after 1 pm), turn off alerts from all work-related emails. You won't get much done if you're constantly checking for new messages throughout the day.
3) Don't check email before lunchtime or after dinner. Your brain is going to want to think about work during the most important meal of the day. If you check your email before lunch, it will be just one more thing for you to worry about. And if you try to catch up on emails after dinner, you'll have trouble falling asleep, because your mind will keep replaying thoughts about work instead of drifting off into dreamland.
4) Don't check email on weekends unless it's from a client or important issue (like a deadline). Weekend interruptions are a productivity killer.
5) Put email in "Outbox"--don't click "Reply All." This means that all emails from all your contacts stay in your Inbox until they're ready for action or deletion. You'll be less tempted to pick up your phone and start replying immediately.
6) When your email is being read, don't respond right away--leave it for a few minutes and then come back to it. You'll get more done if you just let your email be for a while.
7) Don't check your work email on the road. Leaving work emails unopened at home will help you avoid distractions when you arrive at work. If there's an email that needs an immediate answer, call or smartphone text the sender as soon as you return home so that you don't forget about it before Monday morning.
8) Make sure all important emails are answered by 9:00 am on Mondays and Fridays. You don't want to be home on a Saturday night answering work emails. So, make sure you'll be in the office on Mondays and Fridays by answering all your important emails during the weekend.
9) Set aside lunchtime to work up a sweat. You'll feel better and more productive by exercising (e.g., walking, jogging, yoga) and taking a shower before starting back at your desk.
10) Set aside time for uninterrupted, focused thinking (e.g., early in the day or when you leave at 4 pm). Creating time for thinking is critical to getting your best ideas out of your head and into reality.
11) Set aside time to reprioritize the week. Once a week, you should spend about 15 minutes reviewing your priorities and making sure that you're on track.
12) Work where and when you want. Work can be accomplished anywhere, as long as there's a quiet spot that won't be interrupted by phone calls or interruptions from loved ones or pets. Whether at home, in the office, or just out of the house--effortlessly--can help improve focus and productivity.
13) Schedule social times in your calendar with friends and family for this coming Sunday night instead of working overtime. If you have more time than you need at the office, use it to unwind.
14) Don't take phone calls during a meeting. If phone calls are necessary, make sure you leave your work email open and accessible during the meeting so that people can contact you afterward (instead of interrupting a meeting).
15) Limit your email conversations to 10 emails per day. Let your inbox speak for itself, but don't allow it to become an overwhelming barrage of messages that needs constant attention all day long.
16) Reassure yourself that email is not always appropriate. If you receive a lot of emails that require time-sensitive response, they can be referred to as "fire notifications." If you don't have the time to respond to them all (or if you know that it will just distract your staff), save them in a folder. Then, when your weekly review is scheduled, you can read over this week's fire notifications and prioritize what needs to be taken care of first.
17) Highlight email attachments or screens in Outlook for easy reference. When there are long form documents or attachments that require attention, use Outlook's ability to highlight text so that it appears onscreen in little blue boxes and gives you immediate access to information without having to open the attachment all the way.
18) Schedule email check-ins to make sure that they're getting done throughout the day. To ensure that every employee is performing well with their email, schedule a quarterly email training session where everyone is expected to leave their computers and take a break for an hour or two. This training session should include both general productivity tips, as well as specific help with how each individual can improve their own email performance.
19) Don't quit on a perfect idea; finish it! For example, creating the flow chart to prove your idea before you write the report will be much more effective and easy than tackling it at 5 pm after writing all day long.
20) Save 20 minutes every night before bedtime to review your tasks for tomorrow.
Conclusion:
Cutting back on your work-related emails may seem like an impossible feat, but you can keep yourself from being consumed by the endless flood of messages. By following some simple and straightforward rules, you're sure to have more time for the things that really matter. And as a result, you'll be much more productive.
You should also be aware of how often email is useful in your business or job role and how often it could be detrimental to your productivity if misused or overused.