Working From Home: How To Boost Your Efficiency And Work Rate (Part 1)

While growing up I thought being an Entrepreneur or working from home is so easy and cool, so I always wished to work from home. Well, I've grown to know enough that it is not all rosy, and it gets worse when you don't have a few measures put in place.

Has my wish to work from home changed? No! But in this blog post lies what has been helping me and will help you make working from home more effective.

1. Create a Conducive "Study" Environment

As much as it's your home, there's a big difference between your 'Study' and 'Living room'. Don't make the mistake of thinking you can work with your television, kids(if married), or friends around. Try as much as possible to make a separate place to work. A conducive one at that as it's going to aid your productivity.

2. Get a Stable  Source  of Power  and Internet Connection

This point made me remember a friend who was to have a meeting with a client he acquired online, and on that day, the power supply agency was bent on making him lose his job. All thanks to the generator.
So, if you're in the part of the world where the power supply is unstable, you might just have to make sure that an alternative is on the ground. Do well to make sure your network server is also one to bank on. You don't want to lose jobs as a result of this.

3. Get Essential Equipment for your Effectiveness

This should come with the first point but the emphasis should be laid again. If you want to be effective while working from home, you might as well get yourself things like an economic chair, laptop holder, a suitable table, a book rack, and other things.

4. Ensure that Food is Avaiable

This should be talked about with a microphone. Trust me you don't want to work when hungry, so do your best to make sure that food is always available, every time. You can make the food in batches and microwave it when needed and if that's not your way. Make sure you place orders even before you sense any move of hunger.

5. Put away all forms of Distraction

You might want to take away your phone when working if it's not needed. Trust me, replying to a single message that is not related to work from friends might lead you to see so many posts and before you get to know what's happening, the deadline is there ringing a bell. Anything that might seem like a hindrance should be taken away.

6. Take Breaks

You might be wondering if this is good advice or not, but in all you do, make sure to take breaks. You can set ten minutes every three hours to stretch your muscles, snack, grab water, or pace around the room. You need it. Take breaks at intervals.


Putting these few measures in place will most definitely help your efficiency and productivity while working from home. We are rooting for you.

Continued from the first part of this article series authored by Oyindamola Ajewole, it is glaring that the advent of COVID-19 brought in a new era to the global workspace. It practically unlocked diverse possibilities in the world of technology. New innovations were on display and ultimately, mind-blowing ideas and technology were brought into limelight, although they existed before. One of the possibilities that the lock down era brought into the limelight was the art of working from home, popularly called WFH. At the time, working from home was necessary to curb the spread of the deadly virus.

However, since the lock down, working from home is fast becoming a norm in our ever-driven technological society.

 

Everyone is trying to work from home to escape the unnecessary stress of going to work, but this has been faced with a great dilemma of low efficiency and work rate. 

But, how do you overcome this? It's simple, all you need to do is follow the simple tips that are provided below on how you can successfully boost your efficiency and work rate even while working at home.

1. Wake up Early

This is actually the first precaution one must take if you must have a productive day while working at home. You might be faced with the temptation of wanting to sleep more than necessary, you've to be disciplined enough to resist this.

Once you wake up early, you can have sufficient time to do your cleanups and other household chores before the time to commence work begins.

Resist the urge to sleep more, wake up early!

2. Prepare a-to-do list for the day/Planner.

Personally for me, this has been one of the best cheats. This helps you plan your schedule for the day and allocate time for each work that you're about to do that day.

 This would ensure that you keep track of your progress for that day. You can design the list yourself, it's advisable to place the critical works as the top priorities. As you finish each work, ensure you tick it immediately you're done, to keep your track of progress. This, definitely will keep you focused. 

Have a comfortable place to work.

This is really necessary, you can't attempt to work while on the bed, you might end up sleeping throughout the day.

Ensure that you have work-like environment with every necessary office material you need. Make your work place at home look decent as possible. 

Make it a place that is free from all distractions, ensure it's close to the original office environment.

When you're in such environment, it keeps in your mind the awareness, that you're still working. It's a motivation to work more on it's own. Have a dedicated workspace to this effect.

Dress up properly.

This may really sound strange and most people don't really bother about it. Try as much as possible to put on your regular office attire. Make yourself look presentable as much as you can. Casual dresses at home may give you a sense of too much freedom. 

While it is not necessary to dress as formally as you would do for work, a simple change of dress will signal to you, that it's time to work.

Take breaks during work.

Working tirelessly for hours will reduce your productivity. You can't afford to commit all your time to work, otherwise you'll not deliver excellent works. Your body most especially your brain needs breaks, to be rejuvenated and reenergized. 

You can decide to have a walk or do any other thing that seems convenient for you. 

But don't take too much of time during those breaks so that you'll not feel too relaxed and it'll become a bit difficult for you to resume to work. Some time management apps will also help you out on these e. g RescueTime, SmartBreak.

Limit your use of social media.

This can't be overemphasized, social media is a great distracting tool and can be highly addictive. 

You can only overcome this by self control(which is usually hard to maintain) or find your way around it by using some apps that restrict your use of social media. 

Relate with your coworkers virtually.

Working from home can really get you lonely despite having your family members around you because they may not really understand your work.

Try and have many interactive discussions with them, It goes a long way in encouraging you.

Set down rules.

Nobody likes rules, but it's highly essential for growth. Set rules for yourself and family members to avoid unnecessary distractions.

Carefully observe the cause of what's likely slowing down your pace of work and choose rules that are best applicable to you to tackle it. 

In conclusion, working from home is fun, if only you can maximize it well. Using the tips given above will help you boost your efficiency and workrate even while working at home.

Thank you