How to be more productive when working remotely?

Do you struggle when it comes to your productivity? Microsoft conducted a survey and found that most people are unproductive at work and spend only 17 hours per week on actual job out of average 45-hour work week.

Having so many unproductive hours there is no wonder people will struggle to achieve the results they are after. Observing my own work life as well as monitoring work of others I was able to come with some productivity tips which I hope you will find useful.

1. Create rhythms to stay productive

Time which you pick to perform a certain task is crucial. Not all times are created equal. Try to thing about your typical tasks during the day and week and make a basic list. This could be something like that:

• checking emails
• listening to voicemail
• replying to emails, creating draft messages
• team calls
• brainstorming/planning
• writing articles

Now sit down and think when you do best at these tasks. You might find that you are slow at the morning but you have high creativity so brainstorming/planning and writing articles is something which you should start your day with, or maybe you prefer to catch up with colleagues and do some morning team calls. Everyone is different so it is best to find your ideal time to do certain tasks and keep it consistent.

2. Learn how to write, read and work faster

It will be a great self investment if you can learn on how to speed read. It will be incredibly useful when dealing with long emails or articles. The second one is a skill on how to type faster, this combines with a first one will save you many hours over a week and possibly hundreds of hours every year. You will need to adopt the skill once and it should not take more than 3-4 weeks to master it to a degree you will be happy with, over time it will only get better.

Other useful ideas to speed up your work life:

• learn keyboard shortcuts, there are some for gmail, windows, mac, iPad
• practise speed reading
• practise speed writing
• organise your home screen so all apps and documents you use most are accessible with a single click and visible right away
• speed up your mouse – by doing it you will save loads of time during the day too

3. Work on your to-do list to master it

Organise your day the way you will be naturally happy to deal with certain tasks at hand. First write down all the tasks you need to do during a day and then think of how much time you need per each task, feel free to use time blocking tactic to accomplish this. We have covered this in one of the articles before.

4. Crack the large projects to smaller pieces

You probably know that the most time consuming projects are the ones which are also most difficult to start with. They also have deadlines and this if not completed by the deadline can bring some extra stress. Big projects are unfortunately inevitable but they don’t need to be impossible or complicated. You can break up large assignments to smaller tasks so your brain will recognise them as simple mini tasks to handle. You will succeed in this if you accommodate to each task 20 minutes of your time.

5. Control your breaks

It is easy to forget about taking breaks when working. You would not forget about them if they will be on your to-do list. Plan them as you would plan tasks you have to do. If needed, set up phone alerts so you can be notified when the right time comes. Don’t let yourself to work longer than 90 minutes each time, remember to take 10-15 minute break after that. Use your breaks wisely and don’t burn time on consuming media, take this time to relax and charge your batteries.

6. Hack your habits

Habits are resourceful and powerful productivity tools which I have covered on this BLOG already. They can drastically reduce time and effort as we will be doing things which are part of our daily routine, it will be like running on autopilot. Build new good habits and that will reduce your dependency on your willpower levels as you would not have any new decisions to make. This is a beauty of autopilot.

7. Minimise the stress

At least 60 percent of working adults in major global economies are stressed. That number is higher in large cities and corporations. Try to control the stress as it has bad impact on your life. Make sure you are actively working out, practise meditation and can handle pressure from things you have no control on.

8. Set yourself achievable goals

It’s hard to talk about productivity if there is no success in it. Setting achievable goals is a unique feature. Make sure you have certain goals in your working life and continue working towards them. Having many smaller goals would also be easier to accomplish.

What are your tips to stay productive at work? Are you using any of the tips I included in article above? Feel free to comment below.

All the best,
Lucas