Four WFH hacks which are excellent for everyone
It has been a full year where many of us were forced to work from home during the coronavirus pandemic, however even after all that time there are still common, existing problems people are facing and seeking vital solutions to help us stay productive while working.
While most of us understand what we have to do in our workplace and usually have a schedule in place to know our time and place, there are still number of day to day challenges which are not that easy to overcome.
There is a lot of people who have been working longer hours or weekends, with no clear cut off time at the end of the day. Many are also taking fewer breaks, which could be triggered by us not been able to break up the day by office-like chatting to co-workers.
There are also many difficulties staying focused as well as motivated with work and the exercise, which affects our level of productivity and therefor also has been challenging. However there are some hacks which will help you come across difficulties as long as you start practising them right away.
Pay attention to your posture
There is no doubt that many suffers from aches and injuries while working at home, even with proper setup which includes the office desk and chair, it is very hard to remember to maintain good posture throughout the day, it could be easier in the office while certain culture, dress code and behaviour is set by the culture, there are no barriers set in your own home. If you are facing this problem try to use resistance band to keep your shoulders straight, there are also certain chairs (warning – they are not cheap) which will help you to achieve a good posture. Finally, the most economic solution to all is simple old-school, yellow, sticker note with a reminder to keep your posture right.
Procrastination
All of us have certain deadlines while working, they are tasks to be completed sooner, and the ones which can take time. When you are working with your team and spend time on video chats or regular instant messaging services, it is very easy to drag yourself away from project and end up wasting time on meaningless chats which will kill productivity spirit. Increased feelings of burnout and stress during the pandemic definitely affects our productivity and can easily led to procrastination.
Usual feeling when procrastination kicks in is typically feeling guilty or uneasy. The way to come over this problem is to come up with the action plan which allows you to share it with another person as accountability makes in much easier to get on with the task. Taking regular breaks from watching the screen for few minutes can give you a small boost to sustain energy.
Finding DEAD-TIME
While you free up some time by not commuting to the office every day – not everyone use this privilege wisely, they sleep longer, procrastinate or doing some personal endeavour which in the long terms would become a habit and will kill sense of working spirit. The stress caused by the pandemic has disrupted our sleep. The worse thing you can do is to get into productivity failure, if you spend that extra time watching social media, youtube or doing some unproductive and meaningless activities, they will also became your day to day “tasks” which won’t pay you in the long term.
It is best to stay organised, do some of the life-admin, setup the day you want it to be, set reminders on your phone or make a visualised version using sticky notes to remind you on what you have to do each day at each time, this will all become your to-do list one day.
Grab some fresh air and exercise
When sitting at home, enjoying the comfort of it, it may come hard to get out from the comfort zone and find the required motivation to step outside, particularly in these cold, winter months. There are many researches which concludes that exercising outdoors, compared to indoors, will make people feel more energised.
Do you have any hacks which can help others to organise their working from home life? Let me know in the comments section below.
All the best,
Lucas
