17 Productivity Tips For Working From Home Through Coronavirus (by Alex Ong & Aroha Kareroa)

It is likely before this string of novel Coronavirus was even a possibility, you had never heard of the term 'social distancing'. However, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that has spread across the world, an increasing number of businesses around the world are advising employees to work from home in accordance with social distancing. This means, by telecommuting, they will avoid the daily interactions that might expose us to the threat of infection, which makes a lot of sense, but transplanting that nine-to-five into your home-sweet-home is not so straightforward.

Unlimited freedom with few immediate consequences, surrounded by tantalising distractions without management types to keep you in check: it's all too easy to let a lack of motivation and other bad habits take hold. The good news is there are some simple hacks you can apply to your new remote working situation to ensure you remain in tip-top professional condition. Use these 17 tips to unlock your potential and push aside distractions to improve your productivity while working from home.

1. Give Yourself A Dedicated Workspace

Everyone knows the saying "dress for the job you want...", well the same applies to your workspace at home. If you have a dedicated home office, you're one of the lucky ones. Many of us will have to take over an already functioning room. When selecting exactly which room that should be, ensure it's an area that's clean, has good natural light, and that you enjoy being in. Do not underestimate the influence of your working environment: somewhere cluttered, dark, and generally un-office-like will make your day feel like it will last forever.

2...But Your Bed Doesn’t Count!

The first rule of working from home is: get up and out of bed. Of course, it would be great if you could relax all day under a blanket while somehow also being super productive, but the two things are generally incompatible. It's also not great sleep hygiene to work from your bed, so for the benefit of both your waking hours and your shut-eye, it might be better to face the day from a vertical position.

3. Make Sure Your Family/Flatmates Respect It Is Work Time

While it is a shame to be proactively pushed into telecommuting, a positive is we can spend more time with our family or flatmates. However, they can cause distractions and can get in the way of you focusing and getting into working frame of mind. Make sure they understand boundaries, your working hours and those times when you need to just keep your head down. Generate a system that allows you to concentrate and be more effective.

4. Stick To Your Daily Routine

While your commute may have shrunk significantly to just a few short steps, you should still set your alarm clock for the usual time. Get out of bed, get showered, and dressed for your day - casual Friday clothes are fine. That being said, your pyjamas are not going to cut it. Whatever it is you usually do to get your game face on as you head into the office is a ritual that is unconsciously hitched to how you mentally prepare for the day, so preserve it as best you can while you work from home. Getting dressed as if you were going to work changes your mentality and separates work from relaxation.

5. Keep A Work Life Balance

Balance in life is key and just because you are working remotely does not mean your work should dominate everything else. When the day is done, clock off. Shut down your computer. Wash up your coffee mug. Put away your stationery and enjoy your free time. Oddly enough, this might well be the aspect of working from home that the majority of people find hardest; it's tough to switch off when you can fire off just one more email or file just one last report. If you don't protect your free time, you could find yourself resenting your job.

6. Stay In Contact With Your Work Team

Humans are social creatures, and as much as we rely on our colleagues for professional reasons, they're also people we spend a huge amount of time with. Try and set structured daily calls with your team so you can set out what everyone is doing and cover off any questions while maintaining some sort of normalcy while responsibly staying home to slow the spread of Coronavirus. You might not even realise just how important your work family is to your general wellbeing until you no longer have daily access to them, so make sure the channels of communication remain open, for both work correspondence and casual banter.

7. Manage Your Time & Allow Yourself Breaks

Being your own taskmaster is easier said than done. Even if you follow these guidelines to the letter, it is very likely that you will have days when you're just not feeling it and you just can't muster that motivation on your own. One way to navigate these stumbles is to have rigid time management rules to follow, which can steer you back onto the path to productivity. One of the most popular is the Pomodoro Technique, which breaks the day down into 30-minute chunks: 25 minutes of work followed by five-minute breaks. There are plenty of other methods out there so shop around, do some research and give a few a try to see which is right for you.