Although South Africa has shifted to Level 4 of the nationwide lockdown, most companies are strongly encouraged to continue working remotely. While working from home has its perks like getting an hour of extra sleep and skipping the morning commute, there’s also a lot more room for disruptions that can affect your productivity.
Between ensuring the kids are up to date with their online learning and running a household – and of course, the TV that tends to demand your attention – you have your hands quite full. And just when you think you’ve got everything sorted out, it’s already the end of the day.
The good news, however, is that there are ways to maintain your productivity while working from home.
- Set up a good workspace, with the right equipment
Working in a space where you relax, like your bed or the couch, is not ideal. Instead, have a dedicated workspace in a quiet area of your home, away from family members, so that you can concentrate. If you don’t have a separate room, find a space with minimum traffic flow or a corner of a room off from the main area.
Having a properly kitted out workspace with limited distractions creates a more professional working environment to support remote working, which in turn, boosts your productivity. LG’s UltraWide™ monitors are able to boost your productivity even more by allowing you to view multiple documents at the same time, making multitasking a cinch. And when it comes to attending virtual meetings, the Wide Quad High Definition+* resolution is four times clearer than basic HD, creating a stunning picture quality.
- Set the right tone for the working day
Instead of checking your phone the minute you wake up, try breathing exercises, journaling or meditation. If you use your phone as an alarm clock, keep it away from your bed so that you’ll have to get up to turn it off. Once it’s off, resist the urge to climb back into bed for a few minutes.
Giving yourself a few moments to welcome the morning can make a major difference in how you approach your day. Open your curtains to let the sunshine in and be still for a few moments before starting your daily routine.
- Give yourself goals and get into a routine
Write a list of everything you intend to achieve on any given day. Try to keep your goals simple and make sure they are attainable. If there are several quick or easy tasks on your list, get these done first so that you can spend more time on more significant or more challenging deliverables.
Try not to lose your work-life routine completely. If you used to get up early to commute to the office, use the extra time to exercise or get your workspace ready. Some people, for example, work in ‘organised chaos’, while others can’t focus unless their workspace is tidy.
- Take breaks and make time to connect with colleagues
Getting away from your desk for short periods throughout the day, preferably outside in the sunshine, can re-energise and revitalise you so that you can avoid that midday slump.
It’s also a good idea to use these breaks as opportunities to reconnect with your colleagues through video calls and teleconferencing. LG’s UltraWide™ monitors feature 99% coverage of the sRGB spectrum, which means that you can see your colleagues in vivid colour – almost as if they were right there with you.
- Clean up and stick to office hours
Set boundaries when it comes to your working hours. The urge may be there to start earlier and end later or vice versa, which will do more harm than good – stick to your allocated office hours.
When you’ve finished working, tidy up the day’s clutter and try to make it a habit to purge your home office of anything taking up space and not serving any purpose.
