Helpful Tips on How to Work from Home and Remotely Successfully

Making the transition from day-to-day office work to fully online remote isn’t easy, especially having to do it on the fly.

Working from home and remotely is a great luxury. It’s made everyday lives easier when you’re able to have a flexible schedule and fit in more tasks during your day. However, it’s just as easy to get distracted and lose motivation.

This post will outline a few ways for you to stay focus and make your remote working time as productive as possible.

1. Dedicated Desk Space

Whether you’re in a 3,000 square foot home or 600 square foot home, it’s essential you create a dedicated workspace area. Your couch and comfy bed aren’t proper workspaces. It leaves you time to fidget, get easily distracted, and offers poor back support. Get a comfortable chair and well-fitted desk to maximize your productivity. (See Baru’s made-to-order desks, free 10-day white glove delivery, 30-day money-back guarantee).

Having a clear distinction between “work” and “home” will ensure that you, and those around you, will have boundaries and establish productive habits.

2. Communication

Stay in contact with your team! Telecommuting may or may not be something you’re familiar with. Not to fret - there are many tools out there such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, or even Skype, that are built to support remote work and telecommunication in companies. Communication is key. Communicate more and not less. Connect your calendar and set your status so you maintain transparency within your team.

Slack has built-in status settings, and you can even create your own status to show what you’re working on. See mine below :)

3. Create a schedule

Your schedule should work the way you do. If you like to strategically and meticulously plan out your day, then this is the perfect opportunity. Fill in your calendar with your activity and projects (including brainstorming, q/a time, reading emails, break times, etc.).

If you’re more of a go with the flow person, keep your calendar open and don’t feel the pressure to over schedule yourself. Regardless of your style, make sure your schedule reflects your personal habits.

4. Take breaks, especially for walks

Get some air. Don’t go stir crazy. A study revealed that workday exercise, not only improves well-being but participants noted a 72% improvement in time management and workload completed. Even more, low-intensity aerobic exercise like walking is more effective than high-intensity exercise for improving productivity.

Your boss and your team want you to be more productive. So, take care of yourself and fly through your to-do list and hit those deadlines.

5. Set boundaries

Working from home can quickly blur the lines between work and home life. It’s often tempting to over-stay your lunch with a friend or work in bed, but establishing a consistent routine will go far to instill your work-life balance.

Set times when you are available and make sure your company is aware of your hours. Again, communication is key!

6. Automate as much as you can

Technology makes a great administrative assistant! Use Slack, Google Calendar, and Voice Assistants to set reminders to follow up with prospects, build email templates, set up automatic billing, schedule social posts and more. Automation is your friend.

7. Get face time with your network and team

Did we mention how important communication is? Make sure you have daily video calls with your team. It’s quite easy to forget there is a person behind your screen. When you have a daily video call, it’s easy to get on the same page and connect. You’re all working to one shared goal: Success!

On the downside, working from home or remotely can be quite isolating. You’ll still want to create a balance interaction with your team and your network. Whether it’s joining a meetup, grabbing a coffee with a buddy, or visiting a shared workspace, it’s important to get human-to-human interaction.

Remote Work Best Practices

Start your work-from-home day the right way. Keep distractions at bay with a dedicated workspace, a set schedule, and take advantage of technology to automate tasks. Create an environment that works for YOUR needs and preferences. After all, it is your home. :)

Planning for success is key! What other tips do you have for remote-work beginners? Let us know in our comment section!