By now most of us are aware of the COVID virus and its affects on American society specifically and the world at large. Many of the businesses in the United States have had to either partially shut down or shut down completely. This has caused many companies to either lay off employees for the time being causing many people to go without a paycheck. Some companies are having their employees working at home or other remote locations.
This leads to many challenges for most folks. Some people are used to having a scheduled time that they have to be at work and tasks that are assigned to them. There is management there physically at the workplace to make sure that the work is done. When you work from home ,however, you have no one to keep you on your tasks. You have more distractions especially if you have children.
I have found several things that keep me on task and get the work done. These I have used consistently to help me write my blog posts and help me continue produce a high quality blog and photographs.
1.WORK SPACE
The first thing that you must do is to find a suitable work space. It should be in an area of your house free from distractions and people. I go to my bedroom and close my door. This way I do not see other parts of the house. I tend to be a person who when he sees that something needs to be cleaned up I will clean it up. Because of this I make sure that my bedroom is cleaned up and empty of distractions.
You should also make sure that you have enough room for all of the things that you need to work. For example, If you use a laptop like I do there should be enough room for a laptop and mouse. Along with this you should also make sure that you have all of the necessary things that you need within arms reach before you start working. This reduces the times that you have to get up and take the time to search for something that you need.
Your workspace should also be well light so that you can see what you are doing without straining your eyes. You should also choose a chair that you can sit in comfortably and not strain your back. It also reduces fidgeting. I have found that if I am not sitting in a comfortable chair I tend to fidget and want to get out of my chair a lot.
2. Take Breaks
I have found that working in spurts with breaks in between leads to a more productive work day. There is tons of research to back this up. According to a article by Inc.com the best work flow is 52 minutes of work followed by a 17 minute break. This is not always the case for everyone. You do whatever works for you. The main point is to take short breaks in between your work. This allows you to refresh yourself and take a break from your work.
I will often step away from my laptop and take a break. This allows me to get my focus off the work and truly allow myself to relax and take a break. I may step outside from a breath of fresh air or take a walk out the neighborhood. Find something to do that works for you to refresh yourself and take a break from the work.
3. Write a Schedule
The other issue that I find with working at home is that you are on your own schedule. When you have to physically show up at a job by a certain time you know that you have to be there on time or its held against you. When you are working at home this may not be the case. This can work to your advantage or not depending on how disciplined you are. Yes, you still have to get up, but not maybe as early as you usually do.
This is why you need to stick to a schedule in order for you to get the things done that you need to do. The advantage is that you can be the one writing the schedule in most cases. It is absolutely vital that you write yourself a schedule of things that you need to have done and the deadlines for each task. I use my Google calendar to set my schedule. I select the due date, add a suitable title, choose whether its an event or task, write a suitable description and the a time reminder. You need to also select when you want to be reminded. I will get as reminder alert on my phone and laptop.
These are some of the things that I do when I am working on my blog at home. If anyone has any suggestions or things that they do please leave your suggestions in the comments section of this post. I would love it if you subscribe to my blog. Simply enter your email in the subscription box on my home page and click subscribe and you will get updates and notified when I write a post. Thank you so much for taking the time to read my blog. Ciao!
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