Restore Productivity with These Home Office Tips

Maintaining a healthy work-life balance can be quite tricky while juggling all the challenges that come with a remote office. While there are many benefits to working from home, various engagements and distractions will pull you in different directions. The blend of personal life and career is a delicate road to travel. Each day, the quality of your mental health and physical health are at stake.

Many employees did not properly prepare for the healthy workspace because they did not expect it to be a long-term adjustment. As a result, home-operating employees see a drop in productivity and overall job performance. So, what steps can you take to restore and surpass your previous level of productivity, all while sustaining your current lifestyle? Here are a few strategies you can start implementing today:

Designate Your Workspace

If you set up your desk and computer in the middle of chaos, you will undoubtedly struggle to find a clear focus for your workday. The space you choose for your home office needs to resemble your work office and offer a level of separation from your personal life. In the scenario that your office set up placed you in a cubicle, it may serve you best to set up a desk in the corner of a spare or multi-purpose room. Just remember to keep any display of family pictures and desk accessories consistent with your workplace set-up.

It is crucial that you understand the ergonomics of remote working within your home office and how abiding by these principles can positively impact your mental and physical health. From proper desk height, monitor height, and office lighting to a quality office chair and an internet connection, the experts at IDG Techtalk reveal all the guidelines and rules to follow when it comes to your home office set-up.

Establishing boundaries is critical in achieving a healthy balance. When you are at home during work hours, you must clarify to others and yourself that you are ‘at work’. Without proper boundaries, you may find yourself working irregular hours and giving leeway to cabin fever, which brings us to my next point:

Get Up & Get Active

Don’t fall into the habit of multitasking during work hours. If you feel overwhelmed or you’ve entered a negative headspace, make sure to give yourself a break. It’s not healthy for anyone to be cooped up in a house all day. 

Take advantage of the time you save not needing to drive to and from the office. Go for a jog or schedule a ‘coffee date’ with a friend. This allotted time is your chance to refresh your mind and body and find relaxation in a new form. During your brief recess or after work hours, make sure you step aside from your designated work area and keep all work accessories out of sight.

Eliminate Distractions & Facilitate Efficiency

Do you get easily distracted during your workday? Whether it is by your family members or roommates in your home or the neighbor’s dog, the noise around can have a tremendous impact on your work output. Some of the quickest and most effective solutions include purchasing noise-canceling headphones or playing white noise in the background. Suppose your distractions stem more from your phone applications or surfing the web for the latest news updates, sports updates, or shopping deals. In that case, you may benefit from setting certain internet restrictions for yourself and muting your phone notifications. The Internet has quite the knack of luring you in for numerous minutes at a time. Alternatively, for the more easily motivated and solution-oriented individuals, write out a ‘to-do’ list for your day and week and keep it in front of you as you progress through the day.

What sparks your headspace for creative thinking? Maybe it is a morning workout/stretches, a full meal, some good music, or simply writing down your goals each day. Regardless of what it may be, opening up these creative outlets is critical to facilitating productivity and elevating your overall wellbeing. 

Wrap Up

Working from a home office can often blur lines between our personal and professional lives. If you have noticed a blend between the two or a dip in job performance, these steps will begin to restore productivity as long as you have the intentionality and initiative to do so. While working from home has strong capabilities in improving upon an employee’s mental health, productivity, and work-life balance, those culminations can only occur when true effort transpires.

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What NOT To Do When You’re Having A Bad Day

When you feel annoyed or offended, it is customary not to act on those feelings with aggression. In relationships, it’s critical not to sever any bonds with a ‘knee-jerk’ reaction or comment in the heat of the moment. Whether it is a family member, friend, or significant other, giving yourself space, taking deep breaths, and returning to the issue at another time is always advantageous. When you have one chance at making things right, you do not want to put yourself in a position to make things worse.

Our friends at The Muse took the time to connect this sentiment to our responsibilities and tasks in the workplace. When a function needs to be taken seriously, you must illustrate the proper mindset to tackle it. When you enter a momentary rut or negative headspace, here are five things Alyse Kalish recommends you shelve for the time being:

1. Take an Important Call

If you’ve had a rough or busy morning and are dreading an upcoming phone call with a client, you are well within your rights to postpone the meeting a few hours. The key is to not cancel on them, but instead offer a ‘white lie’ to make way for more focused, productive conversation later on.

2. Have a Difficult Conversation

If you have an employee or co-worker that you need to deliver some harsh feedback to, proceeding while in a recusant state of mind will induce the individual unreceptive to your observation or criticism. It’s best to hold off on the meeting until you are mentally prepared.

3. Respond to an Email That Gets on Your Nerves

When you are not feeling like your typical self, even a subtle annoyance can send you into a tailspin. Maybe a co-worker just sent you a notice that they have not made any progress on their assignments for a big project. Perhaps it is your boss or manager responding to your question with “Figure it out.” 

When you receive an email that strikes a nerve, don’t jab back with a frustration-fueled response. If someone required an immediate reply, the message likely would’ve been delivered through a phone call or in-office meeting. Take time to unwind, collect your thoughts, and come back later with a professional response.

4. Make a Decision

If someone in your organization requires your input for a direction to take for a new project, now is not the time. Here’s why: Your ‘bad day’ may consist of feelings of recklessness or hastiness, which can lead to a bold decision that takes you off-track. While it may feel productive and as if you are removing a burden, it’s not wise to justify making that decision in an impulsive state. Instead, ensure your team you are dealing with it and offer a timeline for your answer.

5. Submit a Key Assignment

Days will come where you are not exhibiting an apt mentality to meet an approaching deadline for a research write-up, analytics spreadsheet, or outreach plan. Do not risk pitching a lackluster product when a few extra hours or days can provide a winning result. If you are comfortable requesting a deadline extension, offer a promise for desirable outcomes, set a new timetable, and ensure it won’t happen again. 

Wrap Up

Take care of your mental health. Pushing through a difficult day is never easy, notably when conditions like these occur. Still, with a little time and inward thinking, you can quickly return to the reliable professional you know yourself to be. 

For written-out examples on how to express reasons for the delay or push through when the task cannot wait, visit Alyse’s full article here.

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