Being Productive When You're Forced to Work at Home

With so many people working at home with the current medical pandemic, it can be quite the change for someone who is used to going into an office every day.

I mean there are some perks; the commute, good wifi, good coffee, no office gossip, no punching a clock, a laxed dress code and pajamas are totally acceptable! Wait, are they acceptable? I guess if no one is there to actually tell you that you can't wear them, then they are, but are they really helping your productivity?

No, not really. According to a study in Social Psychological and Personality Science researchers found that taking a few minutes to get ready for your day and get dressed actually increased productivity, creative thinking and promoted a professional mindset.

So what are some other benefits to getting dressed to work from home?

1 - Your mindset will shift. You'll find yourself taking less breaks to do household chores or watch TV and spend more time focused on getting your work done.

2 - You'll be prepared for new opportunities and spur of the moment meetings. Think about that time someone wanted to schedule a video call with you and you declined because you weren't dressed appropriately to be seen by anyone. Oh the missed opportunities! Next time, you'll be ready!

3 - Working from home doesn't mean that you won’t have to actually put in the work. Because you will. When I first started to work from home, it took some adjusting for sure. I would stay up way to late, sleep in later than I wanted, do my regular morning routine, wear my pajamas or sweats, hang out for a bit then actually started working about 11…or 2pm…whatever; the point is, the fact that I wasn’t punching a clock or had anyone watching work over my shoulder, was awesome! You know what wasn’t awesome? Never getting done what I needed to get done in a timely manner. I would have to work late into the night or the early morning just to finish projects. They were getting done, but my time wasn’t productive.

So how did I overcome my slackful attitude and keep on top of productivity? Well, I’m someone who likes to make lists and then crossing things off of them so I started to keep my lists in a daily planner and assign tasks to different days. I also started to assign those tasks to certain times in the day and would use a Pomodoro timer broken into 25, 5 and 30 minute increments. I’d work on my tasks hard for 25 minutes, then take a five minute break. Then back on the next task for 25 then break for 5. Those 5 minutes were prefect to run to the restroom or grab some water or coffee and give my eyes and body a little break. Then on my 30 minute breaks, I’d swap laundry, eat lunch, take the dog out, unload the dishwasher, you know, those household chores that your mind wonders to when you’re trying to work.

There are a few digital tools that work wonders for productivity too. Google calendar is a great tool for time blocking and syncing across your accounts and devices to keep your tasks in one place. Other great project management tools are Click Up or Asana for project management. If you prefer a paper method I highly recommend the Perfect Planner from Carrie & Co and Cloth and Paper if you prefer a more customizable methods for putting a paper planner together.

A few other tools are a digital personal assistant like the Google Home that is literally having an assistant to delegate to. You can have it set up reminders, add tasks to your calendar, make calls, create texts and read your emails for you. Talk about getting things done!

So working from home isn’t bad when you get down to it as long as you remember to plan ahead, prioritize your work time and tasks as well as your home tasks and most importantly, get dressed daily for work.

You can change into your comfy clothes after 5pm. 😉