Working from home has been relatively decent for most of us and it has also given businesses a new way to work as well as opening up a new range of possibilities for them.
The Covid-19 pandemic has made working from home essential for most companies and businesses, what was once seen as a luxury is now something we have to do just to survive.
The question we're all going to have to ask ourselves when this is over is, "where are we more productive? working from home or in the office?"
Naturally, both options, working from home and going to work do have their respective pros and cons.
Productivity levels have increased:
For example, multiple studies over the last few months showed that productivity while working from home had increased by 47%.
Even with productivity soaring, morale has been taking a beating.
Most of us enjoy the time we get to spend working with our colleagues and teammates and we find it hard being restricted to the same monotonous schedules while looking at the same faces day in and day out.
Work from Home: Is it a pro or con?
In a survey conducted with people working from home, the results showed that 94% of them had said that they worked more from home than before the lockdowns had begun. The people felt like they didn’t have a proper work-life balance and actually stated that they actually preferred working in the office rather than from home.
While working at home has definitively proved to be a good boost for productivity, it's very easy to fall prey to your imagination. You must have found yourselves getting distracted by food or, by a show or by something else. But without our coworkers keeping us focused, we've spent days being lost in our heads and haven't managed to get all our work done.
So, here are some tips you can use while working from home to keep yourself feeling good and be as productive as you can during your working hours and only then.
1. Take clearly defined breaks during your projects.
Try to focus on one task at a time and make sure you set reminders to take a break every half an hour or forty-five minutes to take a 5-10 minute break for yourself.
2. Try to end your day at the right time.
If you work 8 hours a day and your work ends at 6:30 PM, you need to make sure you end your working day then and spend time talking to your friends or playing with your pets. But the only way to make that possible is to get all our work finished during work hours.
3. Interact with your family, friends and co-workers.
Make time in your schedule to spend time catching up with your friends, and co-workers. You might have more in common with them than you initially thought. Social interaction is a very important thing and with all of us stuck indoors, it’s getting a little lonely. Bridge the distance with a phone call or, video call or, even a text.
4. Try meal prepping if you have to cook your own meals.
If you haven’t heard about meal prepping yet, listen up cause this is a real time-saver. Meal prepping is the concept of preparing whole meals ahead of schedule, which in this case, refers to the previous night. You can make batches of the same items and store them in the fridge, they typically last for 3-5 days.
5. Have a healthy sleep schedule.
Maintaining a good sleep schedule and not staying on Instagram all night is definitely something we’ve all been struggling with. That and Netflix, of course. It’s hard to fall asleep while TikTok songs are stuck in your head all night, but that’s why it's good to create a morning routine for yourself and stick to it. Once you do that, it’s smooth sailing until you stay up all night again. It’s a brutal cycle, but it’s the truth.
6. Have your meals at the right time.
While eating your meals on time is a good thing, it’s even better when you eat right. Make sure you’re eating meals that are not too filling and leave you drowsy for the rest of the workday. That could end up with not being able to get any work done and that’s just stressful for everybody.
These tips should help you make it through working from home and hopefully come out as an even stronger person. And also, to let you know that you’re not alone and whatever you’re feeling throughout this time is valid.
Here’s to being back in the real world soon. Stay safe.
