Working in an office comes with a whole host of tempting distractions – water cooler gossip, checking mobile phone messages and talking to coworkers about the weekend’s sports results to name but a few. Now take the office home and add the fridge, a daytime TV show and the school run to the list and it is easy to see how your productivity could suffer. As we head into the foreseeable future with little chance of returning to the workplace office, it is important to consider how to improve productivity when working from home. Here we cover the two main factors to consider when it comes to making sure that you stay on task; routine and comfort.
Creating Comfort
Very few of us had an office at home before the occurrence of COVID-19, and now spare rooms across the world have been transformed into hives of activity. Where companies provide office furniture to suit the demands of your working experience, the old desk and folding chair that you had lying around at home are highly unlikely to offer you the most comfortable home office set up. Installing a good quality, ergonomically designed desk and chair is crucial to ensuring a good level of productivity and there is no need to spend too much as Office Reality offers many different styles for any office. You are not going to be in the mood – or shape – to be productive and produce work of a high standard if you are uncomfortable, short on space and suffering from back pain. Careful consideration of the length of time spent using the desk and chair as well as its adaptability to all of your work tasks is important when selecting the desk and chair set that is right for you.
If you want to up your comfort level a notch, standing desks are a great recommendation as well. That way, you don’t have to spend all day sitting and hurting your back. However, it’s very important that if you do decide to alternate between sitting and standing, you get a pair of comfortable shoe insoles. Oftentimes, people don’t realize that they have nerve damage in their feet, and shoe insoles for neuropathy are the perfect solution since they ease pain and symptoms by stimulating the nerves and providing cushioning support to areas of pain.
Once you are using something that is suited to your needs and offers you the opportunity to work in comfort, your productivity levels will increase – and you will probably increase your reputation with your boss into the bargain.
The importance of setting a working from home routine
The traditional day at the office, topped and tailed with a commute, has its own innate routine. From canteen serving times to coordinated shift patterns, there is a framework around the day that encourages – and sometimes enforces – a strict routine. However, once you move the office into your home, dispense with the commute and add a terrifying range of potential distractions, it is easy to fall into a routine-less existence. By setting a routine built around work start and end times, meal times and coffee breaks, the day becomes more organised and you become more productive. One of the perks of working from home is that it often offers more flexibility around work time, and this means that you are able to build your routine to coincide with your most naturally energetic and productive times of day. For example, if you are an early bird, then you could get to work before the sunrises and finish earlier than you would when you were working in the office environment.