Working from home opens up a new range of possibilities for the way businesses can work and structure themselves. Home working has greatly been adopted as employers have seen the benefits that it can bring to their business and the improved work-life balance for their employees. Everyone who works remotely has to figure out when to work, where to work, and how to create boundaries between work and personal life. And let’s not forget about office equipment, career development, training opportunities, and building relationships with colleagues remotely. Working remotely, especially when working from home most of the time, means figuring out these issues and others.
Here are tips for staying efficient when working from home.
1. Plan ahead
Planning ahead of time is one of the best ways to be efficient as it allows you to see what hurdles can sneak up in the future. One should prepare for what task or problem might be coming in the future than be unprepared for it and panic in the nick of time. It’s better to be proactive than reactive. Means: If something comes up, one will take the necessary steps needed rather than facing the unknown situation. You can also use online planners or download a planning app on your device. Once you have planned your day, you can spend your time more fruitfully.
2. Outsource and automate
Replacing personal efforts with technology or another person’s efforts is called outsourcing and automation. It is done to lessen operational and repetitive task burdens and make your work easier and more fruitful. There are many tools that can help you to automate your tasks. You can create social media posts through tools that are available online. Or if you are a writer, you can use tools which helps you to rectify your content mistakes and you don’t have to spend much time editing your content. Similar other tools are available that can be used to save time.
3. Apply the 80/20 rule
The 80-20 rule maintains that 80% of output (outcomes) comes from 20% of input (causes). In the 80-20 rule, 20% of factors will produce the best results. One can apply this for saving time by identifying tasks that give the most results. One can manage to focus on tasks that impact your work the most.
4. Batch up
‘Batch up’ is a term used for being efficient in your tasks. In short, it means managing a process of small tasks or procedures in batches, so you would become more efficient in your work. You can take small breaks after completing a certain task. It helps you boost your energy and stay motivated.
5. Prioritize your tasks
Prioritizing your tasks allows you to plan what to do first. Prioritization must be pliable because obligatory errands can’t be interrupted by low-priority tasks. Categorizing your tasks according to their value because of your action plans and task importance is the main feature of time and task management.
6. Do everything every day
It is as simple as it states, to do everything every day. But what includes everything? Let’s take it as the must-dos in our daily life, most important work, not routine work. You can increase your productivity if you have time for yourself because it helps you stay more focused. Don’t delay your work because then you have to spend more time and it can turn into a burn-out situation. If you complete your tasks daily, you will never be overworked and stay focused.
7. Apply Parkinson’s Law
Parkinson’s Law states that “work expands to fill the time available for its completion”. How does it apply to becoming more efficient? When a person is given a task to get done with additional time, his productivity levels go down to maintain that. One should simply be given less time to complete the relatively minor tasks. If you are given a whole day to finish one hour of work, complications of that task will only increase and become burdensome.
Summing up
We live in a very fast-paced world where everything is changing rapidly with time in terms of technology and human evolution. One thing that you must know is that there is no turning back, and we have to be careful of how we are spending our time because it is valuable. Time is valuable and a smart person knows how to utilize it in an effective manner. Because if you lose time, you cannot get it back. Often at times, you are not aware of how you can stay efficient and make the best use of your time and for that, you can use the above-mentioned simple tips and make sure that you do not waste your time in idle pursuits.
