Remote Work Hacks: Fighting the ‘Dark Side’ of #NoOffice
💌Newsletter
Remote work offers many benefits BUT it comes with some challenges that can make it difficult to stay productive and maintain a healthy work-life balance. Problems like:
Note: this is a transcript of the email Newsletter I sent to my 1500+ subscribers a while back. If you want to be one of them, sign up for my free Newsletter. You can unsubscribe anytime! or if you use LinkedIn, you can subscribe there, too!
🤷♀️ No recognition from family and friends
People don’t appreciate remote workers and seeing them at home they don’t consider it as “real work”. So they interrupt you, ask you to run errands for them, or just show their “going to work” is superior.
⚡️ Lack of external motivation and work energy
The office environment provides a natural sense of collective energy where everyone is working, which can be missing when working remotely. You feel like it’s only you working. Alone.
So are you doomed? Not really, below are some tips and hacks we use at Nozbe to stay productive while working from home:
📲 Use Do-Not-Disturb mode on your phone
To fend off family and friends, use DND and calls will be silenced unless someone calls twice in a row, ensuring only urgent matters get through. This will help you stay focused longer.
📝 Plan your week when doing a weekly review
Create a rational and achievable list of things to do. Also block times in your calendar for specific tasks that need a deeper dive. Stick to your plan, take small breaks and keep executing and you’ll feel great.
💬 Write thoughtful comments and chat every now and then
Not only focus on your tasks, but also give feedback to others. Exchanging good comments as well as short reactions makes your collaboration more real. Also jump on a quick video call with someone to chat.
👀 Small-Scale Seasonality: Work Smarter, Not Harder
Introduce seasonality, meaning some variations of work intensity. Traditional office demands pseudo-productivity where you must look busy. This results in constant email responses, excessive meetings, and burnout.
🧘 Balance high-intensity workdays with recovery days
Instead of spreading tasks evenly across the week balance heavy and light workdays. This will boost your creativity and reduce stress and make sure your productivity level is high.
🖥️ Take care of your home office
Try to create a dedicated home office for yourself. If you cannot have a separate room, make it a dedicated corner optimized for work. Or alternate which types of tasks you perform in different places.
🏢 Consider co-working spaces or ☕️ coffee-places
If your apartment is too small, consider renting a co-working space nearby, so you’ll have a short-walk commute to and from work and a dedicated space. Experiment with working from different places like cafes or… museums?
⁉️ More tips and tricks…
With real-life examples in our latest episode of the #NoOffice podcast at: