It’s not a new idea to work remotely. Many employees and business owners have been doing their jobs remotely for years, thanks to the technological developments that allow remote work to become viable. Yet, in the wake of the global lockdown, more companies have altered their working dynamics and transferred their processes to remote work. Due to COVID-19, what was once an experiment has now become a full-fledged approach to working for various business organizations. 

Know that high-functioning virtual teams have shown that if one works in the right manner and with the proper resources in place, you can work regardless if you’re physically present with your co-workers or not. Different organizations will be more likely to work remotely permanently, and going to the office will be something that comes from the past.

Although it’s ideal for other companies, many remote workers still have difficulty staying efficient without a boss checking on them. Moreover, it can be challenging because of the distractions around them. This isn’t good because the dream of working remotely can immediately become something undesirable if productivity is affected and deadlines aren’t attained, 

The good news is enjoying the benefits of working remotely while also being productive is still attainable. To help in obtaining this goal, here is an article for employees, managers, and supervisors about the ways to maintain productivity while working remotely.

Use Collaboration Tools

Providing employees with collaboration tools is the most straightforward and accessible way to improve remote work productivity. Multi-management tools ideally affect performance, improve productivity, and offer better communication regardless of the organization or team’s size.

It can be crucial for teamwork to have project management software, particularly for remote teams. These tools have all the features that remote work teams need to remain in total control of their tasks.

Collaboration software is the best way to enhance your remote work productivity, from custom workflows to one-on-one and group chats and from task lists to Gantt charts. Organizations that have managed through the pandemic have all attributed using these tools to their success.

Overall, if you want to improve your team’s collaboration and productivity, you can take note of different solutions that will help with that, such as using intranet software.

Set Up A Proper Home Office

What is the best part about remote working? Most likely, the amount of comfort you can get by working anywhere, such as in your bedroom or living room. Yet, are you aware that this comfort can hurt your productivity, focus, and target objectives?

Homeworking is convenient for many people as they can shut themselves in bed or couch. Yet, with people’s confused sleep schedules, it becomes tricky to concentrate or even refuse to fall asleep. You might sit in any area, begin working on your job, and suddenly, a movie or an ad play on your television. What is your immediate reaction? You look around and glance, thus creating a distraction for you. It will likely happen more if you choose a random place to work.

And so, having a specific work area for yourself can be ideal. A home office should be your place of quiet, productivity, and peace. A dedicated workspace will also allow you to remain geared towards work by offering an office-like setting.

Leverage Technology

Most remote employees are in charge of their own equipment, including computers that have internet access, a smartphone for calls, and a webcam for remote meetings. Those who provide themselves with proper tools and leverage technology find it less hard to remain productive as they don’t continually run into issues tied to using the equipment.

Why not buy a desktop computer and use it as your workstation instead of a convenient but less powerful laptop? Desktop computers outperform laptops in terms of performance per dollar, and you can customize your computer down to individual components to make it as customized to your needs as possible.

If your work is more about typing, you can get an ergonomic or mechanical keyboard to lessen the risk of repetitive strain injury (RSI). Likewise, a second or third screen can assist you in remaining productive when doing multiple tasks and using various applications, which most software developers do regularly.

Handle Notifications

Typically, as humans, we desire connection and a sense of belonging to a particular community. And this is particularly noticeable in remote teams where individuals seldom get a chance to chat or have some quality time with their colleagues.

Although technology has been ideal for closing the connection gap, at the same time, it’s destroying the ability of others to focus. Research reported that continual interruptions could significantly prevent one’s focus and productivity. As much as it’s significant to say in the loop of all conversations in the organization, the constant pings that originate from your company team chat app can hinder you from doing any focused work.

So, if you’re an employee and want to improve your productivity, take note of pausing notifications in your business messaging app when you need to focus on your task or set a notification schedule depending on your daily work plan. You can also go further and mute specific channels or DMs and only check them during breaks or outside your working hours.

Frequently Communicate With Co-Workers

Practicing team-building activities and frequent communication with colleagues that make people closer become crucial when everybody is working remotely. For instance, take note of sharing pictures with colleagues of the fun you’ve had with your loved ones when you’ve embraced a flexible remote job. Activities like this can boost the morale of co-workers working remotely and motivate them to do similarly. You can help maintain normalcy and productivity by trying to remain connected.

If you begin to feel lonely, take note of laying out a weekly remote support group of friends and colleagues who are also doing their tasks remotely. Have plans to meet via video conference frequently and share how you’ve managed the new setting.

Offer Emotional And Continuous Support

As remote working can lead to feelings of loneliness and negativity, employers must do what’s possible to offer emotional support to employees. With an upbeat and calm presence, leaders must establish the mood for their virtual offices. This assists in generating a level-headed work environment where employees can still finish things.

Managers must be more present than usual in a fully remote work setup for check-ins and other questions that may arise due to unfamiliar situations. Establish virtual office hours and be available on instant messaging apps across the day to assist the staff.

Leaders should also motivate their employees to have proper self-care as they try to cope with a remote setting and the stress of new environments. Managers should encourage remote workers to exercise, get adequate sleep, take showers, and go on with their lives as usually as possible.

Set Priorities

If you’re a manager, you should prioritize what needs to be finished. Set realistic productivity benchmarks that give employees the chance to work without problems. Minimize clutter first by removing things from the staff’s to-do list and letting them become more aware of how you can assist them.

Businesses need to be very plain about what they need from employees and let employees be aware of what’s expected from them. After planning things this way, things can change fast and for many reasons.

The setups that allow for employee productivity during remote work will allow one to save plenty of time for all and lay out the workday’s direction. Employees must be honest with managers and supervisors to meet their needs. This all relates to how multiple businesses use employee-monitoring systems and improve efficiency, whatever the geographical challenges.

Effectively Manage Time 

Time management can become a significant problem when working remotely, and everything can go down once you lose track of time. The most crucial benefit of working remotely is that you’re the one who handles your schedule. Yet if you fail to address your time effectively, this advantage can change into a disadvantage.

Time tracking tools are a great solution to handle time and remain on top of deadlines. It’s also good to keep profits for organizations. Research showed that USD$7.4 billion is lost daily due to unrecorded daily work activities.

Time management tools also assist people in determining bottlenecks and time drains. This gives way for them to address their pain points. There are no boundaries between work and leisure when it comes to remote work, so if you haven’t handled your time effectively, it can impact your productivity and performance.

Conclusion

Remote working has been here since. Yet, when the pandemic started, that’s the time when more companies also tried to adopt it in their operations. Although it’s been ideal for many companies, many still have difficulty coping with the new setting. This is bad as it can affect productivity. 

Gladly, there are ways to maintain productivity, like the ones above. Altogether, consider the information above as your guide to more productive remote work.