I worked remotely as an IT call center supervisor for three years. While there, I picked up a few good tips on remaining productive while working from home. Whether you have an upcoming deadline, need to focus on reaching your call metrics, or are working through an email queue, these productivity tips will come in handy.
Restart your computer before your workday
Restarting your device before your workday is always a good practice. This allows for a fresh start of the system, giving you faster load speeds while working. Restarting can also help prevent hardware and software issues from arising, enabling you to spend more time focused and less time troubleshooting these issues.
Have a quiet area to work in
A quiet area will allow you to focus on your work with minimal distractions. The less time spent getting off topic and then having to remember where you left off, the less time it will take you to complete your work.
Plan where to store any hardware your company provides you
Planning where you store your company equipment when you are not working is essential. Not only does it show irresponsibility if you cannot find your laptop, headset, charger, etc., but it also leaves a bad impression if you do things like sign on to work late because you misplaced your laptop or you miss time in the phone queue because you lost your headset. Storing your equipment in a specific spot every day will allow you to get signed into work on time and keep working without disruption if you need to use any of the equipment.
Take your breaks
Breaks are an opportunity to give your brain a rest. Take the time to do things unrelated to work – get a snack, use the restroom, play a quick phone game, or kiss your cat on the head. Use the time to do what you want before you return to work mode.
Bookmark your common sites – and keep them organized
Treat your bookmarks like your toolbox, an easy-to-access one-stop spot for all your tools. Bookmark any common sites and resources to help you do your job. Remember that bookmarking these sites alone will not help; you also need to develop an organization method to make it easy to find these bookmarks. Take a little time each week or month to review and remove bookmarks you no longer need. If you have bookmarks for specific projects, remove them once the projects are complete. Reviewing and staying organized will allow you to remember where every bookmark is and limit the amount of time spent searching for the sites and tools you need to complete your day-to-day tasks.
Adjust your notification settings
Working remotely means you’re communicating remotely as well. Whether you are using tools like Slack or Teams or just working from your email, you have probably noticed your fair share of notifications that do not pertain to you or your role. If you’re anything like me, you get distracted whenever one of these comes across your screen. Take the time to limit your notifications. If you have multiple email inboxes but only need to maintain your personal inbox, turn off notifications or set them to alert you at specific times. If you have been added to a team or channel in Teams that you don’t need to monitor, turn off the notifications. In exchange, you will need to be more proactive about checking these locations, but this will prevent these alerts from taking your focus away from the task at hand.
Limit distractions – phone down
If you find that you pick up your phone and start to scroll or get distracted with a phone game while you are working, you will need to limit your access to your phone. However, if your job requires you to use a two-factor authenticator, which is usually set up on your phone, you’ll find yourself in a catch-22 situation. For me, putting my phone off to the side, still within reach but out of sight, helped tremendously with keeping me focused. There are also apps and tools built into phones that will allow you to set focus times and limit access to apps on your phone during the times you set.
Set goals
Working through a never-ending queue or on a project without any deadlines or check-ins can be daunting. Not seeing your progress can also make you feel like you are not making any. To help navigate this issue, set your own goals. If you have an hour to work through emails, set a goal for how many emails you want to complete. If you have free time to work on a project, set a goal of where you want to get to by the end of the day. Alternatively, make long-term goals for the project, and break them down into smaller pieces that will fit together over time to form the project’s final form.
Prepare any deliverables before meetings
One of the biggest productivity killers is sitting through meetings that are unnecessarily made longer by people not having their deliverables ready. If you have anything to present during a meeting, be sure to take the time to open it up and prepare it before it is your turn to speak.
Organize your tasks in order of importance
Not every assignment you are given at work will hold the same level of importance. Take a few moments to organize your tasks by order of importance before you start working through them. This way, there will be no harm if you do not get to some less essential tasks. Keep in mind that this order may change if you get a new project or request from your leadership. Knowing which of your tasks holds the most importance will allow you to make the best use of your time and keep you from having to determine what to work on next when you finish a task.
Set reminders
Set reminders for important due dates, events, or projects. This will prevent you from forgetting any important tasks and keep you aware of the timeline and upcoming end goals. Reminders can also help you remember any tasks that need to be completed on a schedule that strays from your daily tasks. Utilizing your reminders will help you to stay on top of these tasks and allow you to focus on other projects without having to keep these in the back of your mind.
Test your equipment
Before you are supposed to enter a meeting or get into the phone queue, take a moment to test your equipment. Plug in your headset and ensure it is picking up your audio, and you can hear the output audio. If you have any programs that you have to log in to, make sure to log in to them before you need to access them. Ensuring these are working will allow you to move between tasks seamlessly.
Treat your bootup as your drive to work
One of the major benefits of working from home is foregoing the commute to work. However, I recommend treating your bootup as your mini commute. Enter your workspace and get your computer started up, open up any programs you will need to use for work, and ensure that you will be ready to start your day when you are scheduled.
These tips will help you increase productivity during workdays and reach your goals. Find the tips that work best for you and start implementing them into your workflows, but be sure to tweak them to fit your needs.