Malaysia is currently in the “restricted movement” period. All offices except essential services must be closed – and many of us are currently working from home. Speaking from personal experience, there are lots of temptations to not work when we are in the comfort of our own home.
I literally converted my room into an office – and now we’re going to share with you my personal tips on how to stay productive while working from home.
1. Alarms
Let’s start off with the simplest of all. I find that when we start working from home, the passage of time starts to be blurred. Punctuality becomes an issue, and many workaholics (like me) will start to work overtime without realizing it.
To prevent this from happening, set an alarm on your phone. Maybe set multiple alarms? Maybe set one every hour as a reminder that time has passed.
And remember to set alarms for your meetings and conference calls too. Since our colleagues aren’t physically beside us to remind or talk to us about what’s going on, we start to get disconnected – drifting away from work.
2. Wear a fitness band or smartwatch
Yeah – I’m serious. These fitness bands or smartwatches can tell you when you need to get up and walk. Sitting for too long is really bad for your health – so get up and move around, go up and down the stairs or something.
Fitness bands and smartwatches also serve as a platform for notifications. We do not want our phone’s notifications to be constantly ringing in the office – so treat your home as though you are in the office. Mute your devices and have your fitness band or smartwatch inform you of the notification instead.
3. Lock yourself in a room
If you’re not living alone… then having another person in the house can be distracting – especially when they barge into your room and started talking something that’s not work-related.
So, lock yourself in a room. It helps a lot.
4. Maybe wear earphones/headphones
For residences with dense population or maybe just horrible, noisy neighbors – wearing earphones or headphones can help isolate the noise a little. so that we can focus more.
Your mileage will vary drastically depending on your neighbors and your residency’s population density.
5. Installing some tools made to help us focus
The constant “boss is watching” aura is not present while we are working from home, and hence we might get too distracted from our work. There are lots of tools to help you stay productive.
For Chrome users, my suggestion is to install Work Mode. This extension blocks all social media so we won’t mindlessly scroll Facebook or Twitter. Android users can also use the Focus Mode that is already built into Android 10.
But what about our phones? For Android users, you can get AppBlock to do the exact same thing. iOS users can download the app named Moment.
Everything depends on your own discipline
Apps and technology can’t stop you from being unproductive while working from home. They are mere tools that help the user. These tools can’t help those who are not helping themselves.
If you like to work from home even without the whole virus situation, then please be as productive as you are working in the office. Maybe your bosses will then be convinced to allow employees to work from home.
Like our Facebook Page here at NasiLemakTech.com for more news and in-depth reviews! Also, join our Facebook Group for insightful information and memes!
Subscribe to our YouTube channel too!
