Ways To Improve Team Efficiency And Productivity While Working From Home

The Covid-19 global pandemic has forced companies around the world to delve into remote workspaces, even traditional companies who were against telecommuting before are now engaged in work from home practices. Argument against telecommuting has been the most notorious “Employees lose team efficiency and productivity while working from home”. If you are one of those managers or entrepreneurs who fear loss of efficiency and productivity during this crisis, or an employee who wishes to improve the work process, we have summed up few effective ways to elevate your work from home experience.

Stick To A Fixed Schedule

It’s easy to get carried away while working in pajamas. This combo doesn’t quite feel right to get us all pumped up for the day’s work, right?

Well, studies have shown that sticking to fixed schedules preferably on office hours can really boost your work efficiency. This involves establishing professionalism in attitude, attires and arrangements. When you trick your brain by dressing up for office, keeping a work designated space at home while maintaining strict schedules, your brain will get the signal to distinguish between relaxation in pajamas and working productively to finish office works.

As part of work routine, all your team members can set up the same work schedule and take designated coffee breaks at the same time to maintain seamless communication flow, thus increasing efficiency without wasting time.

Make An Actionable Plan And Limit Distractions

Managing distractions at home while working can be challenging; be it from someone ringing doorbell, or your favorite show coming live on television.

To get out of this vicious distraction cycle, you must make a priority task list for the day and work according to the to-do list at any cost. You must do it even if it means saying no to your friends/family visiting you during work hours.

Get into the habit of taking time bound breaks to enhance productivity as not keeping a tally on the watch can turn your breathers in between work to undue vacations.

Develop a reward system

This one hits right off the bat for you procrastinators out there. Certainly, working from home has its own merits of flexibility, but this very merit can weigh down heavily on productivity. Some of us tend to lag behind scheduled work due to procrastination.

Developing a reward system for yourself can be an easy way to solve this issue. Divide the daily work into separate smaller tasks and reward yourself after finishing each smaller task. For instance, have a quick snack or have few minutes of quality time with pets and so on. This pretty simple system can instantly boost your efficiency, leaving you fulfilled at the end of the day.

Cut down social media time

I think we can all agree that social media can get us into the undesired rabbit hole if we are not careful. Watching one YouTube video in between work can lead you to the trap of watching 20 videos at one go.

To improve your productivity and efficiency, you must avoid checking social media in between work hours no matter how tempting it seems. Perhaps you can include 5 minutes of social media time as part of your reward to self.

Virtual Team Building Activities To Stay Motivated

According to a report by Buffer, 19% people surveyed reported that loneliness and staying motivated is the biggest challenge faced while working from home.

Telecommuting brings in many benefits including flexibility, reduced resource need in physical spaces or decreased time taken while commuting to work, this facility also brings in the feeling of being isolated. Employees can feel demotivated and lose sense of belonging to the organization, this negatively affects meeting corporate goals.