Knowing and doing the remote work best practices can help you achieve that work-life balance you’ve always wanted.
Working remotely can bring new challenges, including the need for effective time management.
It can be pretty hard to put a barrier between work and personal life when you don’t have a physical office you commute to.
That’s why setting clear boundaries and sticking to a schedule to overcome this challenge is essential. It includes setting specific work hours and taking breaks simultaneously each day.
Without clear limitations, it can be easy to get overwhelmed by work and neglect critical personal responsibilities.
In this article, we will explore the best quick practices you can do to maximize productivity in a remote work setting.
Let’s take a look!
Remote Work Best Practices and Ways to Do Them
1. Setting Clear Boundaries
Define Work Hours
Defining your work hours is one of the most critical steps in setting clear boundaries.
It means setting specific times each day when you will be available for work and adhering to those hours as closely as possible.
Having a schedule will allow you to manage your time more effectively and avoid the temptation to work outside designated work hours.
Communicate With Others
Setting clear boundaries also involves communicating your work schedule to coworkers, family, and friends.
It helps ensure they understand your availability and respect your work time.
Additionally, sharing your work schedule with others will make you less likely to be disturbed during work hours.
Create A Dedicated Workspace
Another important aspect of setting clear boundaries is creating a dedicated workspace.
It means setting aside a specific area at home where you will work. This will help you avoid the temptation to work from other areas of your home like the kitchen (where you’ll likely see the dirty dishes) or in the living room (where the TV is just feet away.)
A dedicated workspace can help you maintain a more professional mindset and prevent distractions from household tasks.
Eliminate Distractions
Concerning distractions, it is easy to get pulled out of your workflow by household tasks, social media, and other personal responsibilities.
To overcome these distractions, turning off notifications on your phone and computer and focusing on your work during designated work hours is important.
2. Increasing Your Focus
Take Breaks
Taking regular breaks is an essential part in increasing your focus.
Regular intervals help you maintain focus and avoid burnout, allowing you to recharge and refresh your mind.
Taking breaks daily can create a routine that helps you stay focused and productive.
This can be done by walking, exercising regularly, enjoying some time with friends, or meditating for 10 minutes a day. Honestly, anything will help.
Also, you want to avoid doing anything work-related during your breaks.
Remember, this is the time of the day when your mind gets disconnected from all of the stress.
Prioritize Tasks
Prioritizing tasks is crucial in any work environment but becomes even more critical in a remote setting.
With the already-mentioned distractions at home, it is easy to get sidetracked and waste time on non-essential tasks.
To avoid getting distracted, prioritize tasks based on their urgency and importance and focus on completing the most critical tasks first.
Identify Key Goals
The first step in prioritizing tasks is identifying your key goals and objectives.
It means understanding what is most important to you and your employer and focusing on tasks that align with those goals.
Break them down and try to analyze what are the more important goals and what is less urgent.
By doing this, you can ensure that you are spending your time on the most critical tasks.
Make A To-Do List
Once you have identified your key goals, the next step is to make a to-do list. It should include all the tasks you need to complete, organized in order of priority.
It can be done on paper, in a note-taking app, or using a project management tool.
Having a to-do list lets you see all your tasks in one place and helps you stay focused on the most critical studies.
And on top of that, you will be much more motivated to cross out everything on your list once you have finished the first few tasks.
Use The 80/20 Rule
The 80/20 rule means that 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts.
To apply this principle to task prioritization, focus on the 20% of jobs that will significantly impact your goals.
It can help you prioritize your tasks more effectively and avoid wasting time on less critical tasks.
ALSO READ: The Pros and Cons of Remote Working You Should Know
3. Practicing Time Management
Track Your Working-time
There are many time-tracking tools available that can help you manage your time more effectively.
These tools can help you monitor your time on each task. It allows you to identify areas where you may be wasting time.
They can also provide valuable insights into your work habits, helping you make more informed decisions about your time.
The benefits of tracking your work time while working remotely can’t be overlooked.
It will increase your productivity, help you manage your time better, and make you more focused on the tasks at hand.
Just make sure to choose the right tool for this.
Ideally, your time-tracking tool should be easy to use, be compatible with your employer, provide detailed reporting and analytics, and have the possibility to be integrated with other tools.
Use it consistently and accurately for maximum success.
Reviewing your time tracking data will help you further optimize your time management.
Learn To Say “No”
We all know how tempting it can be to just go for a coffee with a friend when working remotely.
You might think, “I can finish this later; it’s not a big deal.”
But this can mess up your time management significantly.
It’s better to say “no” to your friends sometimes, especially when you have important things to do.
Most of the time, we don’t want to disappoint others, so we feel the need to take some time out of our packed schedule for them.
But in reality, you won’t disappoint anyone by simply saying you don’t have any free time right now.
If they are really good friends, they will most certainly understand.
Other Remote Work Best Practices To Consider
1. Establish A Communication Plan In Remote Work
Effective communication is critical in remote work and working towards the same goals.
Without clear communication, remote workers can experience isolation, misunderstandings, and a lack of collaboration.
So you have to pick the right communication tools. Whether that’s video conferencing, instant messaging, or email.
Furthermore, setting clear expectations and guidelines for when and how to communicate between team members will help.
If you’re an employee, this will depend on your employer, but if you’re a freelancer or business owner, this is a highly important task to take care of.
Regular check-in calls or team meetings are definitely needed to monitor the progress.
It will keep things flowing, and team members can speak freely about problems, concerns, and ideas.
With a solid communication plan, your team’s relationship improves a lot.
This will make people feel more motivated since work isn’t so stressful.
Needless to say, this will also have a positive effect on the productivity of the business.
2. Try Out New Things
If you’re lacking creativity or you just don’t feel really productive recently, maybe try a different setting.
Instead of working at your designated workspace, you could go to a café or a library.
A different workspace can refresh your brain. You will develop new ideas, and your focus may differ.
But not only the environment is important. “Trying out new things” can be splitting your work schedule into smaller chunks. Or you could meditate before you start working instead of doing it afterward.
Play around with some ideas, and you will surely find your sweet spot for a refreshed mind.
3. Have A Security Plan
Now, this practice might be less important for your productivity, but we consider it still belongs on this list.
Having a security plan will manage your stress levels when something doesn’t go as planned.
You should have two types of security plans: A financial emergency fund for weaker months or, as the name says, real emergencies and a plan B for accomplishing the goals at your work.
You can build an emergency fund by saving a percentage of your monthly earnings into a savings account.
Everything between 10% and 20% for 6 months should be fine.
For plan B, create a structure for how you want to fulfill the project and calculate extra time and resources.
Life can be unpredictable sometimes, you know?
FAQs on Remote Work Best Practices
How can I find remote jobs?
There are a lot of ways to find remote job opportunities.
You could be a freelancer on a freelance website like Upwork or Fiverr. There you can offer services to businesses and work flexibly.
Another way is through job search platforms.
You can use LinkedIn, FlexJobs, or Indeed to find remote positions.
And, of course, you can start your own online business.
This is a real hassle, though, and it requires discipline and dedication. But it can be done.
What are the most important practices for beginners?
As a beginner, you want to make sure that you can actually focus on your work when you work from home.
So killing all distractions becomes your first big step towards more productivity.
Once you see yourself improve in your work, taking regular breaks and disconnecting from your work will be crucial.
Because, after all, you don’t want to get burned out after 2 months, do you?
What are Do’s and Don’ts when working from home?
Do – Buy proper working equipment, like a solid office chair, a good desk, etc.
Don’t – Work from your bed or in the kitchen.
Do- Structure your working hours properly.
Don’t – Do other random tasks in your working hours like household.
Final Thoughts: Remote Work Best Practices
These are the best practices that ensure maximum productivity when working remotely.
Hopefully, you can apply some of them to your work life.
Finally, being productive when working remotely is a skill that needs to be learned over a long time, especially when self-employed.
So, don’t expect you to become the next Elon Musk after implementing these techniques for a few days.
Look at it as a learning curve. Slowly but surely, you will make improvements if you stick to a routine, respect your breaks, maximize your time management, and eliminate all distractions.
And in a constantly distracted world, this can be your most valuable skill: To be 100% focused on your task at hand, giving maximum effort towards accomplishing your goals.
So long story short: stay consistent and keep your focus.
Tell us which hack was the most helpful to you! We would love the get some feedback in the comments below!