During the pandemic, everyone has to work remotely. For most people to work remotely is a big challenge because they might be tempted to do something else instead of focusing on work. Companies have no choice other than adapting to the situation or going bankrupt, it’s a learning time for everyone.
Therefore I am sharing with you the tactics and strategies I use to enable you to work from home and make your time more productive.
1 – Discipline
Many people think that discipline is a special blessing that only a few people have for granted but this is not actually true. Discipline is a muscle that has to be developed. The only way to develop discipline is by taking action and refusing to lose your focus on social media, notifications, or anything else.
A very good definition of discipline to me is to do what you need to do even when you don’t feel like it. Discipline is what will take you to a whole new level and that’s why it’s so crucial to develop this incredible power.
To give you a practical example about discipline, let’s suppose you want to get the Java 11 certification. Then you build a plan of studying Java 1 hour a day until you do the exam. By following and hitting what you planned even on the days that unpredictable things happen, then you will be developing your discipline to a high level.
Discipline without a strategy might not be effective, therefore, plan your moves. Do something that will help you with your objectives and goals.
2 – Focus
A great tool to track down your goals, actions, and the time you have been working on your tasks is the Pomodoro technique. A big mistake when focusing on a task is to check notifications, even more, when developing code considering that we need a high level of concentration to solve complex problems.
The great benefit of using Pomodoro is that when we start the timer of usually 25 minutes, we can’t do anything else other than the work we decided. By sticking to the task, we build the discipline and focus muscles. If we lose focus we usually take around 5-20 minutes to recover the concentration level we were before.
Multitasking is usually a disaster, nowadays this is very common with the multiple devices we have. There is so much to do that in the end nothing is done. That’s why simplicity is powerful, with a well-defined objective we can produce far more and with high-quality.
3 – Time Managing
Having a work time schedule is useful to do work in the time you planned. By not knowing what time you will work from home usually leads to no action or distraction. If you decide that you will be working from 10 am to 6 pm, for example, it will be easier for you to focus and do the work.
If you want to do a side hustle, you can apply the same strategy, define a time you will do the work you want, and in time you will be doing the work more easily. It’s extremely important to track down how much time you take to get your things done. Therefore, a great idea is to write down your main daily tasks and work on them. You can use Trello or you can even use a whiteboard to write down your weekly tasks so you already know what you will do.
4 – Have a Good Chair and a Good Desk to Work
A good posture during work makes the whole difference. If we work remotely on the wrong posture, we might get injured very quickly and this will reflect in our level of focus to get work done. A good and clean desk also makes a difference. If you can afford a desk that you can work either seated or standing up that would even better but not really necessary.
The important point is to have your posture adjusted to a healthy position, by doing that you can type faster, focus more easily, produce more high-quality work, you can do your craft!
For the chair, you can buy a good quality ergonomic one where you can easily maintain a good posture to work. It’s not necessary to get a reclining chair, one chair that is adjustable where you can align your arms with the chair, should be enough. Again, if you can afford a high-quality chair, go for it because high-quality work equipment will help you to produce more.
5 – Do Physical Exercises
Running or any other aerobic exercise is an excellent sport that has massive benefits for software engineers. That’s because for example in the case of running, it’s possible to increase our level of concentration, it kills stress cells in the brain, we get sharper to solve problems and get energized for several challenges.
By doing aerobic exercises the researchers show that the brain releases BDNF (Brain-derived neurotrophic factor) which helps in the development of new neural paths and survival of existent neurons, it reduces the fear hormone cortisol and stress.
Developing your muscles is also very important, there are some researchers found that if we don’t train our muscles, our brain will shrink in time. Therefore, developing our muscles with strength exercises is a great way too to stay sharp and as a byproduct we get fit.
When we work remotely, we do even fewer exercises, by installing the habit and doing this great investment for yourself of having health as a top priority in your life will certainly take you to higher ground.
6 – Stay in a Quiet Place
When we work remotely it gets even more difficult with interruptions. our concentration is broken and we get tempted to do something else. It’s great to let people we live with know that work time is work time to avoid unexpected interruptions. Of course, there will be times where we need to be contacted and for an emergency, that’s totally fine. However, if interruptions are allowed, it will drain our willpower little by little leading developers to not solve problems effectively.
If staying in a quiet place is not really an option for you, you can adapt to it by buying a noise-canceling headphone. By doing that you can listen to instrumental music while you work, music with lyrics will drain your concentration. Instead, researches show that it’s better you listen to instrumental music, even better classical music.
7 – Disconnect From Work and Recharge
People usually feel guilty about not being working, therefore, it’s hard to disconnect. By working constantly without recharging might lead to slow growth and harm your expansion. Taking some time off to recharge is a great way to elaborate new and more effective plans to take you to a higher level. To work only hard usually won’t be so effective.
It’s optimal for us to take the time to recharge and think of what you can do to impact more, be better at our craft, and reach stunning results. The problem is if we are not taking the time to think, it’s very hard to figure out what are actions that will multiply our results and get even more things done. This happens because when we are working very hard, it’s also hard to notice if we could do something different to speed up the process to get where we want.
Leave your comment below about what tip is the most useful for you and why! Your comments will be answered as soon as possible!
As always, be constantly breaking your limits!
This is amazing article. Pomodoro was one of the important missing piece I was looking for, I was thinking something like this but using my mobile alarm constantly.)) Thank You!!
Hello Ratik! I am happy to know the pomodoro technique will help you! You can take your productivity to the next level by using pomodoro since you will release dopamine every time you finish your pomodoro cycle! You can also track down your progress which makes things more meaningful when putting the time and effort!
Great article. Thanks Rafael for such informative content. I also like the pomodoro tip most. It’s really a game changer.
Thanks for your comment, Ali! Pomodoro is a game-changer indeed because it becomes much easier to be consistent and focused on your career goals like that!