As the world continues to adapt to the ongoing pandemic, the majority of employees still find themselves working from outside of the office. Similarly to being in the office, though, there are still distractions that are going to plague productivity. A way to combat these remote disturbances is by establishing an area in your home as a designated workspace to hone in on what’s important and keep out what’s not.
The ability of humans to separate their work and personal lives while working at home is what separates the productive from the unproductive in terms of remote work. The office is right there, ever so present when you’re commuting in and out, so why not finish up some last-minute tasks? As opposed to The laundry is calling, so why not throw in a load during work? Being unable to balance work and leisure activities is often cited as the most difficult aspect of working from home.
The accompanying infographic, how to create a productive workspace, emphasizes the importance of how to establish a workspace at home that deliberately attacks some of the productivity inefficiencies you may face from the common distractions at home. Whether that be clutter that has piled up over the course of the workweek, a chair that just doesn’t seem to support your body right, or lack of necessary technology to finish work in a productive manner. A possible suggestion being to create a workspace that is reminiscent of the desk you primarily occupied in the office. A large house makes it easier to turn a spare room into an office or to set up or even build an office in a physically isolated part of the home, but there are ways to create a quiet, proper lighting, private home office even in a small home or apartment.
An equally important note is the mental separation of home and work. This means that despite primarily working from home, you must be able to separate the important home chores from the necessary workflow. Yes, there might be a TV nearby, perhaps the laundry could be done, or you could get a head start on dinner. In order to continue to succeed from working from home, however, you must be able to stray away from the home-based distractions in some manner. Thus the importance of establishing a productive work environment from home. Continue reading on for more tips on how to create a productive workspace.