When a huge snow storm hits or a hurricane is due to pass by, there’s a chance that you might not be able to make it into the office for a few days. How do can you make sure you are staying productive and not come down with a case of cabin fever?
Here is my list on how to keep productivity during a storm:
1. Find an area in the house you can concentrate. I know most of us have been there before- “working from home” quickly becomes “working from couch”. If you find yourself watching Maury more than responding to emails, you know it’s time to make a move. I personally find my kitchen table the most productive place to work, but I’ll leave this up to you. Here are few criteria you can use to decide where to post up:
- Your workspace should be free from distractions & noise.
- Look for an area where you have natural light. This is crucial for maintaining concentration.
- Make sure you have a comfortable chair, so you don’t find yourself back on the couch mid-day.
2. Stay connected and up to date. When I say stay up-to-date, I don’t mean with the latest snowfall totals (as tempting as that may be). I mean making sure you are accessible to anyone, anywhere for quick ad-hoc collaboration or for a pre-planned meeting – just because it snows, that doesn’t mean projects are on hold! With chat or email I can quickly get a question answered, but if I need to have a more collaborative conversation, I always use teamviewer.com or join.me. That way I can show my screen, pass presenter role and even annotate if I need to. It also helps that if the whole team is working from home, they can all dial-in and be on the same call.
3. Come up with goals. Set 3 goals for yourself for the day and strive to hit those goals by certain times in the day. When working from home it’s easy to get distracted and push off certain tasks for later in the day. Then, all of sudden, it’s almost time for dinner and you haven’t accomplished anything on your to-do list. I love to use Asana to keep with daily tasks and stay up to date on my team’s progress and tasks. This is especially convenient when I can’t just walk over to their desks and get a status update.
4. Enjoy your time at home. The best thing about being productive when you stay at home in is that you can fend off cabin fever. When you close up your laptop for the day, you will actually feel accomplished. Treat yourself to a hot chocolate, you deserve it!
These tips should help you stay productive during your stay at home. Do you have any other tips for staying productive when working from home? Please share with us in the comments below!
