Productivity Arata! The Internet allows us to work at home, and many companies now offer more flexible employment contracts, so employees have the opportunity to spend a few days a week working at home. Then there are the people who are run their own digital businesses and also work at home.
The idea of a home office looks very attractive, but many of these professionals who work at home have difficulty in focusing on getting some work done with quality.
1. You are responsible for your work environment.
Is it hard to concentrate? The responsibility is yours! Pick a corner of your house where there is little movement, preferably a specific environment conducive to work. By far, this is the tip that will bring the most results for you.
If you try to work on the kitchen table or in the living room while other people are moving around—children running, dog barking, grandmother asking you to go to the grocery store—it will be virtually impossible for you to concentrate.
Create a space that you respect and that others also respect. Everyone must clearly understand that this is a workspace. When you are in this space, you do not want to be interrupted, because you are doing something important.
Your work equipment must be good. Invest in desks and ergonomic chairs. You will spend most of your time sitting in front of your computer. About 90% of adults will suffer back pain at some point in life.
Choose the desk and chair that are right for you.
In the office, we don’t often think about it, because there are professionals in charge of buying the desks and ergonomic chairs to work for long hours. However, most of the furniture we buy for our home is chosen for its design and aesthetic appearance, but it may not be appropriate for working for long hours. Therefore, consult qualified health professionals you trust who can make the proper adjustments—where the monitor should be and how the keyboard should be positioned, as well as the ideal chair.
In my case, I have two spaces to work at home: a comfortable desk and chair, and I also have a standing desk. I usually alternate between sitting and standing. Students of the Productivity Ninja course have access to information about the standing desk I use. If you are a student, please log in now on the class site and go to class number 18, and download the standing desk design.
2. The difficulty of working from home is not a problem of motivation.
Some people with a backward mentality may think that the employee working at home will produce less because he will stay all day in underwear or pyjamas, sleeping late. Yes, it is true that there are good and bad professionals everywhere. But think with me: the opportunity that the company gives you to work at home is a vote of confidence.
Many employees who start working at home are very happy and are full of motivation. They have more flexibility and a higher quality of life. They are enthusiastic and desire to do their best to continue earning the freedom to work at home.
However, that very freedom can also be the biggest problem.
The absence of rhythms and schedule can destroy the planning structures of a working day.
The professional working alone at home needs to control and structure what happens around him.
If we have no structure, no clarity about the priorities of our tasks and how to protect our time, we will only react to the different pressures around us, such as requests from other people. This will corrode our creative capacity.
3. Be careful with overworking and underperforming.
Interestingly, serious and responsible professionals end up working more hours at home than if they were working in the office. And unfortunately there are cases where they produce less, despite spending more hours at the computer.
This is especially true when it comes to a job that depends on creativity and intellectual capacity. If we are distracted and unfocused, we cannot reach our maximum intellectual production. We end up with that feeling of smallness, that we are not meeting expectations, and that creates anxiety. We wonder whether the work is good enough.
So, when in doubt, we work more than we would like. We keep trying to explore other ways to improve the work. It becomes difficult to draw the line between working hours and rest, so we just work more hours than normal.
The same technology that frees us to work from home instead of going to the office is the technology that keeps us connected all the time. It is even more difficult when employees work at different times or are located in different time zones. No more rest time!
Some people rush to check for new email as soon as they wake up. Do you think I’m exaggerating? So tell me in the comments, are you one of those people who looks at email before going to bed and again the first thing in the morning? If so, make a video on the break now and write “I also read email all the time,” and we will then identify who you are!
If you are not the type of person who reads the mail all the time, all right. Now, for those of you who commented that you read email compulsively, I leave these questions for you, and I ask you to answer with all honesty:
– Do you think this behaviour is adding value to your work? Do you become a more valuable employee by being constantly available? Would it make a big difference you checked work emails only when you arrive at the office? Now comes the killer question: Look at your co-workers who read their email only when they are in the office. Are they are as valuable to your company as you, maybe even paid MORE than you?
There are employees who try to be more valuable by sacrificing personal life and being available twenty-four hours a day. There are other employees who try to be more valuable by doing higher quality work. They create clear boundaries around the time that they are not available. We know not to call them at the weekend, and we don’t waste time sending them email at night, because we already know that they will not look until the next morning.
Yes, there are some professionals who really need to be available all the time, because the nature of their work is taking care of emergencies. But for most of us, we choose to stay connected all the time because we like the idea of feeling important and needed.
If you have been following the Productivity Arata series, you’ve seen me talking a lot about focus. And when we talk about focus, it means we know the value of an activity that should be performed.
We do not want to spend much time dedicated to the wrong tasks that will lead us to working inefficiently. We want to make the best use of our time.
The home office has a number of advantages. We spend less time and money on commuting from one place to another. We are often more comfortable working at home. But there also is the challenge to be productive.
If you are already a student of our Productivity Ninja course, I have one more surprise. We have a fresh bonus class that we’ve just added to the students’ area. Just log in to the site! (If you have lost your password, please get in touch using the official support form. Please do not write support requests here on Youtube comments, because our team will not be able to help. Whenever you need any answer, write to us)
After signing in, you will find a bonus lesson, where we will talk about…
– How can you stop mixing personal life with work?
– What changes can you make in your home office environment to achieve greater concentration?
– What ergonomic changes should you make to your computer and furniture to be able to focus on the work at home?
– Do you have the tables and chairs that you need to avoid back problems and ensure productivity in the long run?
– What type of lighting will ensure better results? (I’ll even give a link to a special type of lamp that will decrease your sleepiness and increase your efficiency.)
– Do you have collaboration software that will help you get maximum productivity with your team?
Finally, I’ll share a minimalist technique that will surprise you, and you will realize how less is more.
If you want access to all these additional tips, it’s easy: if you are already a student of the Productivity Ninja course, just sign in to the students’ space. If you have any technical difficulties, please contact our support team. Do not write support requests on YouTube or on social media.
If you are not a student, then you need to enroll in the Productivity Ninja course, which is the advanced course of Arata Academy productivity. It is a course with twenty extremely deep and detailed lessons. To enroll is simple—just visit this link. The link will appear here on the screen and follow the instructions. See you on the course!