Home Office and Efficiency: How to Stay Productive Working at Home?

Many things have changed since the beginning of the new Coronavirus pandemic, people's routine has been shaped to keep the risk of getting sick away, both of contracting the virus and of suffering any kind of exposure to danger or contracting some disease. In this scenario of overcrowded hospitals, even the most basic health issues could lead a patient to come into contact with the virus in the hospital environment.

To prevent this from happening, sanitary safety measures were adopted, which provided for rules for a new orderly social interaction, and which would be prudent for the population. Among these measures, one changed a good part of the population's routine, and that was: social distancing.

With this rule adopted by most governors in order to protect citizens, it started to apply to various environments such as bars, schools, restaurants and even for commerce and industry. With this position, businessmen and their employees had their routine directly affected, as now they could not maintain production in the same way as before and not even advertise their products in the same way, it was necessary to adopt a new system, and the output was through the Home Office .

This practice, which was already adopted by other companies before the pandemic, brings its meaning in its name, it is nothing more than transferring the work environment to the home and thus enabling many other benefits . Salespeople who used to stand all day presenting the products from the stores to the customers were now dressed up with modern work tools and were able to carry out the promotions through websites and applications. Executives, designers, programmers and workers from all fields were also included in this alternative brought by entrepreneurs in order not to let the production of companies stop.

How to have a successful Home Office?

But how does this work? Well, in theory everything is wonderful! You don't have to face the daily commute to the company, you can have meals in your home's kitchen, schedules are more flexible because you don't need to have breakfast on the run and get ready super quick to go out... But in practice, is it all wonderful? I believe that if you are in this post it is because you were interested in understanding a little better about how to maintain good productivity levels in the home Office.

Stanford University, California, conducted a controlled trial to see the effects of the Home Office on a select group of participants. This study showed an increase of 13% in the productivity of people who adopted telework as an alternative to face-to-face work. In addition, the level of employee satisfaction also increased in relation to their routine, there were fewer breaks during the day and the costs of analyzed company was reduced by 50% with employees who adopted the practice.

But if so many good things happen, why has it been any different in our house? To understand this, we have to think that just as other activities like going to the gym, learning a new language or doing Yoga are not so easily associated by our first-rate brain, and take time to adapt , a new work model also requires patience to be successfully implemented.

To help you in this process, I've separated 5 tips that will help you keep your routine organized and be more productive while working remotely. And if you're expecting tips like “dress like you're going to work out” or “have a specific place to work” this post isn't for you. I'm going to present you some recommendations that will not only help you during this Home Office period but will also make you a better professional, remembering that success and good results will be proportional to your commitment to bringing these practices into your daily life.

5 - Use the time to your advantage!

In 5th place on this list is: Set a fixed time! The first step in building a routine is to understand what time frame will be available for allocating the tasks that need to be performed. With the Home Office, flexible hours have been a major obstacle in the lives of people who had their routine determined by the company's hours of operation. If your boss hasn't defined the employees' working hours, it doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, take this opportunity and write down now in your diary the time you will dedicate to the work at home routine. After defining the period for the work, which will be made available daily by you throughout the week, you can plan how and when the work activities you perform will be carried out and that's when the next tip comes up.

4 - Pen and paper or keyboard and software: it's time to take notes!

I can say that in 4th place you should write down the tasks that will be delivered during the week. Do a To Do List, if you don't know what it is, Google it to find out it's a to-do list. After listing everything, it is important to separate by priority criteria and deadlines . And the tip pervaded here is: consider a greater margin of delivery of demands, understand that because you are adapting to a new style of work you will take more time to perform the same activities at home, at least in the beginning. Once you are used to the most realistic deadlines, set it according to the knowledge acquired. There are several tools that can help you with these notes, applications like Notion, Trello, Keep Notes and others can be implemented to help you.

3 - Stand out with better deliveries

At the top of the top 3 on the list is working for results! If you have already defined the hours you will work and you already know what needs to be done now, just chase the goals that need to be achieved. According to Herzberg's Theory, their motivation with work is directly connected with their performance in the activities performed. So know that delivering good results will be as good for you as it is for the company , in addition to enabling future recognition for your performance. To do this, use the Pareto Principle in your favor and define which activities will add the most value to the week's deliveries and prioritize them, simply because you have completed your goal you will already feel more motivated to continue during the week. the week.

2 - Apps are not just entertainment

In 2nd place on this list, I'm going to put something that will make a big difference in your organization. Look for tools to help you get more done! And in this Digital Age that we are in, you will certainly find a Software to help you in your daily life. Leaving all the work to the brain is relying too much on an organ that will already be exhausted from the sheer number of activities it performs, and will surely forget to notify you of the 10:30 am meeting on Monday morning. Search for the best software and applications for routine organization and invest in standardizing notes within them. As you can see, it is very important to use the technology in our favor, and having your documents/files with easy access available on the Cloud will make your life much easier, so if you have to move for something unforeseen, it will be possible to participate in the events and meetings presenting their documents and work without worry.

1 - Improve yourself constantly, life is an eternal evolution

The golden tip comes now, in 1st place is what will help you the most, not only in the Home Office but in life in general: enjoy your free time to study! Do you know that interval between one meeting and another that is not enough to start a new task or not even continue the one that was being performed? Or even that time of day when you're feeling tired and need a break? Take advantage of these breaks to study and specialize in your career . This will not only make you a better professional and add to your resume, it will also make you do tasks much faster and better than before. That way you have more time to study again and so evolution is constant. So the next time you realize you have a little free time, don't rush to see a series or mess with social media. Exchange these entertainments for audiobooks, courses, lectures and videos that will make you a better professional .

Be part of the Home Office revolution

Did you like the tips? We at FWC Tecnologia are always committed to motivating our team to produce the best applications. We keep everyone working at Home Office, but always very connected through meetings for alignment and chat for questions. We also do this with all our customers, so they participate in our evolution process and monitor the development of their projects. Know someone who would like to have an app to leverage the company or are you that person? Know that we have brought together the best professionals in Brazil to make this dream come true. Share this post with your friends and acquaintances, or even your boss, I'm sure we can bring new tools to your company that will make a big difference in this period.