Working From Home? Remember these tricks to stay productive.

Working from home getting to you? Feeling inefficient and slow? As the pandemic continues to make an impact on the world, white-collar work is feeling the impact. NYC subway ridership is at an all-time low, offices are 10% capacity, some restaurants are limited to outdoor dining and/or reduced capacity. Who knows what work life will be like in the near future, but while we’re working from our homes it’s important to stay productive. 

Remember these 5 tricks to help keep your work from home productive. 

1). Work From Home Computer Setup

• • • Monitor Distance – 20/20 vision is the baseline for sight. It determines the clarity and sharpness at 20 feet of distance. Your monitor should be 20” in front of you
    • Monitor Height – Top of screen should be at or slightly below eye level.
    • Sitting or standing – it is said sitting is the new smoking, but data shows that most offices with sit/stand desks, the employees still prefer sitting.

2). Have a proper internet setup

• • • Bandwidth – do you have enough “internet” for your needs. In other words is your bandwidth large enough to support your role. Think of bandwidth as lanes on a highway, the more data you send back and forth, the more lanes you’ll need. I.e. more bandwidth. 100mbps should be enough to support most users. That being said you have to take into account the other devices that are on your home network that share that same bandwidth
    • ISP (Internet Service Provider) – Examples of ISP’s are Verizon, Spectrum, AT&T, Comcast. You can check how much bandwidth you’re provided on your bill. Additionally, your bandwidth guarantee is only for direct ethernet connection not through wifi. Need help with wifi speeds? We can help.
    • Think about separating the devices on your network to provide a better quality of service and security for certain devices. This can be done quite easily and inexpensively with the correct network equipment 

3). Remove distractions 

Have your “Work From Home” space dedicated to just that, work. Not possible for all apartments and homes, but do the best you can. Similar to your bed, getting a good nights sleep is aiding your body in subconsciously knowing this space is for this activity. 

• • • Move your phone off your desk. 
    • Clear clutter from the space. 
    • Have everything you might need available to you, documents, drinks, headphones, so you can stay focused on the task without distractions.

4). Create a work from home routine 

• • • Similar to how Olympic runners the same ritual before every race, setting up yours can help you get into great long productive work zones. Maybe place your phone on the other table, have your coffee ready to go, and your music playlist set. Find your routine and perfect it until it’s just right. 

5). Create a list of To-Do’s

• • • List the 5 most important things you need to get done that day with the most important at the top. Which is most important? Start with deadlines, next ask yourself “If I can get this item done, that would make the day feel successful.” Work your way down and don’t start the next until the item above is completed.  

Other cool solutions on the market

• • • Room phone-booth provides in-home solutions to increase privacy.
    • Detached home office solutions for those that need to get out of the house.
    • Getaway and disappear in the woods to reset yourself.

Know someone having a hard time staying focused while working from home? Maybe it’s a coworker, friend or partner, share these helpful tips to help them have a more effective day.