The work from home revolution continues to sweep the nation, leaving hundreds of thousands of people with the option to clock in and clock out without leaving their property. But with this revolution has come teething problems, including the sense, among many workers, that it’s difficult to be as productive at home as it is in the office. This short guide is all about how you can tackle those lingering inefficiencies that are dragging down your ability to work fast and hard at home. Read on to learn how to work from home more efficiently in 2022.
Better Connection
You’ll know from experience how much time a poor internet connection can waste. You’ll be forever asking conference callers to call you back, firing up the hotspot on your mobile phone as you do so. Online documents load slower, online edits update slower, and your whole working day is filled with frustration that your internet is seriously letting you down.
If this sounds like something you’re experiencing in your home office, you should immediately seek a better internet provider. One of the internet services providers in Utah will be able to offer you better rates, at better speeds, than you currently enjoy. And shopping around for better internet means that you’ll come to understand the average internet speed in your area – and what you might be able to do to get faster internet pumped into your home.
Sound Insulation
You may see sound insulation as the preserve of the bedroom DJ or the producer’s studio, but this is an important aspect of a home office that is often overlooked. Consider, for instance, the fact that each and every domestic sound in your home might be calling your attention – from your partner banging around in the kitchen through to the mailman calling at the door. Each time you’re distracted by these noises, your work suffers and your productivity dips.
Meanwhile, those with children naturally encounter even more disruptive noise, which is often hard to drown out or ignore. But there are ways to reduce the impact of noise on your home-working productivity. One is to purchase noise-canceling headphones or earphones, using them when you want to focus on important work. And the other is to install insulation in your walls, which will absorb sound and make your home office room quieter.
Better Equipment
Many of us slipped into home working because of the pandemic, and used an ad hoc arrangement of hardware and furniture to make that experience as comfortable as possible. Despite those changes taking place two years ago, many people are yet to update or upgrade how they work and what they use to work from home – with poor consequences for their productivity.
To be truly productive at home, you’ll need a comfortable desk chair and a desk that’s positioned at the right height for you to comfortably work all day. You may benefit from a second monitor, seeing as a second screen has been proven to increase productivity in the workplace. And you should be willing to invest in ergonomic features that can help you work faster, like wrist rests for writing on your laptop, or a laptop stand for when you’d rather work standing up.
Timings
Timings are also important from home, and can work differently from your experience in the office. There are likely some moments in the day when you are expected by your managers to be working. But there may well be others where you could take a break or stop working for a couple of hours altogether. What’s important is that you’re completing the work you’re assigned – and you can do that during any hours of the day you feel you’re most productive in.
For instance, you may feel that you’re very productive early in the morning, which might lead you to clock in at 6am and complete three hard-working hours before most of your colleagues arrive online at 9am. That extra-hard three hours can be offset in rest time, breaks or an early clock-off later in the day. Work when you’re most productive, and give yourself breaks to rest your mind during the day, in order to perform better when you work from home.
Research
There are hundreds of productivity tips online, many of which are generalized for workers who are struggling to hit their productivity goals. These are also well worth taking a look at, as they’ll advise everything from changing the way you work to using different productivity apps to encourage you to work better, harder and smarter in the months ahead.
These tips will help you reach a new level of productivity while you’re working from home in the coming year, especially for working remotely with IT support.