The concept of working from home (WFH) is no longer as foreign as it used to be. The amazing benefits it has on both employer and employee alike ensure this trend will grow strong long into the future. While more industries may be subscribing to the remote work paradigm, most people still don’t know much about this concept. This is why having a good knowledge of remote work best practices is important, especially if you’re looking to build a work-life balance for yourself or your family.
Speaking from my seven years of WFH experience (I work in cafes most days, by the way), having a clear idea of what to and not to do can significantly boost your remote work performance.
And beyond learning how to navigate remote work distractions, you also need to know the best remote work tools to survive. Otherwise, you’ll risk burning out in the long run.
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- Remote Work And Why It's So Popular
- Focus and Productivity At Home – Every Remote Worker's Biggest Challenge
- Why Is A Distraction-Free Work Environment So Important To Remote Workers?
- 1. Setting Up A Comfortable Dedicated Workspace
- 2. Cultivating The Best Remote Work Routine
- 3. Putting Digital Distractions In Your Rearview
- 4. Optimizing Clear And Effective Communication
- 5. Cultivating Self-Discipline And Efficient Time Management
- 6. Establishing Clear Boundaries
- 7. Cultivating The Best Remote Work Wellness Strategies
- Applying remote work best practices For Work-life Balance
- Popular Questions About Remote Work Best Practices
Through trials, errors, and wasteful monies invested in a few now-defunct SaaS or tools, here are some instruments and ways to ensure you deliver sterling work (and best self!) in the most practical time frame:
Remote Work And Why It’s So Popular
While there are several ways that it can be perceived, remote work is essentially any type of work that isn’t carried out in the conventional work environment. Working from home is based on the principle that employees needn’t commute to an office daily to execute their respective tasks.
Although remote work has been alive in one form or the other for decades, it has gotten popular only fairly recently.
Some of the reasons this form of work has gained so much traction include the fact that:
- It affords employees a lot of flexibility
- It saves costs for both employer and employee
- It makes it easier for businesses to access the services of top professionals regardless of geographic location
- It saves time for employees
- It significantly reduces incidents of absenteeism
- It considerably enhances productivity
Focus and Productivity At Home – Every Remote Worker’s Biggest Challenge
Is working from home great? Absolutely!
Does this mean it doesn’t come without its drawbacks? Certainly not!
Joining the remote work wagon fresh off, you’re bound to encounter a few hiccups. Arguably the biggest of these is maintaining remote work focus and productivity. Remote work performance drops if you can’t focus well when working offsite.
To be sure, even when you have remote work best practices to rely on, staying focused when working from home can still be pretty tough.
As such, in addition to learning how to properly manage remote work distractions, you must discipline yourself enough to follow through with your decisions. Of course, this isn’t a mission you can complete alone.
This is why I’ll cover the best practices, tips, and tools to help make working from home a walkover for you.
Why Is A Distraction-Free Work Environment So Important To Remote Workers?
Learning how to evade remote work distractions can’t be underestimated because this practice isn’t only vital for maintaining an optimal work-life balance and ensuring that your remote work performance doesn’t hit rock bottom.
So how do you stay focused and achieve a distraction-free work environment?
It all starts with being deliberate with setting up your workspace, establishing the right boundaries, and knowing when to take breaks.
Below are some of the best remote work wellness strategies and tools that have helped me find order in the chaotic world of working from home.
1. Setting Up A Comfortable Dedicated Workspace
Working remotely can be as simple as picking up your laptop in bed while sipping coffee. However, can you stay focused when you work like this?
If you can, that’s great for you!
But most of us must set the right mood to get real work done; our remote work performance depends on it.
So, your first task when working from home is establishing a dedicated workspace.
Why Every Remote Worker Needs A Dedicated Workspace
The first step towards doing exemplary work when you operate offsite is having a space where you can work freely. This factor can’t be underestimated because it can be crucial in the grand scheme of things.
Some merits of carving out such a space for yourself include instilling a much-needed sense of discipline, enhancing your work-life balance, helping with overcoming remote work isolation, and effectively reducing remote work distractions.
My Favorite Tools For Setting Up The Perfect Remote Office
A couple of tools I relied on to get me set up here include:
- The FelixKing Office Chair
- The Monomi Electric Standing Chair
- Fesbos Lateral File Cabinet
- Pzloz LED Desk Lamp
| The Complete Guide To Creating The Ideal Home Office |
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Several things go into getting your ideal home office up and running. These include: Pick The Right Spot The nature of your work will usually have a significant bearing on your workspace. So, carefully look around your home to pick the best spot to meet your needs. Consider The Comfort Factor Ergonomics plays a vital role here, too. After all, it stands to reason that you would have a harder time focusing on the work at hand if your chair wasn’t comfortable enough or your monitor didn’t sit on your desk just right. All of this is to say that you need to invest in the right furniture for the best work experience here. Assembling The Right Resources Like at work, you must ensure access to the necessary tools and supplies to ply your trade from home. So, compile a checklist of the resources you typically need and ensure that you invest in top-quality items. Cut Down Remote Work Distractions The elements that eat away at your remote work focus come in various forms. As such, you need to make a conscious effort to identify the ones specific to your workspace. For example, for me, it was my dog, Goldy. She’d always find a way to drag my attention when it was time to work. So as much as I love playing with her, I need boundaries and find ways to keep her occupied. For others, their distractions might be the television or even the kids. Once you’ve identified your primary distractions, you only need to employ the right strategies to fix them. |
2. Cultivating The Best Remote Work Routine
Creating a remote work routine is easy. Creating a remote work routine that increases efficiency and enhances time management is a different thing entirely.
And, while it’s true that you may enjoy your work time more if you don’t add any structure to it, you may find that your efforts may not yield satisfactory results that way.
Why Having A Structured Routine Is Always Better
Knowing exactly what you plan to do with your day has several payoffs. These include:
- Helping you remove the element of unpredictability from your work schedule
- Affording you a greater sense of self-control over how you work
- Helping you get the most out of remote work wellness strategies
The best part of it all is that this process isn’t too difficult to put in place.
As Rachel Goldman (Ph.D.) said, “A good place to start creating a new routine is to set wake-up and bedtimes, as well as meal and activity times.” To add on, instill these activities consistently for 21 days. Because it takes roughly 21 days to form a habit, and 90 days to make it permanent.
You can use apps to remind you when it’s time to perform a task. Todoist always works for me.
With this, you’ll find that you’ll have a stronger influence over your time and the results you get with its use.
My Favorite Tools For Cultivating The Best Remote Work Routine
I’ve got a super long list of tools here. My top picks include:
- Clockify – For tracking time management
- Evernote – For enhancing productivity
- Fireflies – For managing calls and other correspondence
- Headspace – For monitoring emotional awareness and productivity
- Monday – For project management
3. Putting Digital Distractions In Your Rearview
In my experience, few remote work distractions are more deadly than digital ones because these distractions are almost always in the background.
You must know how to deal with these challenges effectively to control your time and maintain remote work focus by:
Taking Charge Of Your Alerts And Notifications
When focusing on work alone, you may have little control over your attention span. However, with time and practice, you can manage your attention using these methods:
- For those whose digital distractions mostly come from their mobile devices, you can leave the phone out of earshot while you work. Alternatively, you can mute all notifications or put the device on flight mode.
- If these measures are too extreme, you can consider carefully adjusting your device’s settings so it matches your work lifestyle.
Leveraging Productivity Tools
Because digital distractions are a common problem, there are several tools that you can take advantage of to help you deal with this challenge.
Building A Priority List And Setting Milestones
Work is work, and it all has to be done. So, at first glance, there usually seems to be no reason to prioritize certain tasks. But, in some cases, you may have to complete specific tasks or projects faster than others. In such instances, you need to order your priorities.
Having a priority list and setting realistic milestones encourages you to stay on task more readily and not leave room for distractions.
Finding The Ideal Time Management Technique For You
The longer you work at a stretch in a remote job, the more you risk jeopardizing your work performance. Scientifically proven, humans’ focus usually drops after an hour, and it becomes increasingly challenging to maintain your focus for long periods. The moment your attention slips, distractions bounce.
Thankfully, there are a host of time management techniques that you can employ to effectively keep yourself on task. You just need to find the one that best suits your needs. Otherwise, working remotely based on your time zone and chronotype might be a better alternative to boost your time management and productivity.
My Favorite Tools For Managing Digital Distractions
These include:
4. Optimizing Clear And Effective Communication
Even in the traditional workspace paradigm, proper and effective communication is necessary. The importance of this resource is exponentially increased when it comes to telecommuting.
So, how do you ensure you avoid getting signals crossed when you work from home? You can start by:
Choosing The Ideal Communication Tool(s)
- Do you need immediate feedback when you communicate?
- How confidential is the information you’ll be sharing?
- How urgent will your communications be?
- Would there be team meetings?
- Would you prefer a written record of your communications?
All of the above are important questions you should answer to pick communication remote work tools that’ll meet your needs.
Understanding Your Role With Colleagues And Supervisors
Most of the best remote work wellness strategies out there rely on knowing exactly what your supervisors and colleagues expect from you. When the parameters of your responsibilities are properly communicated, you’re put at less risk of overworking yourself or not meeting up to expectations.
Leveraging the Various Features of Active Listening
It’s surprisingly easy to miscommunicate when active listening isn’t practiced. Active listening can greatly bridge the communication chasm between remote workers and their employers.
When maximized to its fullest potential, it fosters better team collaborations, deepens the understanding between colleagues, and even makes project executions considerably smoother.
Design Routine Check-ins And Virtual Meetings
One of the most efficient ways to ensure everyone stays on task is to have a fixed routine check-in schedule. With this in place, it’ll be much easier to keep tabs on everyone and catch slip-ups before they do too much damage.
Similarly, scheduling regular virtual meetings is a great way to maintain team spirit and even help with overcoming remote work isolation.
My Favorite Tools For Optimizing Effective Communication
Some of my go-to remote work tools in this department include:
- Slack and Twist – For chatting and immediate response communication
- Basecamp and Trello – For team project management
- Miro and Google Doc – For collaboration
- Loom and Bandicam – For screen recording and video messaging
5. Cultivating Self-Discipline And Efficient Time Management
As I mentioned earlier, knowing all the remote work best practices in the world won’t do you any good if you don’t complement that knowledge with self-discipline. Proper time management is also quite important here as it considerably promotes your remote work performance.
Some of the things you can do to build that much-needed level of discipline include:
Pick A Deadline And Stick To It
Working from home has a way of stripping most tasks of any real sense of urgency, so it’s sometimes difficult to stay focused on the task at hand. But, when you pick a deadline and compel yourself to take it seriously, you have a productive outlet to channel your energy and efforts.
Thanks to this, you may be able to improve your work output.
Learn How To Divide And Conquer
Does the list of things you must do usually seem long and daunting?
Why not try to break those tasks into smaller, more manageable bits before having a go at them?
The simple fact is that once sufficiently broken down into segments; most projects become much easier to manage. You can also enhance your task completion time with this approach.
Avoid The Multitasking Pitfall
Not too long ago, most employers didn’t deem you worth the money if you didn’t know how to multitask. Today, we know better, so we understand that multitasking often ends in substandard results.
In addition to learning not to split your remote work focus this way, you should also pick up the habit of finishing one task at a time before moving to the next. You get more done more efficiently at the end of the day.
Unleash The Power Of Self-Accountability
Self-Accountability simply refers to the art of disciplining yourself towards chasing and achieving your goals. There are several habits you can pick up to develop this indispensable trait.
You can start by having a clear goal, deciding on the best route to achieving that goal, and then consciously planning toward that end.
My Favorite Tools For Developing Self-Accountability
Some of the best tools I’ve relied on over the years include EverAccountable and Bark.
6. Establishing Clear Boundaries
Creating clear and definitive boundaries with those around you is just as important when working remotely as it is when you’re working in a traditional office space. In many ways, it can be rather challenging to establish such boundaries when you work from home.
Because you (in most cases) have an emotional connection with the people in question, it might be a little more difficult to say and enforce what you mean. Yet, without doing this, you may be at the mercy of endless remote work distractions.
You can make your remote workspace more hospitable for you by:
Letting Your Family Members or Housemates Understand The Situation
Achieving optimal remote work focus can be as simple as having a sit-down with those around your space and helping them understand your position. Make it clear that your physical presence doesn’t signal ready availability.
If need be, work out a schedule with them. Having a schedule will clarify what portion of your time is sacrosanct for work and what portion you can spare for other activities.
Eliminate Needless Interruptions
Several elements must work in concert to successfully ward off interruptions while you work. One of the first things you must attend to along these lines is establishing your “Available” and “Unavailable” times.
Another thing you have to master is the basics of how to say “No.” Just because you say you won’t be free at certain times doesn’t mean those around you will automatically fall in line. If and when they do come around with an interruption that could be avoided, you must be vehement in rejecting it.
Also, you need to know how to make your tech work for, not against, you, including leveraging the right remote work tools and configuring your tech devices’ settings so that constant notifications and alerts don’t eat at your concentration.
Consider Using noise-Canceling Headphones
For most people, it’s easier to get and stay focused without background noise. There are any number of noise-cancellation devices and quality headphones that you can get to help you block out the world and really zero in on your work.
My Favorite Tools For Creating Clear Boundaries
Some of the tools I rely on the most for establishing control when I work include:
7. Cultivating The Best Remote Work Wellness Strategies
Finally, you must know that there’s a place for consciously attending to your mental and physical health, and self-care should be high on your list of priorities because you can’t do your best work if you don’t feel good. Some of the best ways to keep yourself in tip-top shape while working remotely include:
Paying Attention To Your Mental Health
Remote work is one of the most common causes of burnout among employees. So if you’ve not been giving your mental health the attention it deserves, there’s no better time than the present to change your ways!
A couple of things you can do down that road include:
- Avoid developing a sedentary lifestyle
- Eat a healthy, balanced diet
- Make sure you sleep well
- Find the time to mingle and connect with others
Find a Passion Project
Putting yourself first is key to ensuring that your remote work performance remains right up there with the best of them.
Make Physical Exercises A Habit
It’s usually tempting to stay at home and not move around too much, especially when the Internet makes food catering and delivery all too easy and accessible. Everything you need in proximity is available to you.
But when you dispense with workouts, some adverse effects to expect are lethargy, reduced immune system functionality, and a wide range of other health issues.
Developing an exercise routine isn’t as hard as you think, so you can protect yourself here.
You just need to find the right time of the day for your exercise sessions, pick the most convenient form of exercising for you and ensure that you stay committed to that routine.
Find Your Ideal Mindfulness and Stress Management Technique
Overcoming remote work isolation is less of a destination and more of a process. And, to achieve the best mindset for working offsite, there are several remote work wellness strategies that you can employ.
That being established, not all of these strategies will yield the best results. You must pick one that fits perfectly into your lifestyle to maximize this resource. The best pointers you can follow when looking for remote work wellness strategies that work include considering the following:
- Your immediate and long-term needs
- The time commitment factor
- The cost of the program
- What you hope to achieve from the program
- Other relevant logistics
My Favorite Tools For Ensuring Remote Work Wellness
A few of the remote work tools I rely on to ensure a better work-life balance include:
- Momento – For journaling
- Fit Body – For exercise routines
- Buddhify – For guided meditation sessions
- MoodMission – For helping manage emotional stress
Applying remote work best practices For Work-life Balance
A serene and accommodating environment is often necessary for most offsite workers to realize their potential.
A few remote work best practices that you can employ to achieve this include:
- Carving out a space specifically for work activities
- Ensuring that you have a defined routine for completing tasks
- Skillfully avoiding remote work distractions,
- Leveraging the right remote work tools, and of course,
- Remote work wellness strategies.
In saying this, know that creating the perfect remote work environment won’t happen overnight.
You’ll probably have a few misses before finally hitting that sweet spot.
So, don’t be afraid to experiment with your remote work setting. Try out new things and discover what does and doesn’t work for you.
Ultimately, you’ll be glad you took the time to do so!
Popular Questions About Remote Work Best Practices
What Are Remote Work Best Practices?
Remote work best practices simply refer to habits that professionals outside the conventional workplace adopt to enhance the quality of their output.
Do Habits Affect Remote Work Performance?
Yes, habits have a strong effect on remote work performance. As these habits predominantly guide our actions, they strongly influence our remote work focus and, through this, remote work performance.
What’s The Best Way To Create An Ideal Remote Work Environment?
The best way to create an ideal remote work environment is by adopting the right remote work wellness strategies, using the appropriate remote work tools, and learning the best tips for avoiding remote work distractions. Not only is it useful in enhancing your professional growth, but it’ll also help overcome remote work isolation and loneliness.
Is It Possible To Stay Focused When Working Remotely?
Yes, it is possible to stay focused when working remotely. However, the principle is knowing what your primary remote work distractions are. When you have identified these elements, you can develop the best strategies to deal with them effectively.
Several remote work tools can also be channeled to help maintain your remote work focus here. Some of these resources include Todoist and RescueTime.
What Are The Most Important Elements For Working Successfully Remotely?
Trust, transparency, and proper time management are the most important elements for working successfully remotely. Remote workers can function at the highest level possible when these three elements are guaranteed.
Most importantly, when applying for remote jobs–look out for company red flags and empty promises. One of the tips is to avoid working for companies that state remote work as part of its “perks,” where it should be an employee’s right, not a privilege.
Look at the company’s culture, and if they’re diverse and situated worldwide, you’re good to go. Otherwise, it’s hard to function in a workplace that doesn’t champion the remote work movement.
So here are a few tips that came off the top of my head. Let me know in the comment section if you have any questions.
