Working remotely can be a double-edged sword. You’ve got more freedom, yet it can be tempting to duck the work with no one around to judge you. But when done right, working remotely is an opportunity to boost your productivity while actually working fewer hours.
More and more global leaders in business are embracing the remote working revolution because they know how beneficial it can be when done right! Antoine Parisi, CEO of Europ Assistance Group, has even made the step to give up his office and have his management team do the same: "We sit in the open space with everybody and regularly telework from home or from where ever we are in the world! My office is my tablet."
Sound too good to be true? Here’s how you can do it too.
Go to work!
Working remotely means you can stay in bed and work in your underwear, right? Not if you want to have a super productive day!
Putting on actual clothes and going somewhere specific to work—whether it’s a home office or café—will get you into “work mode” and ready for a productive day.
Create first, analyze second
Start with your trickiest, most creative work to make the most of your ability to focus in the morning before your energy levels start to drop. Once you’ve got those one or two pieces of deep work done, move on to your more shallow admin tasks.
Focus
Multitasking is a myth. What feels like multitasking is simply switching between single tasks quickly, which comes at a cognitive cost that kills productivity. So focus on one thing at a time. Email is the biggest productivity killer of all, so limit how often you check it—try just once at lunchtime (after you’ve nailed that deep work) and once late afternoon.
To manage expectations and avoid missing emergencies, set up an auto-response to let people know if you are away from email. Adding your phone number to auto responses means people can always have a route to contact you if needed. Avoid social media and other digital distractions. If you don’t trust yourself, use an app like Freedom to temporarily block tempting sites and apps.
Stop working
To maximise productivity and quality, it’s important to recharge your batteries. So, set a time to stop working, stick to it, and avoid anything work-related after that to perform at your best when you're refreshed the next day!
If you can't work from home, check out our tips for making your commute as easy as possible!