Anyone else feeling that? The petering out of the January jollies, when one cup of coffee just isn’t cutting it? The February Fizzle is upon us and we need some tips to stay productive at work, whether from the office, home or anywhere in between. So grab yourself a cup and settle into this 2 minute procrastination, where we’ll share with you our tips to stay productive at work.
Create a schedule, and stick to it
It’s tempting to always be “on” when working from home. There are few tangible things to create boundaries, like leaving an office. Create a schedule to help you set timeframes in which to achieve things and stave procrastination temptations. Setting a schedule also allows you to schedule in breaks. Taking frequent and purposeful breaks throughout the day gives your brain time to rest.
A study conducted by the Draugiem Group discovered that the ideal work to rest ratio was 52 minutes of work, to 17 minutes of rest. Those that stuck to this schedule showed a much higher level of productivity than those spontaneously, or erratically “just quickly checking Facebook”.
So often we feel guilty about taking breaks, as it feels like we’re being unproductive. But giving your body and mind the help it needs to perform at its peak is the best thing you can do for it.
And we don’t need to feel bad for doing so. Using a calendar or schedule tool to be transparent about your Out Of Office times helps your team work around that. Perhaps, as a manager you could even have synchronised rest times for your team throughout the day to utilise deep-work periods.
Workers should never be made to feel bad about taking reasonable time away from their screens. Harnessing purposeful rest is a great tip for teams to stay productive when working from home.
Team build
Whether your team is in office, hybrid or remote, having a connection with your colleagues can make a world of difference to productivity. The work-life balance framework is somewhat outdated as work and “life” are completely intertwined. If you’re miserable in one, it’s hard to stay productive in the other. Fostering real connection, respect and trust in your team is a key way to ensuring your staff actually care about what they’re doing. You don’t have to be doing world-changing work to have a sense of purpose. Tapping into everyone’s reason and purpose for showing up every day will ensure they keep doing so. For many workers, their paycheque is the primary reason for clicking that ‘on’ button every morning – and that’s entirely valid. Without healthy working relationships, there’s nothing stopping them from clicking ‘on’ for someone else.
And remember, be inclusive – running a mix of in-person, hybrid and virtual events will make everyone feel welcome (and helps with your budgets too)!
Stay Accountable
As more businesses went online, managers turned micro-managers and employees turned to former employees. Accountability is not micro-management – it’s giving people power and purpose to manage their own times and deadlines.
Many successful hybrid teams use daily 15-minute check-ins to run through their days and flag any issues. This helps build team spirit and keep the team accountable for any projects. Nobody wants their screen time tracked or having to be accountable for every minute of the day. Everyone has different working speeds and styles. Ensuring everyone works synchronously simply does not make sense. Having teams work to goals, not minutes is a far better way to achieve high quality work.
This also shifts the framework of work from 8 hours a day, to high quality work produced in my own time. At the end of the day, it simply doesn’t matter how many hours an employee puts in – what matters is quality, retention and passion.
Other teams may have weekly mental health check-ins or training sessions. These could be used for your own team to share their tips to stay productive at work.
With these tips to stay productive at work we hope to get teams working better, wherever. Our vision is for employees and businesses to be thriving by finding ways of working that suit your time, budget and needs. Whether you want hybrid work, part-time, freelance or the security of a full time role – we’ve got it. Register today on Nomad Now and work better, wherever.
