As working from home rapidly becomes the new normal across the globe, many are struggling to adapt to this alternative work style and find the right balance. Online education experts, Crimson Education, have stepped in to assist, sharing key advice for those finding it hard to manage work and life amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Soraya Beheshti, Managing Director of Crimson Education’s MENA division has spent the last three years’ doing a lot of remote work. She admits that there are right ways to do it and wrong ways to do it, and that working from home can lead to lower productivity if people aren’t careful about the way they spend their time.
“In order to avoid the temptation of slacking off (or snacking off), I advise people invest in noise cancelling headphones, follow a simple routine, and really identify what works best from them”, she said.
Here are the five main tips Miss Beheshti has for employees, and anyone working from home, on how to stay productive during work:
1) Try Using a Pomodoro Timer
A pomodoro timer allows you to set targets for uninterrupted work followed by a short break. For instance, 25 or 55 minutes straight working followed by 5 minutes to get tea or check on the kids. You can find these timers free on Google.
2) Daily Stand Up Meetings
The daily stand up was a format of meetings started in the tech industry, which many remote teams have implemented to increase accountability. It is a short meeting at the beginning of each day that involves each member of the team stating 1) what they achieved the previous day; 2) what they are planning to achieve that day; and 3) what roadblocks are currently preventing their ability to achieve their objectives. Keep video on and let it be known that you won’t wait for latecomers, since this meeting should be brief and targeted.
3) Look Presentable
It sounds counterintuitive, but it is common to feel more productive if you get dressed and put some effort into looking, and therefore feeling, good. It doesn’t have to be a full face of makeup but at least continuing some semblance of the morning routine you had when going to the office has measurable impact on productivity, versus continuing to work in pyjamas all day. There’s a mental shift that happens because you feel good and you’ve gotten into ‘work mode’.
4) Find a Workspace
Try to carve out a workspace that helps you get in the zone and set your brain up for enhanced productivity — your brain gets spatially wired to think of the office as the place where work happens. People generally perform better when they create a desk or home office area that has good lighting, is tidy and is somewhat segmented away from the rest of the home environment. Convert a corner to your workspace, get some nice plants and a desk light and ensure people in the house will also be aware that when you’re in your ‘office space’.
5) Make the Flexibility Work for You
The idea of a 9-5, for some industries, may go out the window. While you want to have discipline and structure in some ways, like daily stand ups and accountability tools, use the flexibility to your advantage. If you’re in sales and your customers are available outside that window, use it to your advantage. If having a nap or workout in the middle of the day helps you focus, and your company is okay with this, then take it – but make up for the hours later. Some people are super productive at night and others work best in the mornings. If you can optimize for your own productivity, you may actually see an increase in productivity while working from home than when in the office.
Originally founded in 2013 in New Zealand, Crimson Education has arrived in the MENA region fairly recently and are strong advocates for online learning. Providing world-class support for students who aspire to attend the top universities around the world, their services include dedicated university admissions consulting, online schooling, extracurricular and leadership advising (delivered by Ivy League and Oxbridge based consultants), as well as academic tutoring.
In the last few years, Crimson Education has helped its students secure 270+ offers to the Ivy League, 100 to Oxbridge, 1,400 to the Top 50 US Universities and 600+ to the UK Top 10 universities, as well as US$65M in financial aid and scholarships.
For more information, please visit: https://www.crimsoneducation.org/ae-en
