How to be more effective working remotely.

[Davidvictorson]

I have a love-hate relationship with working from home. Some of the lessons I have learned while working remotely:

• Working from remotely won't increase your productivity more than working in an office will.
• Micromanaging continues even if your employer permits you to work remotely.
• Working remotely might sometimes make you lonely, especially if you're a single person.

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[uneng]

Thanks for the tips, I really appreciated them. Daily life is so busy and there so many thoughts and worries in our minds that we actually don't stop to think about these points presented on this thread, but they are very important for a healthy and productive working duty. Many remote workers are harming their health by not having a balanced routine of work, rest and leisure. Since they setup their own workload and schedules, it's common they don't follow a routine, consequently not following lunch time, dinner time, sleep time. Many also swap the day for the night and lose communication with outside world.

In the present moment it seems harmless, but on long run it can bring serious physical and psychological consequences for these individuals. Modernity and technology are very good and make our lives easier and more confortable, however, they can also trigger diseases in our brain, such as anxiety, sleep deprivation, irritability, visual impairment and so on...

[Cryptomultiplier]

The office is different from home. If you are an artisan and you use your home as an office you will observe that you will be slow and not productive in it. There is a reason that office is for work and the home is for living. You don't miss pleasure with work and that is why some offices don't allow couples to work in the same job, office or branch depending on the company's policy because of certain delays. It is not going to bring efficiency enough when you are working from home.

Well-spoken. It requires a lot of mental, physical, and emotional discipline to be able to even manage to work efficiently from home. If one lives in a place with noisy neighbors with kids running around, especially during the holiday season, it can hamper the productivity of working from home.  If one also lives in a place that is not spacious enough, in that the workstation and bed overlook each other, it might be quite distracting.
 Offices, on the other hand, offer one a community of like-minded persons who understand the complexities of your work, and having to leave work at work only to come home to relax, be with family, and plan better, is number one on the pecking order.
To be more effective working remotely, one has to ensure that the workspace is far from the bed space. Also, one has to learn to adopt management skills for time efficiency, health care, and resource consumption.
Furthermore, balancing the scale between social outtings, exercise, other forms of leisure and your work, should be of paramount importance.

[el kaka22]

The tiredness part is the key part where it's going to hurt you in the long run. If you are working from home like me, and if you have a terrible sleep schedule, then you are going to be tired a lot of the times. Plus, we are talking about sitting down on your chair for many hours, there isn't a traffic, there isn't a commute, there isn't even a reason to get up when it's over.

Sometimes I wake up at 8 am, sit down o my chair, work until 5-6 pm, and then I just keep playing games on my PC until midnight, that means we are talking about 16 hours without getting up aside from getting food or toilet breaks. You need to fix that, every hour, go up for 10-15 minutes and walk around in your home, that will do wonders to your body and you will not be as tired, plus drink a lot of water, I mean like 2+ liters of water every day, combine these two and you will do fine.

[BIT-BENDER]

Working from your own comfort be it your home or a favorite park, basement or anywhere you find comfortable the main reason was so you may find it less complicated and easy for you, but you should know that is you don't have good knowledge or skill of what you are doing where you working from office or your comfort zone you won't be efficient at that work.
The first step is actually try to be a skilled worker in your field that's consistently improving especially when trying to work away from the office. The less formalities and less skill co workers to ask for assistance poses a barrier.

If you can be good at your work and you have good professional disciplines I don't think you need a text book directing you how to work from your own comfort zone.

[Leviathan.007]

I can explain this as someone who is correctly working remotely, there are many benefits for both the company and the employee when they start working remotely for the company they won't need to pay for a big office and pay for the things like coffee and providing computers and devices to the employees so they will take some financial benefits from it but since the employees are not in the company sometimes it's hard to monitor them and take them under control while for the employees they can work from home without of paying money for gas or taxi also they fell more comfortable and usually, they can have fixable working times. I guess time after time we will see more companies starting remote jobs.

[Furious 7]

as far as i have experienced it is very difficult to be productive by working from home .. there are reasons to procrastinate work which makes it very difficult for us to be productive .. not to mention the many distractions from home and the difficulty of concentrating due to the environment ... i totally agree that looking for the right environment will really help us to be focused and productive

For concentration, maybe this depends on your home environment, but when I say delaying this work, I also feel because I don't know why this always happens and I think this can still be done quickly so there is no need to rush it.
Even if you want to change it, it's still difficult because it keeps happening like that even though there are often deadlines when doing this, but the bad habit of procrastinating like this continues.

[yhiaali3]

I have experience working remotely, I left the job I used to work in the past and devote myself to working remotely, sometimes I feel bored, bored and lonely because my wife is an employee who goes to work and the children go to school, also the presence of children next to you sometimes causes you harassment because of their annoying activity, From time to time I try to quit work and go visit friends to change the routine that has bored me. But despite all that, I found working remotely better than working in a full-time job.

[Fortify]

Working remotely is now a common thing, and some persons may quickly choose that option of work if offered by a company. Working remotely can become as hectic even more as working in the office if care is not taken. Before sharing tips on how to effectively manage working remotely, some major disadvantages and problems this can cause are;

Distractions and lack of boundaries
Many people work from home because they want more time to spend on their hobbies or with their family. But the lack of a concrete boundary between work and home can lead to distractions such as interruptions by the kids or doing domestic chores during work time.
Knowing when to stop
As a remote worker, it can be difficult to know when to unplug and stop working, making work feel never-ending. In one study, 39% of remote workers reported working longer hours than they were supposed to.
Loneliness and isolation

To effectively combat those issues, here are some tips;

Find the right space
Whether it’s a room in your home, a shared workspace, or a favorite coffee shop, the environment matters when working remotely. Make sure temperature and noise levels are comfortable for you, you have plenty of space for your equipment, and it’s somewhere you’re not likely to be disturbed. Look for areas that offer natural light to help you feel energized.
Set a schedule
Working remotely often means more flexibility – so you might have more choice about when you do your tasks. But while this can be a very good thing, you might find that not having such strict deadlines means work bleeds into other areas of your life, which can be stressful. So it’s important to set yourself a schedule and stick to it as much as you can.
Get dressed
No, seriously. It may be tempting to work in your pajamas, but it won’t make you feel professional. And it’s not a good look on a video call. Clothes influence our mood and emotions, so wear something that makes you feel motivated, professional and confident. Getting dressed for work will also help you mark the distinction between work and home life, helping you switch off when the working day is over.
Plan breaks
With no prompts to take lunch and coffee breaks, remote workers can find whole days passing in front of a screen. Taking a break is energizing, especially if you can get outside, so set yourself a schedule and make sure every day features at least a walk around the block. If it’s not possible to go out, get some activity going indoors.
Communicate, communicate, communicate
Working remotely requires more communication – not less. Use instant messaging and group chat to stay in the loop with colleagues and projects, video call into meetings, and above all, check in with colleagues and managers.

That is so pretty solid advice on how to be more productive at home. Some people are able to do it better than others, some people think they can do it successfully but in reality they are underperforming compared to working in a more communal setting and others are just downright lazy who will use it as an excuse to avoid doing real work. Personally I feel a lot more productive going into work every day and having that separation, where you can leave the office after doing your hours, go home and switch off from work. If you're stuck in the same environment all day it can get rather depressing and you may end up losing track of hours.

[batang_bitcoin]

Staying on my room with an AC is more enough to start. No distractions, no noise and I'm like in a cave of a modern man.

People have been complaining about being less effective working from home than being in the office. I quite do understand that it was because of the environment and sometimes working from home has many disturbances that will affect our job and performance. I'd see the calm environment in the office and also all the things we needed are there. Well, maybe it was a sort of adoption to the new place and time adjustment which is a little bit challenging but I know it was still manageable.

I understand those that have told that and it's normal to say that while doing a new setup. But they'll realize it sooner or later if they want to go back in the office, dealing with daily traffic and commute. That's a lot of hassle to face with just to be productive as they say.

[electronicash]

get dressed is the least i expect to read as a tip for online workers. but this is applicable if the video conference is required in the job. if you are however just going to do and achieve milestones everyday, you wouldn't mind what you wear while working as long as you can complete you job.

the working remotely trend however is not going to build a strong team of workers and companies are also hesitant to share data to their employees which they could freely give to anyone if they have access at home.

[Hydrogen]

The most effective remote work practices I have seen. Were freelance programmers accepting contract work. Outsourcing the job to reduced wage coders in india or china. Only needing to examine the code base daily to make certain the project was on track. Offshoring and outsourcing work to independent contractors on platforms like amazon turk seems like a good to go practice for remote workers. In addition to outsourcing work to freelancers in other countries who might be willing to work at reduced rates.

Automating processes is also a good practice. As is learning keyboard shortcuts. Using macros when needed. Etc.

Moving to a more rural location. Or becoming a digital nomad who immigrates to a foreign country where the cost of living is reduced. Might also be aspects that contribute towards being a more effective remote employee.

[Oilacris]

get dressed is the least i expect to read as a tip for online workers. but this is applicable if the video conference is required in the job. if you are however just going to do and achieve milestones everyday, you wouldn't mind what you wear while working as long as you can complete you job.

the working remotely trend however is not going to build a strong team of workers and companies are also hesitant to share data to their employees which they could freely give to anyone if they have access at home.

Of course, companies are totally aware of those risk where access on information shouldnt really be in 100% and they arent that dumb on doing that unless if they had some workers
that had been on the company in service for long time then there might be some exemptions.
Most of the time to those who do work remotely and doesnt really need to have those conference or turned on camera most of the time then it wouldnt really be
requiring on getting dressed.
Its true that having some work inside your home does really give out that boredom but i could honestly live with it. 

[Fara Chan]

There are still struggles that working-from-home employees are experiencing. But for me, the comfortability that we could experience through working from home should be enough motivation for us to strive for better. Having a comfortable working area where we could do our jobs and tasks comfortably would be a good idea. Having enough rest and sleep for us to be productive during our working hours is also an advantage. We should also enjoy the job that we're doing and also reward ourselves after long hours of a shift.

The work we do must have a level of comfort, this has an impact on our performance at work, time management, rest and having free time for family are also quite important parts.
Because work is not just making money, but there are many other things that we cannot ignore, while distance or close depends on where we have the opportunity to work, but basically both distances are not a big problem, when we are able to maximize and manage the right time.

[Reid]

I work remotely and I can say there is more distraction unlike when you are in office.
It's easy to say to plan everything but you just can't follow those effectively whenever you feel like you can do some work later.

Hardcore discipline is necessary if you are working from home. If you have kids, there will be time they will disturb you and you cannot just say no to them, everything had to be explained or else they will feel like they are not loved.
It's different from coming home from work and they greet you with joy.
The time for breakfast, lunch, and dinner are also changing if you are distracted.

[naira]

Find the right space
Whether it’s a room in your home, a shared workspace, or a favorite coffee shop, the environment matters when working remotely. Make sure temperature and noise levels are comfortable for you, you have plenty of space for your equipment, and it’s somewhere you’re not likely to be disturbed. Look for areas that offer natural light to help you feel energized.

Living alone on a rented house is becoming option for some remote workers now. Focusing to your work is really difficult to do at home because there are really some unwanted noise that you can't avoid from your neighbors or people living in the same house. Telling them to stop is not that easy because it will also make them uncomfortable at their own house.

This is what I have been doing for almost a year. People who work remotely, especially those who have to accept jobs that used to be offline, and greet coworkers, now have to get used to computers. Get in the habit of being productive with everything online. But maybe this is part of the preparation for a future where offline work is starting to dwindle and people are turning everything online. I decided to rent a rented house for a demanding job where a level of focus is required. Must be in a quiet atmosphere, without noise, and give us a little stimulus to concentrate more.

[michellee]

I think it will depend on how we can divide the time to work from home with time to do other activities. In today's era, where the pandemic has just hit almost all countries, companies require their workers to work from home, making them need to adjust their work rhythm with activities at home. Maybe the things that we must be considered are working hours at home may be freer because we can do other things while we work. But it can also make us unable to focus on office work, which can interfere with one of them.

And if we can manage time for work and family, I think we can stay focused on doing office work and maybe it can be even more effective if we do it at home because we can do it anytime. The results for each will be different, so we need to adjust the activities we do at home.

[lovesmayfamilis]

For me, working outside the home seems like a lot of trouble. It is necessary to wake up on time and allocate time to do makeup, then there are the road and traffic jams; and finally, communication with not always desirable people. 
Working from home, I belong only to myself. There is an opportunity to get enough sleep and do all the important and necessary things that my family needs, and only after that can I devote time to my work. I see it as complete freedom. What I need to do when the day is lacking, I can borrow from the night. But the work will get done anyway, and it won't make me a robot doing the same movements every day.

[ginsan]

Working remotely is the dream of many people no doubt many people want to get this opportunity but because it takes expertise in every field can sometimes hit them.

Now in the context of working remotely, it is very easy for someone to do, for example, he can work at home without having to go out and can also save expenses. Besides that, working remotely in the current era also allows someone to do other work because there is no set time for work. but you have to be ready when you get an assignment because working remotely is like 7x24 hours you have to be ready anytime when there are important things to do.

[Silberman]

I have been working remotely for past few month - it is the most difficult thing in my entire career.
The point you have mentioned it very valid - one should be properly dressed before the meeting and before the work - because it adds to your performance
I have noticed that when I work in my night suite I m more lazy but if I shower and change my dress  - I am. more active.

I suppose that it depends on your preferences, personally I find not having to commute or dressing up to be very refreshing, as I can perform my job very well regardless of what I'm wearing when I am working, but I can understand why some people may not like this and could prefer to dress up and follow the same routine they have followed for years on their regular job, even if it isn't absolutely necessary since they are working from home.