How to Maintain Work Productivity While Working From Home

          Working from home during the current pandemic time could be challenging.  When you work at home, you might get easily distracted by your child since he or she needs to stay home under the “Shelter-in-Place” public order.  Your spouse or significant others might distract you for any kinds of house-related matters.  Your pet might need your attention when he or she needs to go potty.  Further, you might be tempted to turn on TV while you are working from home.  News from media could possibly divert your attention away from the project that you are working on.  In order to maintain high productivity, self-discipline becomes particularly paramount for people working from home during this pandemic time.  How can we establish self-discipline when we work at home? Here come some tips:

1. Set your boundary with your child.  Let your love ones realize that you are fully occupied while you are working at home and he or she must respect your time devotion to work.  Inform your child that he or she should not distract you while you are working unless there are emergencies.
 

2. Set your daily schedule.  Plan your day prior to the time it begins.  For example, if your work hours begin from 9am and ends at 5pm, write down the tasks that must be perform in each smaller work sessions. 

3. Stay away from both social media and other kinds of unnecessary news media.  Many workers logged into their social media accounts at the same time they are working on their company projects.  Social media could be one of the biggest antagonisms to work productivity.  Although maintaining social connection is crucial while working from home, many conversations and activities under social media platforms are not work-related.  Therefore, you should limit your time on social media platforms or even completely neglect them until break times or so.  Yet, I would not recommend using your break times to conduct social media activities and replace them with stretching out your bodies. 

4. If you have a pet and he or she always need your attention, it might be a good idea to spend some time playing with him or her before your work day begins.  This can help consume his or her energy such that he or she would rest while you are working at home. 

5. Maintain a quiet work environment.  Although some people like to listen to music while working, it could be distracting.  When people work at home, they might not even use ear plug or headset because they have their own privacy.  This could negatively impact their attention.  Also, you should not turn on TV while you are working at home because it creates too much distraction. 

6. Never work on a sofa with a laptop computer.  A sofa is too comfortable and people tend to work on a sofa in a home-based work environment.  Working on a sofa can easily make you feel sleepy and jeopardizes productivity. 

7. Remove personal documents and objects from your desk in order to optimize work space.  When work space is under constraint, productivity sacrifices. 

Bottom line: Home office productivity has a close relationship with how the work schedule and work environment are planned in advance.  Communication with family members is also critical in the success of a home-based office.