The current situation of COVID-19 has forced many companies to establish ‘home-office’ as their new way of working. Likewise, many companies, as well as their employees, have faced a challenge they were not prepared for. In this blog, we highlight some tips to achieve effectiveness while remote working and also some tools.
Tips for remote working with effectiveness
- Establish and respect your working day (and communicate it to the team)
- Start the day as if you were going to the office (shower, breakfast, clothing, …)
- Prepare your work area
- Preferable a view to a window
- Put everything in order (also the files on your computer)
- Closed door
- Guarantee some ventilation during the day
- Get the correct lighting
- Manage the temperature (preferably around 22 degrees Celsius)
- Eliminate distractions (turn off Smartphone notifications)
- Schedule your daily tasks (the day before) (see Pomodoro tool afterwards)
- Prioritize tasks
- Time per task
- Relaxation (meditation, yoga, mindfulness, social networking, virtual coffee, …)
- Focus on one topic at a time
- Perform more difficult tasks when you are more productive
- Connect with your team during the day
- Hold only indispensable, well-organized meetings
- Celebrate your own successes!
And in order to manage your activities during your working day we recommend the use of the POMODORO TECHNIQUE from Francesco Cirillo.
Basic Considerations
– Divide large projects or activities into small pieces
– The maximum duration of concentration (focus) is 25 minutes
- After each 25-minute unit = 5 minutes rest
- After 4 units (4×25 minutes) = 30 minutes rest
– Focus on a single issue pro 25 minutes-unit
What is needed?
- Paper
- Pen
- Timer
Operation
- Write down all future tasks
- Prioritize tasks
- Enter the tasks in the list according to the priority
- Estimate the number of pomodori per task (25min)
- Set the alarm clock to 25 minutes and you’re done.
- After 25 minutes –> 5 minutes of rest
- After 4 x 25 minutes –> 30 minutes rest
Another interesting method for the management of activities is the KANBAN METHOD
KANBAN is a based on the methodology ‘just in time’ that aims to improve and manage workflows, give transparency and visibility to the activities in front of the whole team. KANBAN allows to visualize in a simple way the progress of the different activities by classifying them in -minimally- 3 columns: ‘to do’, ‘doing’ and ‘done’.
Through the TRELLO application it is possible to use the KANBAN method online and collaboratively.
Other useful tools for managing your daily activities or the work with your team online are: To-Do, Evernote and OneNote
