Teleworking has been the modality that saved the productivity of many companies that continued to operate thanks to the rapid design of improvised processes that allowed, and still allow, to provide the service contracted by their clients. This way of working from home seemed like a dream come true, but many have seen that this style is not as relaxed as it seems and that it generates as much or more stress than the commonly known style of face-to-face work.
The experience of working online reveals all the real challenges to overcome: distractions, isolation, interference typical of family life, multiple meetings through online platforms with the consequent fatigue and physical fatigue generated by the feeling that work does not have a start time and an end point, because people still in pajamas turn on the laptop and connect, read the emails that have arrived, interrupt to attend breakfast, return to work, distract to the children, someone comes and talks, collects everything that does not apply in a work situation and prepares for a teleconference, concludes the video meeting, lunch time, returns to the laptop, family, home, work and the night, falls exhausted until the next day when the same routine returns. This scheme may help to be productive but it is not healthy or sustainable.
It is necessary to transfer the efficient schemes of face-to-face work to the portable scheme of telework, those who have developed an effective schedule to manage time, with sequential tasks and logical productivity, have taken it home with them, but those who have not cultivated systematic organizational skills Aimed at achieving work goals, it has been more difficult for them to control the anxiety levels generated by the remote work style. Let us enjoy the autonomy and freedom that online work can give us and properly manage the social limitations that often arise.
Here are some guidelines to help you make the much-needed disconnection and preserve personal space within the teleworking scheme, while taking care of productivity and the sense of urgency that these times require.
- Locate a place to put your workstation at home, that place that others will know as the space you use to connect and perform your daily tasks.
- Establish a schedule for work, try to follow the daily routine that you had established: wake-up time, toilet time, breakfast and work schedule that you had assigned when you did your tasks in person. Don’t think that because of the time you save by not having to commute, you can stay in bed a little longer, for example.
- Prepare an agenda for the day, somewhere in the space chosen for your work station, list the specific tasks that you will have to do during the day, use a magnetic board or a writing board or simply use a post it. Start the day by doing the assignment that seems most difficult and the other tasks will slide into the day’s productivity.
- Schedule rest periods within the day, it is necessary to take breaks during the day, but choosing when to do it can be difficult. There are techniques that recommend time intervals to take a break (Energy Project, Pomodoro Technique), but timed breaks do not necessarily fit well, it is more advisable to pay attention to internal signals and take the break according to personal need.
- Take care of emails at intervals, being aware of the email inbox can be a distracting element, so it is advisable to have a periodic schedule to answer the emails that require it: at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the working day would be a good strategy.
- Conclude the workday, perhaps it is a symbolic conclusion, but it is important to close the work session at the end of the day, whether you say it to yourself: “I have finished working for today”, report it to those who live with you, put all the items related to work somewhere where they are not available and rest until the next day.
Not all jobs and teleworkers are the same, so there is no perfect strategy as the only option to manage time, with these strategies you can discover which ones best suit your style or which can be combined with others, the important thing is to enjoy what you do and create intervals of disconnection and closing of the workday to make way for personal space while ensuring productivity at work.