Written by Coran Lui

How to stay productive when working from home

30th July, 2024   •  

Following the pandemic, though there have been continuous reports of organisations enforcing return to office policies, research shows that only 28% of UK businesses require their people to be in the office full time.

In fact, there are an equal number of organisations who require full time in the office vs no days in the office at all.

And those that have workplace flexibility report to have three times better work-life balance, a 29% increase in productivity and 53% improved ability to focus.

However, working from home can often lead to work-life boundaries being distorted, difficulties in collaborating with others on work and feeling more socially isolated.

In this blog, we share our five top tips to help you and your team work from home in a more productive way.

1. Plan your day

A common problem with working from home is that we can find it more difficult to prioritise our work.

We end up constantly switching between tasks, thinking we’re working faster and getting more done.

But actually, cognitive multitasking is impossible. Tasks inevitably end up taking longer and we lose valuable mental energy and become exhausted quicker.

We need to understand our own personal work rhythm and put in conscious effort to plan our day ahead of time, and use tools (such as our calendar to block out time) to hold ourselves accountable to sticking to our plan as best we can.

One helpful tool is the impact grid.

We can use the impact grid, either as an individual or as a team, to decide where to focus our time and energy. This is great to use to help align to priorities, which facilitate better decision-making.

Prioritise the easy and big wins, and try to batch our small wins.

We also want to be very intentional on what sits in the “drain” and whether we are the best person to be doing particular tasks.  By simply having a conversation with others, we can find that something we find draining, could be energising and a “small win” for someone else.

Another valuable strategy is to reduce our notifications.

It takes up to 15 minutes for us to get into deep focus, and whether we are aware or not, our attention and cognitive awareness gets taken away every time that small notification pops up in the corner of the screen (even if we don’t open it!).

For more on how to stay productive in a world of distractions, read our blog.

2. Communicate mindfully and with empathy 

This is a principle that extends far beyond the limitations of home working, yet is something we can often overlook. 

We may think that being on top of our tasks and objectives is sufficient to facilitate results and high performance. However, when we are not in the office, we lose valuable touchpoints to catch up and understand how (and what) other team members are doing. 

And when you add in the virtual meetings where half of the team have their cameras turned off, subtle methods of communication like body language and visual cues can suddenly create misalignment and misunderstandings. 

To avoid this, we want to be mindful of our communication, and collaborate with each other more effectively.

Here are some strategies to help with this:

• Be open about your successes, challenges, and opportunities you are looking forward to
• Encourage others to be open as well, to create a supportive environment where team members can lean on, and learn from each other
• Be empathetic – everyone will face unique challenges when working from home, be patient and give others time and space to share, and actively listen
• Be conscious of information overload – we want to communicate with clarity and transparency, while being mindful of what needs to be shared (and what medium we share our message in – is it best as an email, call, or as a virtual message?)
• During meetings, have your cameras on and encourage others to do so as well
• Let your team know your availability, and set reasonable boundaries to protect your personal time
• Coordinate with the team and try to find days where everyone can come into the office 

By doing this, we will be more likely to form a stronger, high performing team where team members trust and support each other.

3. Take effective breaks 

When we are working from home, work-life boundaries can end up blurred, and we can get caught up in trying to get things done quicker and earlier.

This means that even when we’re tired and struggling to come to a decision, we can tell ourselves to just push through and persevere.

But contrary to our usual habits, research shows that taking regular breaks and pausing work can actually help enhance brain function and help us stay focused for longer.

The takeaway? Be kind to yourself especially when things are busy, and consider whether you have built in gaps in your day to take breaks.

Our brains can immensely benefit from having short 5 minute breaks over the course of the day, whether it’s for a coffee, quick stretch, or conversation with a colleague, friend, or family member.

Social breaks can also be a great way to counter some of the disconnection we can feel when working from home.

It’s also important to be taking regular lunch breaks, and blocking this time in your calendar can help you remember to take them.

Read our blog on the science of breaks and how to take better ones.

4. Write down 3 positives

It can be hard to switch off when you are working at home. 

So just as we want to be creating some structure during our day, we want to develop a routine to signal to our brain that we can switch off.

At the end of the day tomorrow, try this: write down three things, big or small, that have gone well. 

Why? Research shows that spending five minutes every day practicing gratitude can increase your long-term well-being by more than 10 percent. 

That’s the same impact as having your income doubled. 

The reason why this works is that you are priming your brain to scan the world for the positives and this makes it easier and easier to find them over time…even on days which don’t go as well as you’d like. 

Not only can writing 3 positives help wrap up your day and allow you to switch off, it can also help you end the day with a sense of accomplishment, while building your positivity and resilience to help combat future challenging situations. 

At Higson, we have a dedicated chat channel to share our positives with each other – we never miss a day!

5. Build a healthier diet

When trying to improve our productivity, we can often think of how to improve our remote working setup (having sufficient lighting, having a comfortable chair, and a clutter-free workspace), or how to complete tasks more efficiently. 

We can end up discounting the importance of our general physical wellbeing when trying to become more productive at work.

Think about the lunch break mentioned earlier. Say you’ve blocked recurring time everyday to take an hour for lunch, which is a brilliant first step.

Next is assessing what we actually eat. Nutrition has a significant positive impact on our physical and mental health, which directly equates to productivity and cognitive performance.

Here’s a brief, simplified summary of why. 

Our body converts what we eat into glucose and energy, which fuels us and helps our brains stay alert. 

When we are low on glucose, we find it more difficult to stay focused and productive. However, our body does not process all foods at the same rate. Some foods (especially carbohydrates) like white rice, white bread, and sugar, release their glucose quickly, leading to a glucose spike followed by a slump. High fat foods give us more sustained energy but may boost certain digestion and metabolism-related hormones that cause tiredness. 

As for what we should do: decide ahead of time what you are going to eat during the day. 

If we leave our decision-making until lunchtime, when we are lower in energy and self-control, we are more likely to gravitate towards foods that give us more immediate energy, as they will appear more appetising.

This article shares interesting insights on how we can improve our diet, especially when working from home.

6. Review your downtime

Just like how we need to consume different foods for a healthy diet, we also need to be considering how we can give our mind more variety.

Think about your lunch breaks, evenings, and general downtime. How do you spend time when you are not actively engaged in work?

Studies on our neural pathways have found that there are seven activities that, when done in a way that you find enjoyable and sustainable, provide a well-balanced “mental diet” contributing to a healthy mind.

It is useful to acknowledge that although the time spent on each doesn’t have to be equal, it is important to have a mix of the seven activities.

To learn more about each activity in more detail, and to evaluate how important each activity is to you to find your own ideal mix, read our blog.

Key takeaways

1. Plan out your day, and set routines that help you manage your time, mood, and energy levels
2. Maintain clear and supportive communication, encourage openness, and create opportunities for collaboration and sharing
3. Assess your physical and mental diets, what could you be doing more of, or less of?

At Higson we help individuals, teams, and organisations stay positive and productive when working in different settings, so get in touch if you need any help for you or your team.