By Hannah Whitesides, Retreat Leader & Fear Management Specialist for our Company Virtual Retreats

While remote employees and teams have many advantages, they also have challenges that they have to tackle by themselves. From my own experience, these challenges that I have experienced myself and still tend to struggle with on occasion. If you’re working from home and these resonate with you, you’re not alone. Many remote employees struggle with these as well.

In this blog, I will focus on 3 key challenges that remote employees face: plugging in and out of work, boosting productivity, and prioritizing work.  

Problem #1: Plugging into work & unplugging from work. 

Explanation: Oftentimes when people work from home, it’s difficult to separate your work environment from your home environment. This leads to our two environments infiltrating each other which generates a lack of productivity, motivation, and focus. 

Solution: There are many things you can do to separate your home and work space but you have to be dedicated to it or it won’t work. Here are 3 to get you started. 

1. Have a morning and evening routine, something you do everyday before work and something you do everyday immediately after work. This will send signals to your brain telling you when it’s time to get into work mode and when it’s time to get out of it. 

2. Have a designated work space, away from your bedroom and living area. Don’t have “home” items (like blankets, etc.) in your work space and don’t have “work” items (notebooks, portfolios, sticky notes, etc.) in your “home” space. 

3. Don’t work in your pajamas. Pajamas count as “home” items because they’re what you wear when you’re sleeping. In the morning, get out of bed and get dressed like you would if you were going to an office. You don’t have to dress business casual, but at least put on some jeans.

Problem #2: Boosting productivity 

Explanation: For many remote employees, being productive is often one of the biggest struggles. If you’re like me, I find it encouraging and motivating to do my work in an area where other people are working (for example, a library). When I am home alone working it is much easier for me to give up before I should or get distracted by something in my house. 

Solution: 

1. Humans tend to lose focus on a task within the first 20 minutes. Because of this, plan your work around short spurts so you’re not sitting in front of your computer twiddling your thumbs. 

2. Another thing you can do is avoid multitasking. Many people believe that multitasking will allow them to get things done quicker. However, according to the American Psychological Association, multitasking reduces productivity by 40%. 

3. The last thing you can do is partake in energy management. When we stretch our energy past our body’s natural rhythm of alertness, we are damaging our potential by not being able to do our best work as well as not being able to get the rest we need to rejuvenate. Keep this in mind and listen to your body when you feel like your energy has fallen. Take a break, a 15 minute nap will do. 

Problem #3: Prioritizing work. 

Explanation: When remote employees have a flexible schedule, it can be difficult to prioritize work. This can be in the form of watching one episode of your favorite television show during the day, making your lunch break extra long, or even taking your dog for a walk. These constant temptations can make you spiral into mismanagement of your work and fall behind. 

Solution: One thing you can do is when you start working, plan out your day using the 1-3-5 rule. Today you will complete 1 big task, 3 medium tasks, and 5 small tasks. Hold yourself accountable for your progress. 

Working from home isn’t always the sunshine and rainbows that people think it is. We’re only human and sometimes we give in to the distractions and complications of each day. But if you actively put the effort toward helping yourself become an efficient employee, working from home becomes that much more of a luxury. 

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Project Passport is a proactive mental wellness company that aims to bring mental wellness retreats, workshops and other services to company teams. We also help women create joy in their lives every step of the way. To learn more about our company retreats and services, click here. To learn more about our tribe community for women, click here. Our travel retreats will resume in the future as the world reopens.