8 Healthy Habits you Need to Know to Be a Successful Remote Worker

How to be consistent while working remotely

You may think that once you’ll be working from home, you’ll be living the good life away from long commutes, junk food, and burnout. Not until your noisy neighbor starts making all possible ear-threatening sounds, and everything becomes a source of distraction and procrastination starting from your cozy bed and up to Facebook and YouTube. In this case, the only thing that you should know is that you need to have a workable plan to get things on the right track.

Start Waking up Early

Most successful people are morning persons. It’s proven that waking up with the sun allows your brain to wake up gradually and naturally without feeling drowsy. As the Harvard Business Review report stated, biologist Christoph Randler discovered that “people whose performance peaks in the morning are better positioned for career success, because they’re more proactive than people who are at their best in the evening.” Even Steve Jobs used to wake up at 6 a.m for a maximum productivity level and a peaceful working environment.

Establish Healthy Morning Habits

Starting your morning good can set a great mood for your day. I’m not going to list up the endless benefits of morning showers but for me, it always means a fresh start so I try my best not to skip them. Next has to be the most important meal of the day. Sounds cheezy I know! But it’s called that way for a good reason. Everyone needs a nice boost of energy levels during the morning so you better not miss out on your breakfast. Another important step that everyone likes to ignore is getting ready for work. A lot of the times, when someone wakes up and finds me all groomed up, they think that I’m either leaving the house or have been outside. We all know that pajamas are made for bed or just chilling at home. You will definitely be receiving video calls so it’s good to look professional. Wearing your work clothes is a fair guarantee that you won’t be curling back to bed. Oh and never ever work on your bed. It will only make you sleepy.

Never Stop Communicating

Expect a lot of misunderstandings happening during your remote work. Difficulties when collaborating and technical issues are the worst blockers. I personally work in a multinational company and the time difference makes it even more frustrating. Under those circumstances, we had to use an online communication tool to ease out the interaction between the team. We chose Ovice virtual space as it is the perfect resemblance to an actual office and it is super simple and fun to use. The special thing about Ovice is that you have a full view of everyone inside your virtual office that you can easily just get close to the person you want to talk with and move further away from them or mute your microphone when the conversation is over. We caneasily access the floors of our company, arrange meetings, do presentations, and collaborate online.

Prioritize your Tasks

Before starting your work, you need to set a daily goal and it doesn’t have to be huge. You can break it down into small tasks to make it easier for you to get things done quicker and also feel the satisfaction of doing multiple things. One of the good things that we do at our company when we finish our working hours is to write what we did during the day and plan what we will be doing the next day on the asana app. It started as a rule and it ended up as a habit for everyone to have a clear schedule to start their work.

Typically, you’ll be the most active at the beginning of your day, so it’s best to start with the high priority tasks first and then finish the rest after getting them done.

Get your Working Set up Ready

When you have a special working area, your brain will automatically link that spot with working. However, if you keep moving from a place to another, your brain will have to reset itself every time into adapting to that certain area. You will also be communicating with your colleagues online. Expect tons of voice/video calls. For this reason, you don’t want to have other people passing by or talking in the background because it will make things messy and stressful. Also, don’t forget to keep all of your tech tools (Charger, phone, headphones…) next to you to avoid mad situations.

Separate Work Time from Rest Time

It’s easy to lose track of time when you’re working from home. There are 2 possible case scenarios.

1. You’ll find yourself slacking off, perhaps covered in blankets with your eyes half-open, pretending to work.
2. If you tend to be a workaholic, you might be working day and night and not knowing when to stop or forgetting to take breaks.

Let’s be honest here, most of you will relate to case 1. I get it. It happens. But, we can make it happen less often.
For the first case, you might want to go back up and re-read the 2nd paragraph. As for the 2nd case, time-out is important for you to have the ability to concentrate well at work.

Don’t Forget about your Social Life

It’s Corona season, we can’t leave the house much. Still, this doesn’t mean that we cannot have an active social life. Let’s face it, you have tons of time when working from home because you no longer waste time on commuting. You can catch up with your close friends and family, participate in online activities like language learning and social events, or even join online group exercising. I once had the opportunity to participate in a cultural exchange meetup online and it was actually the first time that I discovered Ovice. I met a lot of cool people and even kept in touch with some of them!

Stay Away from Noise

This can be tricky especially if you have children or if you’re living in a noisy neighborhood. These sounds could be bearable to you but it will be a headache for someone who’s having a call with you. The one possible solution for this is to invest in a good pair of noise-canceling headphones. They will make your life much easier if you’re someone who gets quickly out of focus.

Working remotely is a real challenge for everyone to adapt to. With a few steps, you will eventually establish a stable remote working system.