How to Increase Productivity in a Remote Workspace
BUSINESS TIPS | March 23, 2023
More companies are choosing to go with a remote work set up and for good reason. It provides flexibility, eliminates the time spent commuting to and from the office, and offers a better work-life balance. While working remotely has its advantages, it can also be challenging to manage a team that you don’t see in person.
For remote workers, it’s not uncommon to face productivity issues due to distractions and interruptions. If you’re managing a remote team, here are our top tips to increase productivity:
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Encourage a Dedicated Workspace
When you work from home, there is a tendency for one’s work-life boundaries to become blurred. Working from the bed or in the kitchen makes it difficult to distinguish between your work life and your personal life.
That’s why it makes a huge difference to have a dedicated workspace. A separate space keeps the distractions to a minimum and allows you to focus. To improve the productivity of your remote team, encourage them to create their own work station. A small room with a desk, ample lighting, and their computer equipment would be ideal. But if they are working from their bedroom, rearranging the desk and placing it opposite the bed can also work wonders.
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Use The Right Tools
Whether it’s to manage projects or communicate with your team, having the right tools can boost efficiency and productivity. Project management tools are a great way to stay organized and delegate work, especially if you have team members that are in different time zones. When choosing a project management tool, evaluate the features offered, the interface, and if it fits your needs and goals.
There are also plenty of productivity tools out there that your team can use to keep the focus. There are apps like Freedom, Forest, and RescueTime to block distracting websites. Timer apps like Pomofocus, Pomodoro Tracker, and FocusList enforce the Pomodoro Method, which is a time management technique that sets intervals of 25-minutes of work and a 5-minute break.
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Stay Connected
Social interactions are an essential factor in any workplace environment. Since your team is working remotely, the lack of face-to-face interactions can affect their productivity. To encourage more online interactions, regularly touch base through your team chat app and or through video call.
Another way to improve and maintain social connectivity is to have informal conversations. Talking about topics outside of work builds social relationships and helps the whole team stay connected. For instance, let everyone in the team share a quick personal update after each weekly or monthly meeting. You can also create opportunities for social interactions by having virtual team-building activities, playing trivia games, or having movie nights.
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Promote a Healthy Work-Life Balance
With the freedom and flexibility of remote work, it can be difficult to unplug at the end of the day. However, this can affect one’s work-life balance and workplace productivity. Check in with each member of your team and ask about their current work-life balance. Be clear when they need to be online and encourage them to walk away from the computer at the end of the day.
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