As 2020 began, tech enthusiasts and business experts were hyped with technology predictions for 2020; however, no one was truly ready for the impact that COVID-19 would have on the tech and business space. 

With South Africa being on its seventh day of lockdown, many companies have required that their employees continue working from home. That being said, just last year observed close to 80% of IT head honchos in SA claiming that their employees are more productive in an office environment as opposed to working remotely, from home, as revealed by a 2019 study conducted by Citrix. 

Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, however, things have obviously taken a turn with over 90% of decision-makers agreeing that flexible working, powered by robust technology increases levels of productivity and agility. Of course, this can be hard for many, especially if you’ve never worked remotely. 

Start and end your workday at a specific time. 

Starting a workday from home at a defined time, and sticking to it, is vital for productivity. Best practice would be starting at a regular 8 to 5 pm schedule as one would when working from a central office. Of course, working late is fine, and if done, give yourself credit for it, but beware of fatigue of working too late on a given day, usually the next day is an uphill battle to adhere to the 8 to 5 pm manta.  

Productivity can be erratic. 

Many days you’ll find that you’re fully capable, productive and focused. On other days, you’ll find that you’re easily distracted. This can lead to anxiety, and this is okay. How you deal with this erratic changes in productivity will help. When working in an office environment, no one sits at their desk from 8 to 5 pm without breaks. Coffee breaks, meetings, taking lunch away from your desk, playing ping pong or console video games are office distractions. Working from home has the power to make you far more productive for shorter periods due to these office distractions being eliminated. You’ll still take calls, meetings via online tools (we’ll get to these later) but suddenly what would usually be a laborious boardroom meeting that goes on for too long becomes a short, concise Google hangout or Skype Call. Keep your virtual meetings short and sweet and to the point. 

All this being said, it’s imperative to take breaks when working remotely. Grab some coffee, make lunch, exercise, meditate and do whatever you need to do in between tasks to remain focused. 

Try to stay well away from social media platforms, though, even during breaks. Facebook and Instagram have a way of sucking us in and returning to productive work after scrolling is always taxing on the working mind. Of course, if you work in the social media arena, this is a challenge. Still, we recommend using tools such as Sprout Social, Agora or Pages Manager to eliminate the distractions of your personal feeds. 

We are not robots. We are creative beings who thrive on work-rest cycles. 

Set up a work schedule. 

Setting up and developing a robust work schedule is key to becoming smarter about your daily workload. Start your day by planning out what work needs to be done. By doing this, you’ll have a clearer idea of what you want to achieve and what you expect to complete by close of business. Try to identify when you’re the most productive; this could be in the morning from 10 am to noon, for instance. Whatever your most productive hours are, be sure to have attended any virtual meetings before then, replied to any emails and any other admin you might have to do in the morning. 

Define your workday process. 

To truly be productive as a remote worker, you’ll need to develop discipline. Developing discipline is imperative, especially if you want to garner trust from your employers. 

Set up a dedicated home office or work area. Ideally, a room separate from family members or housemates is best, however, if you don’t have that luxury and have to work in close proximity to others in the space, we recommend doing a microphone test with Skype with whomever you share the space with to gauge how much your clients or employers might hear on calls. 

Develop and define your work and home routines. As mentioned above, start every day at the same time but also in the same way. If you need to start your day with coffee at 8 am, stick to it. 

Install software that aids in productivity. 

There are several free tools, applications and programs to aid in productivity, time management, meetings and file sharing. 

• Zoom. Zoom is excellent for team meetings. With Zoom, you can conduct large meetings for internal communication, efficiently display your screen, as well as save offline recordings. Setting up one on one sessions with customers or clients is a breeze.

  
  

• Toggl. Whether you’re a freelancer or working for a company from home, Toggl is an amazing time-tracking tool. You can track time spent on a project and bill clients for time worked. 

  
  

• Slack. Slack has become very popular in the past few years. It helps eliminate the needs for many back and forth emails by funnelling everything into group channels or direct messages. Of course, Whatsapp is excellent for this too, but it isn’t always seen as the most professional of tools for work. 

  
  

• Asana. Asana is probably one of the best team project management tools around. It’s free for teams up to 15 users, boasts intuitive task displays with archiving functions, workload management, and so much more. 

  
  

• WeTransfer and Google Drive. Chances are whether you’re someone who’s just started working from home due to COVID-19 or someone that’s been a remote worker for years, you’ve used both WeTransfer and Google Drive. If not, get both. Google Drive’s free option gives users up to 15GB in free space and has integrated Office tools such as Google Sheets, Google Docs and much more. WeTransfer is an excellent tool for sending large files such as images and videos. 

  
  

  
  

Becoming the ultimate remote worker.

For many people in SA, working from home is temporary. However, we do not know how long this lockdown will go on in South Africa. Also, what if you decide on becoming a full-time freelance remote worker? 

How do you become a successful remote worker? Start with commitment and delivery. Working from home, whether for your employer or yourself, does not mean you can flake on deadlines. In fact, try to meet deadlines earlier. Show your clients and employers that they can trust you to work hard and deliver projects timeously. 

Investing in your home office is critical. Buy a decent second monitor, a powerful laptop or PC/MAC. Get a suitable headset for virtual meetings and calls, ensure that you have a proper fibre connection to the web. If your setup at home is as decent as an office, your productivity will be too. 

Remember to drink water, eat and take regular breaks. Working from home means that your job could easily take over your home life. Be sure to adhere to your home tasks, exercise and take advantage of your schedule.