Today is National Work From Home Day and here at ActivTrak, we’re ready to celebrate! In fact, we’ve been celebrating work from home for years. We are proud to be a remote-first company and we strive to enable other organizations to lead similarly; hiring for diversity, skills, and mission-driven passion first so that our business can thrive well beyond geographic limitations. We consider ourselves work from home stewards, enabling businesses around the world to create a culture of trust and transparency so that they can deliver a level of flexibility that allows employees to thrive.
Our Productivity Lab routinely conducts research and surveys with our own employees about what makes their work from home setup effective, and what they need from the company to remain productive. Here are the key themes and corresponding tips in their words:
Find movement in your day
- “Get out of your home before you start work. I like to walk my dog. It helps to get fresh air and break up personal time vs. work time.” -Marketing Programs Manager
- “Mix-up your seating arrangement. The small change can bring some variety to your day and relief to your back if you've spent too much time in one position.” -Marketing Programs Specialist
- “Take a walk after a long meeting.” -Sr. Software Engineer
- “A lunch workout. Extremely helpful in realigning your focus and being able to finish the second half of the day strong!” -Customer Success Manager
Create a routine or “work from home schedule” that amplifies your working habits
- “Find your peak productivity hours and build your schedule around those times with work/life balance in mind.” -Director, Marketing
- “Setting up a dedicated work area.” -Marketing Programs Manager
- “Follow your working habit. Improve work efficiency by allocating time wisely.” -Data Analyst
- “Employees who work remotely tend to work the most hours because they feel that they have to always be "on" and available, even after work hours. Avoid this bad and stressful habit by setting boundaries for yourself to avoid burnout. Take sufficient breaks and communicate with your team on your availability/working hours.” -Account Manager
Build a work schedule around when you work best! Curious about when you are most effective? Eager to gain more insight into your typical work habits? Create a free ActivTrak account to see your most productive time, identify distractions, and learn how to build more focus time into your daily routine.
Conclude the day and leave time for reflection
- “When I've reached the end of my workday, I like to go through and actually close/quit all my windows and applications to signify that my day is over. Just don't forget to save your work!” -MSP Enablement Representative
- “Take time every morning and at the end of the day to reflect on what you have accomplished and what you plan to focus on the next day.” -MSP Enablement Representative
To supplement these tips, here’s a helpful checklist to keep top of mind as you optimize your work from home approach
- Build dedicated focus time into your calendar and make it a priority to honor the commitment
- Schedule (and take!) breaks throughout the day to re-energize and nurture creativity
- Turn off application notifications for blocks of time (or fully if they are not critical)
- Use Slack icons (and similar features in other collaboration tools) to communicate your availability
- Be thoughtful when scheduling meetings to reclaim time on everyone’s calendars
Curious if these tactics are working? Evaluate your own productivity with our personal insights dashboard. Get started today with a free ActivTrak Account.
For organizations who have embraced work from home and for those considering how to embrace it more effectively, consider sharing the tips above with your teams and collecting tips from them to share with their peers as well. While new working arrangements have swept across the business landscape over the past year, understand that change takes time. That’s why we’ve also compiled these tips for leaders to help their teams work effectively from anywhere.
About ActivTrak and The Productivity Lab
ActivTrak helps companies unlock productivity potential. Our award-winning workforce productivity and analytics software provides expert insights that empower people, optimize processes, and maximize technology. With data sourced from more than 8,500 customers and 250,000 users, ActivTrak’s Productivity Lab is a global center for ground-breaking workforce productivity research and expertise that helps companies embrace and embody the future of work.
