Alveena Ahmad
Amazing benefits of working remotely
When it comes to working from home, there are two groups of people. One group is of the view that people get nothing done when working from home whereas the other group believes that workers feel happier and are more productive while working remotely. But in reality, your answer greatly depends on how you personally fare when working from home. Research says work-from-home folks are happier and earn more than 9 to 5 job persons.
Remote working is a very detailed endeavor. Some people absolutely desire it while others consider doing the routine of going to the office. Remote work with the right talent is just as effective for raising productivity and completing a job for both workers and businesses. There are clear pros and cons on both sides of why certain businesses prefer remote work.
The key benefit of remote work is increased independence. Telecommunications provide employees the opportunity to complete their work without constant reminders, direct supervision, and office distractions. greater freedom and independence create a foundation for greater fulfillment and output. it gives the user a level of self-control key to overcoming home distractions.
The idea of working from home has been supported by recent studies and it has been found that it increases productivity and decreases stress levels among workers. Following are the reasons why people find an advantage in working remotely:
Time to commute:
According to researchers, commuters waste a lot of their precious time on their commute to the workplace. The long commute often stresses them and deprives them of their energy levels. Whereas, working remotely does not involve any kind of commute. This not only saves them time but also from the frustration and anxiety that is caused by the commute.
They feel happier:
The way to the office involves people in any kind of good or bad experiences and their entire day depends on how they started it. People who work from home do not get involved in any such events and start their day pretty fresh. This keeps them happy throughout the day and makes them more productive.
They are more focused:
Research has revealed that people who work remotely, are twice as productive as other workers and exceed the 40-hour work week twice. This enables them to become 20 percent more productive while working remotely as compared to people who work in the office.
Effective communication:
In offices, workers may have the opportunity to contact their bosses easily but it does not mean they have effective communication with them. But as long-distance workers solely rely on communication through emails and phones, therefore, the messages they sent are more detailed and elaborated.
A better schedule:
For office workers, the day often passes haphazardly and it is often hard to keep a strict schedule. For remote workers, however, the schedule is quite flexible. You can easily determine when you are more focused at work and then you create a schedule around it. You can decide when to take a break, take a nap, or read something you like. If you are a manager here is how you can engage
Save money:
Working remotely is also beneficial because it does not involve any commuting costs. As you don’t have to pay for the bus or gas to fill up your car, you can easily save money. You also don’t have to spend on separate wardrobes for work and everyday life, which also saves you a lot of money. You don’t pay for coffee or lunch somewhere outside and live a life according to your own budget.
Increased savings
Remote work enables employees to have less need for formal clothing which amounts to savings. They also do not incur transportation charges and can save on lunches. More saving leads to boosted income which is a key to high morale.
More flexibility
This depends on the job you have but telecommunication often lends itself to flexible hours, meaning if you have something you need to do during the day like going to the bank or paying utility bills you can. If you are more productive at certain hours you can adjust your schedule accordingly to meet your needs.
Also See: 5 highly demanded work-from-home earning ideas
Balance Between Work and Life
Working remotely provides employees with a greater sense of work-life balance which leads to a more productive, happier, and healthier life. Telecommunication is good for mental health as it lowers stress levels and gives employees a way to tailor their work through a customized plan.
Time
Work-from-home folks are happier, and earn more than 9 to 5 job persons. Remote work enables employees with more time for physical activities and stays fit. A recent Gallup report found that remote workers who have time on their side are more engaged and productive in their jobs and feel more connected to the company than their office counterparts. This provides stability in work and life.
Here is Work from home Potential trade-offs.
Less Likely to be Promoted
According to most studies, remote workers are less likely to receive positive performance reviews than office employees which can be attributed due to supervisors. However, this depends on the company for which you are working. The best advice will be to call your boss to catch up every couple of days and call co-workers to get their input.
Lack of routine and No Social Life
Remote work can struggle with the lack of schedule, finding it difficult to feel motivated at the same time have fewer social interactions. This is linked with distractions which basically entails that remote workers will struggle with switching off formwork while others have trouble switching on. Remote work means all of the distractions of your personal life this is where being self-motivated and disciplined comes in.
In summary, We at BeingGuru feel that remote work is the future irrespective of any potential tradeoffs. People who are not self-motivated, need supervision, and thrive on being in the office should continue to work onsite. It takes a special kind of employee to work at his/her own pace.
Everyone has a unique work style and preferences the real takeaway is to know how to work and where to work which is a key component of remote work.
Interested in working from home? Consider these 6 things
In recent years, work-from-home sectors have grown steadily. It has grown not only in variety but also in depth. The top career fields include computer and IT and this is the reason many professionals are adapting more to working from home. Maybe you are thinking of starting to launch an at-home business either as a side hustle or a second-act career. It sure is a good idea to work from home as it involves no daily commute, but it has its own challenges.
If you really are interested in working from home, then the following are the things that you need to know.
No one takes you seriously:
The biggest dilemma for working from home is that you are not taken seriously as someone actually working. You often get requests from your family members to grab the dry cleaning, take care of dinner, or texts from friends to perform their work. Working on your own is to restrict your own self from performing all these tasks. You need to learn to say “No” to most of the things you may feel guilty about not doing.
Proper schedule:
Working as a freelancer you may think that there is no schedule you need to follow as there is no boss to keep a check on you. But that is absolutely not true, you have to create a proper working schedule and stick to it. Find out the hours you are most productive at and create your schedule and follow it no matter what.
Work more efficiently:
Working in an office can be annoying at times but at home, there are no people to distract you as colleagues. The only distractions you have are actually under your control. This is why it is necessary to make use of your time and work more efficiently and be more productive. This is how your work-from-home will repay you.
Set a workplace:
Not working in an office does not mean you cannot have a desk of your own. In order to make you feel like actually working, get yourself a proper chair and a desk to work on. Then place it in any corner of your room and make it seem like a workplace. Working on a couch or from your bed won’t make you productive and efficient at any cost.
Go outside:
Working from home does not mean staying locked all the time. Instead of throwing yourself on the couch in front of the TV, go outside. Take a walk in the nearest park, go to coffee shops, and explore places as much as you can.
Get dressed every day:
You should not become lazy just thinking that you are working from home. Start your work by getting dressed properly. You may not see people around you but you need to dress for success. It does not mean that you wear formal clothing; an upgrade to your casual clothing will help you a lot in feeling refreshed.
Via: Business Insider
Employees should ask themselves these SIX questions before working from home
Working from home is something we all dream of, being able to work our own hours and enjoy the freedom of what we want to do. For most office workers, working from home seems like heaven. Trapped in a cubical office, they feel frustrated. They imagine freedom as the best fit to use time and work as much as they want.
According to the research of WorldatWork and Flexjobs, around 80% of organizations offer flexible hours to their workers. Most companies offer remote-working opportunities. These organizations and companies also provide their workers with telework. These offers are available to a limited extent and employers are hired on a temporary basis. Studies have shown that there is no difference in productivity among office workers and teleworkers.
Also See: Career development for remote workers
These opportunities are best for people who want to work from home. But one must be aware of the fact that working from home sounds fun and interesting but it actually requires self-discipline. Therefore prepare yourself before taking the decision to work from home.
The remote working culture has the lure of freedom and flexibility to work with innovative and impactful companies. You can go global with your skills and do successful work as a virtual employee but along with freedom, also comes the burden of greater responsibility.
According to Scott Boyar, an associate professor in the department of management, information systems, and quantitative methods at the University of Alabama at Birmingham,
“An organization has a lot of responsibility when letting workers go virtual; but the employee carries a lot of it too”.
Questions to consider before starting work remotely:
Anyone who decides to work from home must consider these factors before transitioning to remote work.
- Can I work with little or no supervision?
- Can spending time alone help me to be productive and happier?
- Am I self-disciplined and self-motivated?
- Compared to face-to-face discussions, am I comfortable interacting with my colleagues through emails, video conferencing, chats, etc?
- How do I feel about my working place?
- How do I feel about work/life balance?
If you are confident with your answers then it means telecommuting is a good choice for you.
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Benefits of telecommuting:
Although working from home creates very blurred lines between personal life and work life but it has many benefits as well. You need to set your boundaries yourself and it will keep you happy. Working remotely provides you with a fantastic experience and gives you the opportunity to work with people around the globe.
Working from home has its own perks, you save a lot of time due to the lack of commute to the office. You can use this time to work on your side projects along with working on projects for your company. Create your workplace at home where you love to spend most of your time. Get inspiration from Pinterest and create a space that is away from distractions and accommodates your project files. Spice up the place with interesting color combinations.
A combination of working from home and in the office throughout the week is also an ideal situation for any employer. The flexibility of working in a stress-free environment allows the employee to work freely and happily. The results this freedom if utilized properly results in better and greater productivity because employees appear more available to the company.
6 Productivity hacks for working from home
Working from home has become extremely common for many people. Technology has played a vital role in making it possible to communicate and stay connected from every place. An increasing number of jobs in the economy are being performed at home now. But even though people love to work from the comfort of their homes, there are some who point out the less probability of accomplishing the actual work. It makes a lot of difference when things cannot be getting done as planned. It usually happens because of the shining distractions while working at home.
If you do not plan properly, working from home can turn into a curse. Therefore, the following are productivity hacks that can be performed on a routine basis to enjoy the benefits of working from home.
Get to know your productivity hours:
The secret of working from home is to recognize the hours when you are most productive. If you cannot figure out when you are good at doing your work then ask yourself two questions:
When do you have more energy to work and concentrate?
When there are fewer interruptions while you work?
Identify one to three periods of 90 minutes when your productivity is at its peak and schedule your work accordingly.
Learn keyboard shortcuts:
Learning keyboard shortcuts may not seem a lot attractive but these can save a lot of time and boost productivity. When you are writing on a routine basis, these shortcuts can improve efficiency and can prevent your arms from getting tired,
Set specific times for checking emails and social media:
Checking social media accounts and emails can waste a lot of time. Therefore, set specific timings for checking your emails and social media accounts. Choose either to check first thing in the morning, during your lunch break, or at the end of your day.
Two-minute rule:
Writing down tasks is good but if they take less than two minutes to complete, you should not waste time even writing them. Complete them immediately and save your energy and attention for bigger tasks.
Flexible schedule:
When you are working from home, you can manage time by yourself. Do stick to the schedule you have created for work. But if you need to take a break for some reason, make a flexible schedule and put in more hours the other day.
Schedule meetings:
Meetings can sometimes prove as a waste of time. But scheduling proper meetings can be a quick way to solve your problems. Instead of wasting time waiting for the reply to an email, schedule a meeting and discuss every issue in it.
Via: Entrepreneur
Work-From-Home increases productivity and improves performance
Earlier this year, Google introduced work-from-home opportunities in its job section. Work-from-home
patron is gaining huge popularity all over the world and there’s a reason why this model is encouraged worldwide.
Rather than having an employee commute to the work each day, piercing through piles of traffic lined up every morning on the way to the office, work from the home model has many advantages.
There’s no operational cost and an employee is expected to deliver the work assigned to them by the end of the day and reach their targets.
It encourages flexibility, freedom, and work at your own selected work hours. Many studies have already highlighted the psychological effects of travel to work and linked it to reducing productivity.
Here are three key factors that prove working from home improves performance, and raises productivity.
1- Improved Performance and Higher Productivity:
According to a study done at Harvard Business Review, some call center employees were given the option to work from home for 8-9 months. Half of the workers availed of the opportunity while the remaining half preferred to work at the office each day.
The study found out, work from home employees completed 13.5 percent more calls than the staff who worked in the office.
Another study from Gallup revealed that workers who work from home three to four days a week are 33 percent more likely to “feel engaged”. They are 15 percent less likely to feel “not engaged” than the employees who come to the office each day of the week i.e, Monday to Friday.
2- Job Satisfaction:
Employees who are given the choice to work from home are reported to have much higher job satisfaction making their productivity beyond expectations. The answer lies in flexible work hours, being able to work freely without worrying about getting up on time, dressing up, and driving.
In the abstract, the commute time is never accounted for in the employee’s work hours but the truth is, the time is spent (two-ways, from work to office and back) to render the service. By eliminating the commute hours, non-noisy mental peace is attributed to better performance and job satisfaction.
3- It lowers operational costs:
When employees work from home, they are less likely to require privacy. This eliminates the need for private offices. Open offices murder productivity and it’s proven through many types of research results.
Working from home is the best way to inculcate higher productivity in an employee and also lower facility costs. This also results in fewer leaves, and fewer sick days because of fatigue to go to work, and combat extreme weather.
The smartest strategy today is to allow employees to work from home. This increases their productivity and results in organizational growth too.
Working from Home? 10 things you need to do to successfully ace it.
“When you are focusing, you’re actually blocking your access to the diffuse mode. And the diffuse mode, it turns out, is what you often need to be able to solve a very difficult, new problem”. Barbara Oakley.
Working from home can be either fantastic or fraught with peril at the same time. The possibilities of working from home and sticking to a schedule aren’t easy. Setting your own hours, taking breaks when needed, running errands as required, and procrastinating work projects can even turn your profession into a curse. It happens because nobody is around you to hold you accountable.
You cannot schedule your daily work because it takes discipline to adhere to a routine. The offline and online distractions just slow you down and make you unproductive for your work time. Working from home is faced with myriad challenges and the biggest drawback is that people are unable to identify these challenges on daily basis.
When you have pending work projects at hand, your day drifts past in a flash. The distractions of your surrounding do not give you much time to do quality work. Therefore it’s best to understand the real priorities at the time of work. Identify your challenges and then built strategies to beat them.
Following are a few tips that can help you make your work at home more productive.
Develop a proper framework:
Life is not like sitting leisurely in your backyard idly writing or not writing. You will have to set some parameters in order to make the quality of your life and work better. Millions of people dream about working from home but when it turns into a reality, they feel more stressed out than ever. As they do not keep an everyday schedule therefore project deadlines, writing, email, etc. haunt them throughout the day.
Working from home is supposed to give you more time to get things done, embrace the blessing of early morning hours, and try to complete more work as productivity is at its peak in those hours.
Get refreshed:
Waking up early can be sometimes difficult but we can exercise and meditate to eliminate the morning sickness. Dress up neatly and have a healthy breakfast before starting your work. You might not have to go to the office and meet any of your colleagues, but dressing up neatly and having a satisfied stomach will make you feel more energized and fresh. You can focus on your work without peeking into the fridge all day long.
Avoid Multi-tasking:
Multi-tasking has become a catastrophe for the younger generation; they want to accomplish everything at the same time. The bombardment of information in your mind leads to a loss of control over everything and the system begins to fall apart.
Stay calm and do one thing at a time. Start with one project and get it completed. You can become an efficient work-from-beast if you focus on your every task at a time instead of multitasking.
Prioritize:
Do you ever just forget the things that are very important? Or do people have to chase you to get work done? This all happens when we do not make a proper to-do list. To-do-list is essential if you want to overcome all such problems. Write down tasks all in one place and prioritize which one you will want to do first. It will help you to save work overload.
Pray five times a day:
Praying is vital to Muslims but along with the announcement of faith, prayer gives us peace of mind which relieves anxiety and stress. It grants clarity of mind to feel at ease in one’s life. Say it five times a day and you will gain inner peace and tranquility for the rest of your life.
Concentrate on work: Avoid Distractions
You cannot look at the light but you cannot look at anything else without it.
It is very much easy for us to get easily pushed off by the slightest interruptions during work. It happens because we are not attentive to our work 100% all the time. It is better to maintain a positive focus at work no matter what is going around.
Consider your focus as the key to attaining future success. Walk through the usual obstacles may it be a phone or social media distraction and listen to the voice that leads in the right direction.
Also See: Digital Stress is bad, here is how it happens and how it can be avoided.
Taking breaks can make you happier:
Deactivating and reactivating your goals allow you to stay focused.
Sometimes you are too busy to take a break. The ideas are flowing in your mind and you feel great. But this situation never lasts forever; soon you start slouching on your seat and feel your shoulders numb. You demand an extended focus from your mind and body, but unfortunately, it does not happen. You can fix this condition by taking a pause. Small breaks will make your work more efficient and productive.
Stop swinging with the emails:
Every email you send demands an email back. You then reply back that email and keep swinging with it all day. Do not waste time checking your emails all the time. Make it a habit of checking your email only once a day. Give short but polite replies and avoid writing stuff that demands an answer every time. This will save you a lot of time and you will focus on your work more efficiently.
Group similar activities:
It is better if you group conference calls, Skype calls, and in-person coffee meetings. Give a specific amount of time to chat and do the rest of the work by not getting disturbed again and again.
Get some fresh air:
Try to spend time outdoors at least once a week. The long working hours make you tired physically and mentally. Go outside and stay away from flashing screens as much as possible. This activity will energize you for the rest of the week.
