Effective Time Management Tips When Working From Home

07/16/2021
Let’s apply the following simple tips to help you establish healthy habits and manage your time effectively when working from home, together with the community and the country to defeat the Covid-19 pandemic!

1. Start With A To-Do List
To work from home smoothly, we need to spend about 10-15 minutes to make a plan for the new day on every night before going to bed. 
Checking and allocating your tasks reasonably will create a clear and scientific overview. Besides, instead of trying to complete too many tasks at the same time, we should prioritize important and urgent tasks first. This will help you maintain physical and mental endurance in this period of social distancing. In addition, to remind us of the to-do list effectively, we can write the list in a notebook, notes or mobile phone applications.

2. Determine Your Most Productive Working Time Every Day
In a day, each person has the most active and productive working time: Morning, noon, afternoon or evening. Based on this, you can come up with a schedule that works for you. In addition, although the working hours at home are quite flexible and comfortable, we still need to work 8 hours a day to ensure the work progress. This requires each person to be more proactive, responsible and self-aware than ever.

3.   Set Deadline For Each Task
One of the most effective ways to manage time is to set deadlines for your tasks in a day. Deadlines are powerful tools to help you manage your time and get your work done. So, when you create your to-do list, estimate the time it will take to complete them. That is, you self-determine the completion time of each specific task based on your productivity. For example, you spend 15-30 minutes on simple tasks and 1-2 hours on complex tasks. This time boundary is the "ringing bell" that reminds you to pay more attention to your work.

4. Create A Comfortable Workspace 
A neat and airy workspace can improve your concentration as well as your creativity. You should put the desk near the window to take advantage of natural light and air. Besides, brilliant flowers, a few lovely potted plants or a few scented candles will add positive energy for an inspiring new day. In addition, we also need to regularly clean our working corner. Because a chaotic, cluttered space will easily distract you.

5. Apply The 80/20 Principle (Pareto Principle)
In time management, the 80/20 principle (Pareto principle) states that about 80% of results come from 20% of actions. So, to improve work efficiency, we only need to identify the most important 20% of tasks and invest maximum in them. Thanks to that, you will save a lot of time and effort to enjoy your personal life.  The motto “Work smarter not harder” emphasizes the same thing.

5. Take Strategic Breaks
Although we work from home, we always need comfortable breaks. Instead of reading the news about the uncertain situation of the world in the pandemic, you can get up to walk around your house or have a drink and a snack.
  
6. Adjust Your Work-From-Home Habits
We need to regularly monitor the progress of our work to proactively adjust our work-from-home habits to be most appropriate. After applying the above suggestions, if you still can't master your time, you should review your schedule and align the alternating periods of the day more reasonably.
  
7. Take Care of Yourself
To manage our time effectively, we need to have a healthy body and a clear mind. Moreover, each person must be really healthy and strong to overcome this pandemic together. Therefore, always cultivate positive emotions and take care of yourself by:

               Get enough sleep
               Eat in moderation, with enough nutrients
               Do exercise regularly
               Do the things you love 
               Think positively, believe in the good things ahead



* Source: elle.vn