7 Powerful Time Management Tips: Every Remote Worker Should Know

7 Powerful Time Management Tips: Every Remote Worker Should Know

7 Powerful Time Management Tips: Every Remote Worker Should Know

7 Powerful Time Management Tips: Every Remote Worker Should Know
7 Powerful Time Management Tips

Working from home may sound like an amazing thing to some but then the hours go by, and your list of things to do is still as long as it ever was. There is nothing that comes close to the flexibility and freedom of remote work, but this flexibility comes with the challenge of managing your time without the clear structure of an office. 

Without a clear boundary, the workday can spill into your personal time, you can become distracted and lose your ability to focus, and it can feel like work is never-ending, while at the same time never getting it all done.

Time management is not just a skill that is helpful for the remote worker; it is a must. Without time management, your productivity declines, stress builds, and burnout is right around the corner. The good news is that just a few small changes to your routine can help you take back control of your day and ultimately increase productivity. 

You will find the following 7 time management tips for remote workers, with actionable techniques like creating a bulletproof morning routine, utilizing Parkinson’s Law, dressing for work, and more. These tips are actionable, evidence-supported strategies to enable you to stay focused, avoid burnout, and more importantly, utilize the freedom of remote work!

 Are you ready to revamp your working-from-home routine? Here are 7 ways to optimize your time management skills. 

7 Powerful Time Management Tips

1.   Establish a Morning Routine 

 How you start the day can have a big impact on your productivity, mindset and success as a remote employee. It’s tempting to wake up and jump into work right away, but before you do that, I recommend forming a morning routine first. Going directly into work makes you feel rushed, scattered and overwhelmed. When you create a purposeful morning routine, you are intentionally and proactively beginning your day and you will start with clarity, and a sense of urgency and purpose in your tasks. 

 How the rhythm of a morning routine works:

 A morning routine enables you to create a mental clarity and success prior to working. It tells your brain that the day has begun, you are transitioning from “home mode” to “work mode,” and moves you into work preparedness mode for the day which is very important when working from home.

How to craft your morning routine:

  • Wake up at the same time. Consistency is important for your focus and to prevent you from rushing.
  • Exercise. Whether it’s stretching, yoga, or a walk, moving your body wakes up your body and mind to raise energy levels.
  •  Go over your agenda for the day. Take a couple minutes to read through your plans while identifying what you want to get done that day, particularly if it helps you get closer to a long-term goal.
  •  Resist digital distractions. Do not check your phone for email, social media, and updates, as this can negatively affect your focus at the start of your day.

Read more about overcoming phone addiction here.

 If you consistently follow a morning routine, you are providing yourself an advantage for success, facilitating a positive attitude and promoting productivity at the onset of the day.

2. Get Dressed for Work

One of the easiest and most influential time management strategies that remote workers can utilize is to dress for work. It may seem silly to do while working from home, but when you get out of your pajamas and dress for work, you are primed for a productive mindset.

When you dress for work, you essentially tell your brain that it is time to take things seriously and utilize your professional self.

It creates a dichotomy between relaxation mode and work mode that will help you stay on task and practice self-discipline throughout the day.

Here’s a deep dive on how to build rock-solid self-discipline

Here’s why it works: 

  • Increases productivity: Dressing for work can help increase motivation and improve your focus to stay “in work mode” instead of getting distracted by home-related thinking.
  • Improves confidence: Even if you are actually dressing more casually than you would in an office, the action of dressing feels good and more professional.
  • Improves boundaries: A “work outfit” can help set a line between your personal life and your professional life, which is especially necessary when you work remotely.
  •  By simply dressing for work, you are creating a more focused and productivity-producing day and working towards your tasks with confidence.

3. Use Time Blocking to Organize Your Day

7 Powerful Time Management Tips: Every Remote Worker Should Know
Time Management is very Important for Remote Workers

One of the most effective productivity techniques for staying organized and productive as remote workers is time blocking. Time blocking is the process of designating times for specific activities or tasks throughout your day. In other words, you compartmentalize your day and make sure everything essential gets done.

Why Time Blocking Works:

 When you set up a time block for a task, you are defining time for a unique context, which will ultimately help eliminate multitasking or distractions during your time. The time blocking process ensures that you prioritize the important tasks, work through them effectively, and provide time to take a break, join a meeting, or partake in a personal activity.

How to Use Time Blocking Productively

  • Start with the most important tasks: Let’s all agree, you want to spend time within the blocks, which when utilized, will help ensure you can accomplish high priority work tasks early in the day, while your focus and focus level is still energetic.-
  •  Be realistic. Leave enough time for each task as outlined within the block, as well as incremental buffer time for interruptions.- 
  • Use digital tools: Use digital tools such as Google Calendar, Trello, or Notion to visually organize your time blocks. For example, leaving triangular blocks indicated a break on the calendar view will allow you to visually see your day at a glance.- 
  • Don’t forget the breaks: Schedule your breaks to allow time to pause, refill, and recharge.

Time blocking provides an opportunity to better manage your time and decreases your risk of feeling overwhelmed. 

4. Apply Parkinson’s Law to Work & Meetings

One of the more practical strategies for time management for remote workers is using Parkinson’s Law, which will help you prioritize what matters most and eliminate inefficiencies from your day. Parkinson’s Law states that, “Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.” Simply put, the more time you give a task, the more time it will take—rationality notwithstanding.

 A Short History of Parkinson’s Law:

 Parkinson’s Law was written by C. Northcote Parkinson, a British naval historian and author, in an essay published in The Economist in 1955. In his original essay, Parkinson humored the observation that bureaucracies and organizations expand to consume all available resources (no matter if they need to or not). Eventually the idea developed into a hyperbole to address time management at work.

  How Parkinson’s Law Makes You More Productive:

 Reduces procrastination: By merely limiting the amount of time you’ll allocate to a task, you’re less likely to procrastinate and more likely to accomplish it on time.

Increases focus: The knowledge that you only have a limited time creates an urgency that you must concentrate on, and limits opportunities for distractions.

Drives efficiency: By creating shorter limits, it is imperative for each task planning stage to happen more quickly and thus reduce time lost – cutting entire conversations that aren’t needed and reducing the normal expectation of meeting time.      

How to Apply Parkinson’s Law Effectively:

Impose a time limit on every task: Set your allocated time frame for a task (whether that is 30 minutes, 45 minutes, or an hour) and make sure it does not go over the stated time unless it is an absolutely necessary requirement.

Reduce your meeting time: When it comes to virtual meetings, impose the same limit, and perhaps meeting plans that had an end time were more effective and seemed to stay on track due to that time-confining event as an end-time.

Control your work period: Instead of engaging the entire day in a project, work out small time blocks to allow a complete focus, and complete the task to its level of completeness.

Utilizing Parkinson’s Law will help as work-life balance, reduced procrastination, and adequate productivity.

5. Set Clear Boundaries to Avoid Work Creeping into Personal Time

One of the largest challenges for those who work from home is work bleeding into their personal time. Without setting clear boundaries, it is likely that you will work into the evening or answer emails during dinner. When this happens it can be stressful and can lead to burnout.

How to Create Clear Boundaries:

  • Establish a designated work space: Create an area where the work setup is combined. When you leave the work setup make sure to note to yourself that you are no longer working.
  • Set working hours: Set a specific start time and end time for your work day, and try to stick to a schedule. Think of it as a traditional office location.
  • Use closing rituals to “log off” from work: Create a simple ritual to signify work is done, such as turn off your computer for the day, turn off notifications, or even take a walk.
  • Let other people know your hours: If you live with others, let them know your hours to respect your time. When you create clear boundaries and use end-of-workday rituals, you will create a healthier work-life balance, allowing for recharge time and the avoidance of burnout.

 Simply doing this will create both productivity and improved mental health.

6. Prioritize Tasks with the Eisenhower Matrix

As a remote worker, you have many tasks to take care of to deliver results. It can feel overwhelming, but one of the best ways to manage these multiple responsibilities is to sort out your tasks using the Eisenhower Matrix.

 The decision-making tool will help you sort out the urgency and importance of your tasks, ensuring you are focused on what matters and not wasting valuable time on busy work.

So, what is the Eisenhower Matrix? 

The Eisenhower Matrix divides tasks into four quadrants according to urgency and importance:

1. Urgent and Important (Do Now): Tasks that need to be done now, and are directly aligned to your goals.

2. Important, Not Urgent (Schedule): Tasks that are important for the long term success, but currently don’t need to be done.

3. Urgent, Not Important (Delegate): Tasks that need to be done quickly, however are not critical to your main objectives , consider delegating.

4. Not Urgent, Not Important (Eliminate): Tasks that could be construed as “not important” or “not urgent” , usually can be eliminated.

How It Works for Remote Workers:

  • Urgent and Important: Deadlines, client requests and concern emails.
  • Important, Not Urgent: Long-term projects, strategic planning, or skill growth or experience.
  • Urgent, Not Important: Routine admin work or low-priority email communication.
  • Not Urgent, Not Important: Browsing social media or taking too many personal phone calls.

Decide Each Day: Incorporating this matrix into your Work tasks on a daily basis will allow for task prioritization, put an end to procrastination or busy work, and make you intentionally aware of what you are working on that day to ensure it gets you closer to your work or student goals.

7. Create a Distraction-Free Workspace

7 Powerful Time Management Tips
7. Create a Distraction-Free Workspace

A distraction-free work environment is essential for productivity, and even more so for people who are working remotely. The workspace in which you perform will determine how well you’re able to concentrate, so it is important to set up a workspace that feels exclusively dedicated to work, for productivity’s sake.

Implementation Steps for an Ideal Distracted-Free Work Environment:

  •  Pick an area of the house that you work in only: Choose a pre-designated spot for working. This is a separate mind state from enjoying personal time and will improve concentration.- 
  • Clear off your workspace on the desktop: Only leave a workspace with necessary items, like a computing device, pen and paper, or phone charger. The less clutter, the freer the mind state, and improve focus on work.- 
  • Get rid of distractions digitally by turning off notifications: Turn off notifications on your computing device to turn off distractions by productivity app tools like Forest to limit time-wasting applications or social media while in a work state of mind.- 
  • Control noise: Noise can be an issue when trying to concentrate for work like headphones or earplugs to mitigate interruptions in concentration.- 
  • Set up boundaries: Inform the family or assigned roommates of working hours along with requesting minimal interruptions when in phases of work, or meetings.

Following these steps ensure your mind is in a work state while remaining organized and distracted free.

Effective time management is very important for remote workers to foster productivity, balance and reach your success.

 Using strategies such as developing a morning routine, utilizing Parkinson’s Law and prioritizing efforts, you can unleash your full potential and develop an efficient working environment.

 Keep in mind that an appropriate workspace without distractions is needed to make sure that you stay focused on the goals at hand.

This time management will, with practice and consistency, change the way you work while increasing efficiency and creating better work-life balance.

If you feel like your life needs a full reset, here’s a guide to get back on track.

Act now: There is nothing stopping you from utilizing these time-management and efficiency strategies today and seeing how that might work into improving your productivity as well as your mental status.
 From the Pomodoro Technique to set up an environment where you enter without distraction, you will see the pushback from the effort. Please leave your comments below.

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