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Lahiru Samaraweera
Lahiru Samaraweera

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Tips for a more productive working from home practice

1.Get up at a comfortable time.

We know, we have used to get up in the early morning when we used to travel to our offices. But now we don’t need to. So let’s enjoy the benefit, let’s have more sleep. Trust me I have found that we are more productive when we have a good sleep.

But there’s one thing important. Don’t sleep until the last minute that you start your first meeting or report time. At least get up 45 minutes before that. That will makes you more prepared for the day.

2. Brush your teeth and take a bath.

I know we are lazy. But taking cleanup in the morning makes us more productive. Try it, you will reveal it yourself. ( This is one reason why I asked you to get up at least 45min before your first report )

3. Don’t forget your breakfast and other meals

It’s very important that you have your breakfast on time. After taking the wash, I guess your first thing should be having your breakfast. Don’t have it while working. Invest a separate time to enjoy your meals.

4. Invest 10 minutes to plan your day in the beginning.

Having a plan will make you more focused on your task and deadlines. And also track your progress in terms of the time left. Normally I spent 5–10 minutes In the morning for creating my daily plan. And also we know at any moment plan can get changed. So when you get any high priority task, just go and update your plan. You might have to take something out in order to facilitate the high priority newcomer, it’s totally fine. So make sure to keep always your plan updated. And stick to your plan as much as possible.

5. Be more hydrated.

I have revealed myself that being hydrated is more important in term of productivity. So I would like to request you to keep yourself hydrated as well. I use mostly is water 😃 for that. And also I have used to drink about 300ml of water in the morning before starting everything.

6. Be more concentrated on a single task at a time.

We are always hungry about getting multiple things done in a short period of time. So in order to achieve this, we have used to carry out a couple of tasks at a time. let me give you an example; watching Netflix while coding. Trust me, my friend, you will end up spending more time than you thought. And also finally you will have a halfway covered Netflix video with a dam sophisticated code ( you might have to spend some more time to understand what you have done while watching Netflix. 🤣). See the reality, It’s not going to work. why do we exhaust our time? let’s focus on coding for a couple of hours and then focus on the movie. I’m pretty sure it will give you a successful code as well as a successful pleasure. Hmm… It’s time to stay focused.

7. Uninstall the social media app that you used to use more frequently from your phone

I know this looks awkward. But this is the truth.. you are spending more time on the social media app that you used to use mostly. I don’t think that time will make you a fortune. Only you will end up with tired eyes and tired mind. So my suggestion is to reserve a time-slot for your social media checkouts and do not use the beyond that time limit. ( Use the web browser for that and close the tab after use )

8. Have a group chat or group call with your office mates.

Earlier, We used to have some chats with coffee or snack with our co-workers in our free time, but now we don’t. But I think we should continue to do it even now we are apart. Usual jokes, chats will make your mind better and take your loneliness away. (Please make sure not to spoil the chat bringing the work-related stuff to the table😉)

9. A clean desk/work setup.

A clean and attractive work desk will always keep you more productive. Arranging your monitor to a comfortable direction, bringing some small toys on to the table and arranging them in an interesting way, surely will make a difference in your mind.

10. Read more….

Our life is also like a software. More the improvement you are doing will make you more shine. More the bugs you identify and fix will make you more stable. So my suggestion is to keep reading. Not only books.. you can even read other people; how they work, how they speak, how they write, how they learn… There are a lot of things that you can read around you. I’m pretty sure you will find thousands of improvements in your life. Don’t think twice to invest a time slot from your schedule for this. Keep reading all around you…

Cheers!! Happy working from home buddies.. !!!

This was originally posted on medium

Top comments (7)

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joelbonetr profile image
JoelBonetR 🥇 • Edited

My productivity work from home routine is to wake me up at 6:30, brush my teeth, wash my face and hands, put a tracksuit on me, make myself a long coffee and sit right in front of my computer on an ergonomic chair (Yama 1). With 4 screens (3x27" + 1x25" ultra-wide), booting into Elementary OS and then open Slack, Hangouts, Whatsapp Web, two chrome instances, datagrip, phpstorm, gitKraken and discord, then looking at the issues list, thinking on it a bit while drinking my coffee and then start working.
dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/...
This includes eating in front of the computer till 17:00 - 18:00h when i decide to restart, boot into windows and open CoD: MW or shutdown and go to the sofa for a while.
Am I doing something wrong?

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brandon_hopen profile image
Brandon Hopen

Do you use anything to manage all your applications (Slack, Whatsapp, Discord)? E.g. a web wrapper, or do you use some tool to view all of your conversations in one panel?

I've been looking into different ways to manage all of my notifications, particularly if I'm working and then get notified about a change.

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joelbonetr profile image
JoelBonetR 🥇

Well, i use every communication App for different purposes.

  • Slack is for dev teammates (including CTO, project manager and so, also people who organize other departments, and designers).
  • Hangouts is for user support department those who talk with clients and generate issues. Those issues are opened as support ticket inside an internal app, so hangouts is only for asking more information about an issue or to tell them how to solve it by their own.
  • WhatsApp web is for personal use (if someone have to tell me something -i.e. family mainly, they know they must not call me, instead sending me a whatsapp message and i'll read it when i'm available).
  • We use Discord only when working from home to emulate same "code and laugh" feeling we have working in the office, we don't use discord at the office because.. well, we've together on the same place.

Keeping that in mind, and pointing that i've ALWAYS my computer in "do not disturb" mode, I've only Slack and Hangouts on a screen, always visible, as they are the official communication sources i need to work.

If I've time, for example waiting something to compile/deploy i can take a look at whatsapp (or telegram, Dev, stack overflow, reddit, twitter...) but i don't like to waste my time while working (as the company pays for 7hours 40minutes of my services a day and i like to work this or more, but not less).

Long story short, that's how I manage my notifications, ignoring the sources of 80% of them, taking an eye on the important ones :)

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lahirusamaraweera profile image
Lahiru Samaraweera

Hi mate,

If you think you are happy, then there's no problem at all. But if you feel like tired, or depressed. then I think you should start evaluating your current process.

Cheers buddy.

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joelbonetr profile image
JoelBonetR 🥇

Thanks! Great job you did sharing this routine, i was joking (at least on half i said), it's important to keep a healthy routine when working from home, appreciate it =)

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dustinbrett profile image
Dustin Brett

Step 0. Don't have kids.

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joelbonetr profile image
JoelBonetR 🥇

That's an important point, I've a dog that wants to sit over me so i prepared a chair right next to me and he's a more happy dog now hahaha

Think for a moment on the kids sitting next to you, silently, on a sleepy shape for hours, without shouting... only asking for a scratch once a day... it could be something like a paradise for any father. :D