Now more than ever, unconventional work situations require bold and innovative solutions. While in decades past many employees reported to traditional job sites and performed work in a straightforward fashion, today’s workforce has an unprecedented number of telecommuters and off-site workers.
As such, the need for productivity solutions to maximise day-to-day performance is more crucial than ever. Whether you are working outside of the office as an entrepreneur, or need to monitor off-site employee productivity, embracing the right solutions and strategies isn’t negotiable.
Let’s take a look at how you can make the most of any workday even when you are not at the office.
Put a Hard Limit on Distractions
In the office and under normal circumstances, the temptation to check emails, browse social media or otherwise waste time can be minimal. However, humans are habitual creatures and develop behaviours and associations with specific times and places. When you’re not working from the office, you can feel more tempted to waste time and let distractions get in the way of productivity.
Because of this, you need to have a hard rule with regard to distractions. Whether this be turning off your phone, blocking certain websites, or confining yourself to a particular room, the need to limit those distractions is greater when out of the office.
TechRepublic offers a variety of useful recommendations for eliminating distractions when working from home, which can be applied to many situations when you are out of the office as well.
Invest in Mobile Workforce Tools
To be able to work effectively outside the office, you need a comprehensive set of utilities that makes doing so easier. Whether you are juggling the use of mobile devices that may not provide inherent functionality in the same sense as an office computer or attempting to track employee tasks, certain inefficiencies can manifest when working away from the office.
Mobile workforce management tools can help improve this dynamic and make the process more seamless. One such example is BigChange, which offers a variety of mobile workforce management solutions that help managers and employees track everything from product inventory and employee task progress to geographic location and timesheets. Designed for employees who find themselves on the go, these utilities make the process of working from home or while travelling less disruptive.
Play Some Music
Finally, keeping yourself focused while working in unfamiliar spaces can actually be accomplished through listening to music. While some might think playing music could be a distraction, studies show that listening to music focuses the mind and helps drown out audible distractions while at work.
Embrace the Pomodoro Technique
Businesses are constantly seeking new methods of being productive while in challenging situations, but there are some age-old techniques that work quite efficiently. One such example is the Pomodoro Technique, which was originally crafted in the 1980s by Francesco Cirillo. We’ve talked about the benefits of the Pomodoro Technique in a previous article on productivity.
Simply put, the Pomodoro Technique revolves around breaking larger tasks up into smaller ones, while also creating shorter work intervals with short breaks between each. Rather than trying to force yourself to work for several hours at a time, the Pomodoro Technique encourages employees to work in 25-minute bursts.
Given that working outside of the office can present many challenges, distractions and temptations, this technique can actually be quite effective. By dedicating yourself to short, uninterrupted periods of work, you’ll know that there’ll be opportunities to check email or return phone calls in the near future. This can help keep you focused on work in the here and now.
It can be difficult to make the most of your workday when outside of the office, but the key is to focus, reduce distractions, utilise mobile workforce tools, and use efficient methods for managing time and tasks. With these simple recommendations, anybody can be more productive even when outside of their typical work environments.
