11 Tips for Staying Productive while Working from Home

As you know, the Coronavirus is causing a lot of disruption to our daily life. More people are opting to work at home for safety and health reasons.

Since Mailbutler is a software as a service company, it is easy for our whole team to work from home. In fact, some of our team members do it quite frequently, so I decided to gather some tips and tricks for working productively during this difficult time. 

Treat every working from home day as normal

First things first, you should get dressed as usual. As much as it is appealing to wear pajamas all day, you should put on regular clothes, so you can feel professional. 

Next, you should slowly start your day, drink a cup of coffee or tea and eat some breakfast. Once you feel up to it, you should make your way to your computer, to start your day.

Doing so, it will help you mentally separate your work life from your home life. 

Create an organized working environment

My next tip is to create an organized working environment, so you can limit the amount of distractions. I would suggest that you declutter a desk and table.

Also, tidy up your surroundings, you can do some quick vacuuming and put everything back in its place. 

Recommended reading: 5 ways email templates can improve your email strategy

Right now, social media, news websites, and emails can be detrimentally distracting. I am constantly seeing photos of empty food isles at grocery stores, as well as, receiving breaking news emails about the spread of the coronavirus.

In order to limit this, I use Mailbutler to mute my inbox, so I can focus on my work. 

Establish a routine

When you work from home, you are free to choose your starting, break and ending time. I advise that you keep every day as normal, because it will help stay productive.

Keep in mind, that your starting time may differ from your colleagues, clients or customers, which could cause some miscommunication.

If you want to work more productively, I recommend that you use Mailbutler’s Contacts and Send Later functions, because they will help you send emails at the right time.

Contacts show you the most optimal time to reach out to your recipient.

While Send Later allows you to schedule for the perfect time. I am currently working from home and I use both of these features, to make my email communication even better.

Communicate with your team

When you are working from home, it can be lonely, or way too chaotic if you have a roommate, pets, partner or kids. You should frequently keep in touch with your colleagues to see what they are doing, and to make the workday feel more normal.

Mailbutler’s sales team and the customer support team often collaborate in regard to customers questions. They have to frequently assign each other Tasks and Notes, when it comes to customer communication. 

If you want to keep up with communication when you are working from home, I recommend that you use Mailbutler’s Notes and Tasks features, because it will help your whole team stay organised. 

Create a general response message for customers

At Mailbutler, my colleagues have been receiving emails about Mailbutler operating as usual.

To answer these questions, the customer support and public relations team have created a general response email to answer these questions as professionally as possible. 

If you want to do the same, I recommend that create an email template that you can send to customers or clients if they ask a question.

My team has been using Mailbutler’s email templates, because it is easy to use and you can add your brand images to them. 

Get fresh air

When you work from home, the hours go by quickly. Before you know it, it is already the end of the day and you haven’t had an ounce of fresh air. You should open a window, or go outside every couple of hours.

This will help give you feel better and give your brain a break.

Don’t watch Contagion

After work, you won’t be able to leave your house, but you will have to keep yourself busy. You can watch series, films, read a book, exercise at home, cook, order food.. the list goes on.

One thing that I don’t recommend is that you watch the 2011 film, Contagion by Steven Soderbergh.

My partner and I made this mistake, and it kept us both awake for half of the night. So if you are going to watch anything, it shouldn’t be Contagion. 

Keep your kids busy

If you have kids, you are probably panicking about how you will keep them busy during the next weeks.

If you are lucky, you can keep an eye on them, when they are home. Our office manager, Trixi gave us a list on how to keep them busy, she recommends that your kids: 

• Make lego sets 
• Do puzzles 
• Play board games 
• Cook or bake 
• Make crafts 
• Get ahead on chores 
• Declutter wardrobes
• Prepare seedlings for spring from vegetables
• Colour eggs for Easter 

If you are sick, stop working!

If you are sick, you should stop working. If you are feeling the symptoms on the coronavirus, contact your local authorities about taking the next steps. Some helpful links are: 

• CDC website
• WHO website 

It is important that you follow your local government guidelines about what to do in this situation. 

Stay calm

If you are an anxious person, like I am, this situation can be very daunting. It is crucial to try to stay as calm as possible.

Just remember that it will be over sooner rather than later and before you know it everything will be back to normal! 

Eat healthy

When you’re working from home, it’s easy to just snack on whatever is convenient or order takeout for every meal.

However, this can quickly lead to unhealthy eating habits. To make sure you’re getting the nutrients you need, schedule time for cooking and eating healthy meals.

This can be as simple as cooking a big batch of food on the weekends or using a meal kit or delivery service that provides healthy options. Additionally, make sure to keep healthy snacks on hand so you’re not tempted to reach for junk food when hunger strikes.

By following these tips, you can make sure you’re eating healthy even while working from home.

Do you want to be more productive while working from home? Install Mailbutler for Apple Mail, Gmail and Outlook and focus on your work!

And in case you do want to be distracted from work, keep reading this interesting article!