How to manage your time when working from home

4 ideas to help you get the most out of your remote workdays

Photo by Brad Neathery on Unsplash

Time management can be a challenge for people new to remote working. Instead of following the daily structure set by an employer, you will need to create your own plan for effectively managing your time. These 4 rules will help you build a time management strategy that optimises your productivity.

1. Use your calendar wisely

An optimised schedule is the foundation of working productively from home. Your day should be planned around the most important tasks. As a result, even the most minor tasks should be properly scheduled to avoid having a domino effect on the rest of your work. If unexpected work is common for your role, include time for unplanned work in your schedule.

Setting yourself a hard start and stop time has big payoffs for remote workers. According to Cal Newport, author of Deep Work, finishing work on time every day is key to a healthy and productive work schedule.

Rest is critical for a lasting and productive work ethic. Cutting into your downtime because you didn’t plan ahead is not sustainable and will affect your work sooner than you think, so don’t fall into the habit.

2. Do the hard things first

The average worker has less than 4 hours of full productivity before their energy and motivation start to flag. Our energy and concentration levels throughout the day are governed in no small part by the circadian rhythm. This physiological mechanism has a major impact on our energy and alertness over a 24-hour cycle. As a result, timing is everything.

For most people, their circadian rhythm means their most productive hours are in the morning. A recent study by Redbooth provides data on this, showing that productivity peaks at 11am for the majority of their users.

Planning your most challenging work for those times can reduce the time you spend on a task and the quality of your output.

Planning a schedule around the circadian rhythm can boost your productivity while working fewer hours, instead of exhausting yourself with long work days in a battle against this natural rhythm.

3. Use data to guide you

How much time do you really spend killing time on your phone?

You are probably spending more time than you think browsing social media and other apps when you should be working, so a little self-regulation is a good idea. Use apps like ScreenTime for iOS or RescueTime for Android and Windows to track how you spend your time, and make sure you are happy with the answer.

Remember that most of the apps on your phone are designed to hold your attention for as long as possible.

A quick scroll through Facebook can quickly turn into 10 wasted minutes, losing all momentum on your work. If you can’t resist the temptation, consider leaving your phone in a separate room or even buying a cheap phone for work that you keep free from apps.

4. Manage expectations to protect your time

Most people have a strong tendency to tackle short tasks first, a bias known as the urgency effect. Left unchecked, this habit can leave you exhausting yourself on minor tasks while the important work piles up untouched.

Managing your client’s expectations can help you avoid this psychological trap. Set ground rules for your availability and turnaround times, such as establishing that you don’t check emails before or after a certain time.

A scheduling app like Calendly lets you restrict which times clients can book for a meeting, giving you more control over your schedule and reducing the time spent arranging calls with customers.

This means that you won’t feel under pressure to react immediately when you’re contacted by a client. It’s much easier to set expectations from the start than to roll back a standard you can’t maintain over time.

It feels great to get a quick task from a client and immediately deliver on it, but you need to look at the bigger picture. The work you already have scheduled will be affected even if you only spend a short amount of time on the unplanned task.