Productivity & Working From Home

It’s fair to say that these are the most challenging times some of us have seen in our lifetime. There is so much uncertainty in the air and the way we live our lives is changing so drastically. It’s even being compared (with a touch of hyperbole) to a time of war. Amidst all of this, we believe it is entirely possible while working from home to stay productive and do our best work. As Productivity Ninjas we expect to have to adapt to change. As bosses or workers, we need to be ready to learn and polish some new skills.

I saw an infographic yesterday from the team at PlanetK2. It started with “Put on your own oxygen mask first”. This really resonates with us as we have to ensure commercial focus is given equal exposure to individual wellbeing.

How do we do this? How do we maintain the level of productivity and wellbeing for ourselves and our teams? There are many things at play here, so today we are focussing on environment and leadership.

Working from home

We’re talking about taking our team members away from their comfort zone of the coffee machine, the banter, structure and routine. And expecting them to deliver the same output. Even sat at their kitchen table (if they have one!) all lonely and potentially without immediate IT support! (as this team will suddenly become very busy!)

If this is ringing true for you, we’ve put together this guide on how to apply our 9 Characteristics of the Productivity Ninja to Working from Home.

We hope these tips will help you adapt to your new environment and help you make the most of your new circumstances.

Leadership

Will the way you lead your team in the office translate when they are working remotely? We can let you into a little secret here… probably not!

A bit like when you send an email that ends up being taken the wrong way and not how you intended. How can you motivate your team when you may just have slack/email to work with?

As a leader, you are now facing the daunting task of leading a team through adversity and change, ensuring everyone is coming on that journey with you, communicating across many new mediums and in different locations oh and you have to make sure everyone is engaged and motivated. I think one should take a moment now to pause and breathe.

As I said at the beginning being productive is possible during these torrid times but not if you expect to continue in the way you were and instead embrace these new opportunities for yourselves and your teams.

Take care and stay safe out there.