6 Remote Work Productivity Killers & How To Kill Them
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6 Remote Work Productivity Killers & How To Kill Them

  • The Hexaa
  • Author
    The Hexaa
  • Published
    March 3, 2022
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6 Remote Work Productivity Killers & How To Kill Them

an image of a man sitting at his desk with his laptop holding up a help sign to signify productivity killers in a remote workplace

A business is run by the people and even in a remote workplace can be as good, efficient and as productive as the people running it, but sadly us humans either lack certain habits or fall prey to distractions and procrastination very easily, which then kills the productivity in a remote workplace. We never do good with choices, our brain gets confused very easily, and in this digital era we have hundreds of entertainment choices in a day due to which we start becoming distracted by the minutest of things and hence our productivity goes down the drain.

But humans also have an ability of evolving and becoming better. If they recognize the patterns they can certainly improve and be much more productive. Here is a list of the main things that can kill your productivity in a remote workplace and how you can fix them.

1) Noise

an image of a child making noise in front of a woman working remotely on her laptop to signify the impact of noise on remote work productivity

The first step in staying productive is to evade yourself from the different sensory stimuli that can distract your brain because sometimes the noise in your workplace is so high that it starts to feel like a fish market. You get to listen more of your surroundings than doing your own work.

The solution would be communicating with everyone contributing to a noisy environment and telling them how you feel about it. You can explain how the noise created by them impacts your productivity. However the best option would be to choose a quiet place in your remote workplace or use noise cancelling headphones. They can be just the thing to get you back on track.

2) Social Media

an image of a woman checking her phone displaying like icons next to it while a laptop rests on her desk to signify the impact of social media on remote work productivity

Social media is todays biggest culprit in terms of draining your productivity. The apps are made so that with a refresh you can get new information which will always renew, you get addicted to these apps and they drain all of your time. Using internet for the non-work purposes can be toned down by using some extensions which block these apps or by just hiding these apps from your homepage so that your access to them is limited. You can also block their notifications during the day or whenever you are working.

3) Unnecessary Meetings

an image of a woman slouching in a meeting window to signify the impact of unnecessary meetings on remote work productivity

According to a Harvard survey 71% of managers said meetings are unproductive and inefficient. These meetings take hours and they don’t prove to be fruitful or to give anything important to the company so a good thing would be to not hold the meetings that are unnecessary and to email or personally message to convey information and only if it is absolutely necessary should a meeting be held.

4) Distractions

an image of a man walking away from distracting icons falling in the trash to signify the impact of distractions on remote work productivity

In a remote work environment, focus is an essential requirement and there are multiple ways to enhance focus. When you are working on something that requires focus, even the slightest of distractions can ruin your momentum and impact productivity adversely. These can be notifications or messages on your social media or phone.

Since internet is a necessity and you can’t turn off your phone, a simple solution is to turn on the “Do not disturb” mode on your phone since this allows you to politely convey to your co-workers that you are working and not to disturb you. In the end you are there to work and the person who does his/her job most efficiently is the best one out there.

5) Disengagement

an image of a man sitting on his laptop looking at his co-workers who have opened a window to shine light on him signifying the impact of disengagement on remote work productivity

Evading distractions and interruptions is an easy task and a superficial one but the root of productivity lies into something deeper, an unmotivated and disengaged worker will never perform good even without any distractions and this engagement cant just be actively infused in the workers but the manager can help them, motivate them and give an environment in which they can engage with the work they do and the solutions to these problems aren’t so quick.

Firstly, us humans don’t feel like doing something if we feel it is of no use, and for that the workers should be told that their work is important to the society and to the company. They should be given proper benefits and they should be motivated to work for the company. Their complaints should be heard and fixed too and the workplace should be made a more friendly environment for everyone.

6) Poor Work / Life Balance

an image of a large scale balancing work life and private life

Now we reach to the most dangerous and perhaps the most ignored problem of the remote workplace because it doesn’t really start from the workplace, it starts from your own lifestyle, your home and how you manage your private life along with your work.

Too much burden can lead to suffering from burnout can destroy both your family life and work life. You can never perform to your full potential since you won’t be motivated or engaged enough to do so. This frustration will impact you negatively as a remote worker.

You may start to take leaves or may also fall prey to illness. Hence this is something that should be conveyed to the workers, the company should make some flexible schedules, change the working hours if workers need so and to give them yearly vacations which they can use. This will lead to a better, healthy and a much more productive remote work environment.

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