With working from home, organizational issues and struggling with staying on a strict schedule 100 percent of the time may start to crop up. With the lack of office structure, remote employees tend to work longer nearly “all day” compared to in-office employees. Remote work can also result in feelings of disconnection, isolation, and loneliness.
Luckily, there are a few ways to keep on track with your remote work schedule:
- Allot time for regular breaks throughout the day to ease the feeling of burnout.
- Check in with your colleagues to keep abreast of which projects they’re working on and to keep a sense of community.
- Schedule a designated day for all of your weekly meetings if possible.
Read on below about 5 tips on how to create a remote schedule that works best for you.
1. Know When To Log Off.
Without the help of the big clock in your office at work to signal when it’s time for you to clock out, many remote employees fall into the trap of working longer hours at home. The convenience of your at-home office brings with it a feeling of always needing to be logged on to your laptop.
Set boundaries for yourself and have a respectable time of when you need to log off for the day.
One way to note working and non-working times is by using Google Calendar’s Working Hours setting to visibly mark the times you won’t be on the clock. You can also use this scheduling feature in Microsoft Outlook.
2. Allot Time For Personal Needs
More often than not, we may worry about asking leadership to use time during the day to take care of personal or family matters. Management will most likely understand that employees will need some time for daily work-life balance.
Once approved by your manager, note the occurrences on your calendar for your personal life commitments such as running errands or picking up a child up from school. This will allow your team to know when you’re busy and cannot be booked for a meeting while also giving you uninterrupted time to maintain a healthy work-life balance.
3. Book Your Meetings On A Specific Day(s)
One of the best ways to keep a hold of your weekly work schedule is to group all of your meetings during one or a couple days consecutively each week. This leaves you with the rest of the week to get your work or projects done without having to be interrupted with meetings every couple hours, as well as having time for any work-life balance necessities
4. Check In With Your Co-Workers
One of the main challenges that remote employees deal with are the feelings of isolation from your colleagues and the lack of social interaction due to working from home. To help ease the feelings of disconnect within the company, schedule regular one-on-one check-ins or virtual after work “parties” with your team.
Regular meetings also help you get to know your coworkers better and stay up to date with each other’s workload.
5. Take Breaks Each Day
Aside from scheduling time for work-life balance, you should also remember to take breaks throughout your day.
Just because you’re working from home doesn’t mean that you don’t need or deserve to take breaks. In fact, taking breaks is essential in helping to prevent burnout and boost creativity.
Consider blocking off two 15 time slots for a late morning and late afternoon break on your calendar each day. You don’t always have to use those times for a break, but the calendar reminder will remind you that you have that time to reset and practice self-care if you need it.