How To Be Productive While Working From Home

Summary

In this video, Kyle from Web Dev Simplified offers practical tips for boosting productivity while working remotely. He emphasizes the importance of treating remote work like an office job, setting up a dedicated workspace, taking regular breaks, maintaining social interactions through video chats, and establishing clear boundaries between work and leisure. These strategies aim to help viewers enjoy the benefits of remote work without sacrificing efficiency.

Takeaways

• 😀 Treat remote work as you would an office job by getting fully ready in the morning to enter a work mindset.
• 🏠 Create a dedicated workspace at home that is separate from leisure areas to avoid mental conflict between work and relaxation.
• 🛋️ Avoid working from places typically associated with relaxation, like the living room, to maintain a clear boundary between work and leisure.
• 🕒 Take regular breaks to emulate the natural interruptions that occur in an office environment, which can help maintain productivity and mental well-being.
• 🍽️ Do not eat lunch at your work area; instead, eat elsewhere to create a mental break from work and allow for a reboot of your focus.
• 🚶‍♂️ Incorporate physical activity, like walking, into your day to revitalize your mind and maintain productivity.
• 🗣️ Engage in video chats with coworkers to maintain social interaction and mental stimulation, which is often lacking in remote work.
• ⏰ Set clear boundaries for work hours to prevent work from spilling over into personal time and to ensure a healthy work-life balance.
• 👪 Communicate with those you live with about your work schedule and the need for uninterrupted work time to establish boundaries and avoid distractions.
• 📱 Use tools like Slack or email for written communication, but also prioritize video calls for a more personal and effective communication method.
• 🔄 Continuously assess and adjust your remote work setup and habits to find what works best for maintaining productivity and enjoying the remote work lifestyle.

Q & A

What is the main topic of the video?

The main topic of the video is about providing tips and tricks for working remotely to maintain productivity and a healthy work-life balance.

Why might remote work seem unproductive to some people?

Remote work might seem unproductive because people can struggle with distractions, lack of a structured work environment, and the blurred lines between work and leisure time.

What is the first tip given by Kyle for someone new to remote work?

The first tip is to treat remote work just like working in an office by getting fully ready in the morning, including dressing up, to get into the work mindset.

Why is it important to have a dedicated workspace at home?

A dedicated workspace is important to separate work from leisure activities and to create an environment that signals to your mind that it's time to work, enhancing productivity and focus.

What is the issue with working from the living room according to the video?

Working from the living room can create a conflict in your mind because it's normally associated with relaxation and leisure, which can make it difficult to be productive.

What is the recommendation for taking breaks while working remotely?

The recommendation is to incorporate regular breaks, such as walking around the house, getting a glass of water, or going for a walk outside, to prevent mental fatigue and maintain productivity.

Why is it suggested to not eat lunch at the workspace when working from home?

Eating lunch at the workspace can blur the lines between work and relaxation, making it harder to mentally disengage from work during leisure time.

What is the role of video chats in maintaining communication with coworkers while working remotely?

Video chats help to replicate the social interaction and personal communication that is often lost in written communication, providing mental stimulation and a sense of connection with the team.

What boundaries are suggested to set when working from home to avoid overworking?

Setting boundaries includes establishing specific work hours and communicating your need for uninterrupted work time to family members or roommates.

How can setting boundaries improve the overall experience of working from home?

Setting boundaries helps to prevent work from spilling over into leisure time, ensuring a balance between productivity and personal life, and reducing the risk of burnout.

What does Kyle encourage viewers to do if they feel he missed any tips in the video?

Kyle encourages viewers to share their thoughts and additional tips in the comments section to help others and for him to learn from their experiences.

Outlines

00:00

🏠 Embracing the Remote Work Lifestyle

This paragraph introduces the topic of remote work and the common misconceptions about its ease and benefits. It highlights the challenges many face when transitioning to a remote work environment, such as decreased productivity and the struggle to maintain a work-life balance. The speaker, Kyle from Web Dev Simplified, promises to share valuable tips and tricks to enhance productivity while working remotely, ensuring viewers can enjoy the perks of remote work without sacrificing efficiency. The paragraph also addresses the current situation where many people have been forced into remote work and the impact it has on those who are new to this setup or are surrounded by less productive remote workers.

05:00

🛠️ Setting Up for Remote Work Success

The second paragraph delves into the importance of setting up the right mindset and environment for successful remote work. It emphasizes the need to treat remote workdays like regular office days, including getting fully ready in the morning to enter a work mindset. The speaker advises against working from leisure areas of the home to prevent mental conflict between work and relaxation. Establishing a dedicated workspace, even if it's a simple desk in an unused corner, is recommended to create a clear boundary between work and personal life. This separation helps in switching off work mode after the workday ends, which is crucial for maintaining a healthy work-life balance while working from home.

10:02

⏱️ The Importance of Breaks and Boundaries in Remote Work

This paragraph discusses the significance of taking breaks and setting boundaries to maintain productivity and mental well-being while working remotely. It points out that the absence of natural breaks and social interactions in a remote setting can lead to overworking and burnout. The speaker suggests incorporating regular breaks, such as walking around the house or going for a neighborhood walk, to clear the mind and revitalize for continued productivity. Lunch breaks should be taken away from the work area to signal a mental break. Additionally, maintaining social interactions through video calls with coworkers is recommended to replicate the social aspects of an office environment. The paragraph concludes with advice on setting clear work hours and boundaries with household members to prevent work from spilling over into personal time, ensuring a balanced remote work experience.

Keywords

💡Remote work

Remote work refers to the practice of working from a location outside the traditional office setting, such as from home or any other place with access to the internet. In the video, the theme revolves around the challenges and tips for maintaining productivity while working remotely, highlighting the importance of treating remote work as one would in a traditional office to maintain a professional mindset.

💡Productivity

Productivity in this context refers to the efficiency and effectiveness of an individual's work output while working remotely. The video emphasizes the importance of maintaining productivity by establishing a routine, setting up a dedicated workspace, and taking regular breaks to avoid burnout, which are all strategies to enhance work output without being physically present in an office.

💡Work mindset

A work mindset is the mental state or attitude that an individual adopts when they are focused on their professional tasks. The video script suggests that getting ready in the morning as if going to an office helps to transition into a work mindset, which is essential for remote workers to separate their work from leisure activities.

💡Dedicated workspace

A dedicated workspace is a specific area set up for the sole purpose of work, separate from common living areas. The script mentions the importance of having a dedicated workspace to avoid mental conflict between work and leisure environments, which helps in maintaining focus and productivity while working remotely.

💡Breaks

Breaks refer to the periods of rest or pause that an individual takes during work hours to refresh and recharge. The video script advises remote workers to incorporate regular breaks into their work routine to prevent mental fatigue and to mimic the natural interruptions that occur in an office setting, which are beneficial for mental health and productivity.

💡Communication

Communication in a remote work context involves the exchange of information and ideas between team members, often through digital means. The video highlights the need for remote workers to actively seek communication with their coworkers through video chats or calls to maintain social interaction and a sense of connection, which is crucial for overall work experience and well-being.

💡Social interaction

Social interaction is the process of engaging with others in a social context, which is vital for human beings. The script points out that remote work can lead to a lack of social interaction, which can affect one's well-being. To counter this, the video suggests setting up video calls with coworkers to replicate the social aspects of a traditional office environment.

💡Boundaries

Boundaries in the context of remote work refer to the limits or distinctions one sets between work and personal life. The video script discusses the importance of setting boundaries regarding work hours and creating a physical and mental separation between work and leisure to prevent overworking and to maintain a healthy work-life balance.

💡Work-life balance

Work-life balance is the equilibrium between an individual's work responsibilities and personal life. The video emphasizes the need for remote workers to establish boundaries to maintain a healthy work-life balance, ensuring that work does not encroach upon personal time and vice versa.

💡Mental state

Mental state refers to an individual's psychological condition or mood at a given time. The video script mentions that working continuously for long hours without breaks can negatively impact one's mental state, leading to decreased productivity. Therefore, taking breaks and maintaining social interactions are suggested as ways to support a positive mental state while working remotely.

💡Routine

Routine is a sequence of regular actions or activities that are followed in a specific order. The video script suggests that establishing a morning routine, similar to preparing for an office job, can help remote workers transition into a work mindset more effectively, which is crucial for starting the workday with focus and intention.

Highlights

Working remotely is a dream for many but it comes with challenges such as decreased productivity.

Kyle from Web Dev Simplified shares tips for maintaining productivity while working remotely.

Treat remote work as if going to an office by getting fully ready in the morning to enter work mode.

Avoid working in leisure spaces like the living room to prevent mental conflict between work and relaxation.

Create a dedicated workspace at home to establish a clear boundary between work and personal life.

Take regular breaks to prevent burnout and maintain mental freshness, similar to interruptions in an office.

Do not eat lunch at your work area to ensure a clear mental break from work during meal times.

Engage in short walks or outdoor activities to revitalize the mind and improve productivity.

Maintain social interaction through video chats to replicate office communication and reduce isolation.

Set clear working hours to avoid blending work and leisure time and to prevent overworking.

Communicate your work boundaries to housemates or family to minimize distractions during work hours.

The importance of setting boundaries to distinguish between work and relaxation for mental health.

Kyle promises increased productivity and enjoyment of remote work by applying the shared tips.

Invitation for viewers to share their own remote work experiences and tips in the comments.

Encouragement to subscribe for more videos on simplifying web development and remote work.

The video concludes with a reminder of the value of setting up an effective remote work routine.

Transcripts

having the ability to work remotely is

something many people dream of doing and

if you're watching this video it is most

likely something that you're either

currently doing or something that you're

working towards achieving but remote

work is not as easy and a great as it

sounds well yes you can work in your

pajamas on the beach sipping martinis

all day long really that's not gonna be

the most productive way to work and many

people find that as soon as you start

working remotely you realize your

productivity drops and you struggle with

a lot of things you don't struggle with

when you work in an office so in this

video I'm gonna share with you all the

tips and tricks I've learned over the

last few years working remote so that

way you can enjoy the remote life

without having to sacrifice any

productivity so let's get started now

welcome back to web dev simplified my

name's Kyle and my job is to simplify

the web for you so you can start

building your dream project sooner so if

that sounds interesting make sure you

subscribe to my channel for more videos

just like this one now recently with

everything that's been going on a lot of

people have been forced to work remotely

that maybe have never worked for about

before I'm sure you may be in that

situation or you may be in this

situation where people around you are

working remotely that aren't used to it

and they are just making it more

difficult for you because they aren't as

productive or they're interfering with

your normal remote work life so in this

video I'm going to be sharing all the

tips and tricks that I know so that you

can be the most productive as possible

while working remote and also so you can

help others that are working remotely by

sharing this video with them if you

found it useful and the first tip that I

want to give you if you're just starting

out working remotely maybe you've never

worked remote before is to just treat

life just like normal as if you were

going into the office that means when

you wake up in the morning I want you to

get ready fully put on clothes don't sit

around in your pajamas and wait till

noon to take a shower I want you to get

up shave put on clothes take a shower

treat it as if you're going to work even

dress up nice if you'd normally dress up

nice take that moment to dress up nice

and it'll make you feel like you're

getting

to that work mode a lot of people on the

weekends will lounge around in their

pajamas and not get ready till later and

when you do that same thing on a workday

when you're not used to working remotely

it puts your mind into relaxation mode

weekend mode and you're not really in

that work mindset so by going through

the motions of getting ready getting

dressed showering shaving all of that

stuff that you normally do in the

morning it's gonna put you into your

work mindset which will make it much

easier for you to sit down and start

working without being distracted by all

of that relaxation mindset vibe stayin

in your pajamas and speaking on that

same kind of idea of relaxation mindset

make sure that when you're working from

home you're not working in the same

place that you normally do you release

your activities which means don't go out

into your living room and sit on your

couch to work remotely this is something

that's going to make your living room

and your workspace conflict because now

the living room where you normally lay

back and watch Netflix watch movies

whatever it is is now the same place

you're working in so your mind is

conflicted it doesn't know are you in a

work environment or are you in a leisure

environment because when you go to the

office for work your mind knows okay

this is where I work but if you're in

the area where you normally relax your

mind thinks okay this is where I relax

so instead of being productive and

working your mind is constantly trying

to tell you hey shouldn't you be

relaxing why are you working you don't

normally work here this is where you

relax so I highly recommend that you get

yourself a dedicated place to work this

doesn't have to be a full-blow and work

from home office you may not have one

but just having a simple desk or a chair

or something somewhere where you go and

that is where you work maybe in the

guest bedroom you probably don't use the

guest bedroom in your house very often

set it up so that it has a chair and a

desk and use that as your office for

work from home also if you don't have a

full-blow an area like that just take a

table or a desk or something anywhere

and move it somewhere in your house you

don't normally go even if you're in an

apartment move this somewhere you just

don't normally release your so maybe

it's just stuck in a corner somewhere in

one of your rooms wherever

it is just make it somewhere that is

your workspace that way when you enter

that area your mind says okay this is

where I work and when you leave that

area your mind says okay I'm done

working because that's a thing that a

lot of people struggle with is they

struggle to turn off after they're done

working because when you work at home

and you also enjoy leisure activities at

home

it blurs the line between work and

leisure and you don't know when to stop

working and when to start relaxing this

is another problem with working in your

living room you may get into the mindset

of okay this is where I work now so

you're really productive in that area

but then when it comes time to relax and

watch some Netflix and enjoy the time

you realize that your mind is constantly

thinking of work because you've

associated your living room with work

when in reality your living room should

be associated with relaxation so having

that stark separation between work and

enjoyment and making sure that you have

two different areas that you do one

activity versus the other is incredibly

important so now we've talked a bit

about how you can set up your mindset

and your environment to be successful

and productive and you may realize you

just sit down and you start cranking

through things hour after hour after

hour and before you know it you realize

you just sat down for five six seven

hours straight you skipped lunch you

were just super productive and while yes

this is good being productive it's bad

because it really kind of hurts your

mental state and causes you to get into

a super work mode when in reality

working remotely you need to make sure

that you take breaks because when you're

in the office and you're working people

are gonna walk by people are going to

talk to you people are going to

interrupt you and those are nice

frequent breaks which you may not

appreciate them when you're in the

office but really what they do is they

help break up your mind and give you a

little bit of a break a little bit of

time to communicate with others

same thing with lunch a lot of times you

may eat lunch with a group of people at

work so that gives you a nice amount of

time to relax and let your brain reboot

while when you're working from home you

have limited distractions especially if

you set yourself up in a good

environment which means that you can be

really really productive but you don't

have any of those breaks built into your

environment into your workplace you need

to incorporate your own breaks you need

to set your own breaks so I highly

recommend that

if you're working from home you take

some time every couple hours every hour

whatever it is and just get up and walk

around your house at the very least just

walk around a little bit get a glass of

water whatever it is and just take a

small break five minutes just so you

have time to walk around air yourself

out clear out your mind and then get

back to work and I also highly recommend

if you're eating lunch

do not eat lunch where you work most of

the time it's really tempting just to go

grab some lunch from your kitchen bring

it back to where you're working and eat

lunch while working do not do that

you need time to recoup your thoughts in

your brain so you need to eat lunch

somewhere else eat lunch in your kitchen

eat lunch with your family since they're

also all probably home just do not eat

lunch in your work area that gives you

that break that you normally get a lot

of times with eating lunch with other

people when you're at work also a great

break which I highly recommend is going

for a walk around your neighborhood /

whatever it is if you have the ability

to just go in for a short walk

especially out in fresh air is a great

way to really just revitalize your mind

and really get yourself going again

because just work work work work work

really wears down your brain and it

makes you less productive overall also

in a similar vein of communicating with

people and having interruptions

throughout your day you'll notice when

you work from home you have very little

communication with your coworkers unless

you go out of your way to make that

communication you may have some written

communication on something like slack or

email but that's really not very good

communication overall it's very low

level communication and it doesn't feel

very personal it doesn't feel like

you're really talking to someone it

feels more like you're talking to just a

screen so I highly recommend if you're

used to that normal communication in

work that you've set up time throughout

your day to just have some video chats

with people that you work with maybe

over lunch you and a few other people

you normally work with just hop on a

video chat eat lunch together and talk

as if you were in the office that's

going to give you that mental

stimulation that you need from other

people and that social aspect of your

work environment that you lack severely

when you work from home so just setting

up video calls whether it's during lunch

whether it's just randomly during the

day to just talk it's not going to

necessarily be work-related

you just need to talk to someone to have

that social environment not everyone

needs this extra social level but I know

a lot of people really struggle working

from home

because they lack that social being so

just set up some video calls with your

co-workers with your friends with

whoever to make sure you have that good

social interaction throughout your day

so far we've talked about your mindset

and environment we've talked about

communication and coworkers and the last

thing I want to talk about is boundaries

when you work from home as I've

mentioned before it's really hard to set

your boundaries between work and leisure

where do you relax and where do you work

the line starts to get blurry because

you're working in the same place

generally as where you're relaxing so

you need to have some way to set

boundaries and one of the best

boundaries that I think you need to set

is a boundary related to when you work

make sure you set a boundary saying I do

not start work until this time and I do

not work after this time so you give

yourself set working hours because while

you're in the office and you're working

along you'll notice people slowly

leaving throughout the day going home

and that kind of gives you those mental

cues saying okay it's my turn to go home

as well so you get up and leave and grab

your stuff and go around that normal

time everyone else leaves but when you

work from home you don't have those

mental cues you're just working along 5

6 7 8 o'clock and nothing ever tells you

you need to go home so you need to set

your own boundaries saying I am NOT

going to work after this set time

whatever time that is you said it

yourself just say this is the latest I

will work no matter what and do the same

thing with the earliest that you're

going to work say I'm not gonna start

work before a certain time that way you

have your work hours set and you don't

accidentally mix your work and your

leisure by letting your work spill over

into your leisure time or letting your

leisure time spill over into your work

time another important thing to set

boundaries with is going to be the

people that live with you

many of you probably have family members

or roommates all living with you and

they're all also trying to work from

home maybe for the very first time and

that is a difficult situation so making

sure you set boundaries saying this is

when I'm working do not bother me while

I'm working

unless it's important same way that they

wouldn't come in to your office and talk

to you randomly

they shouldn't come into your work

environment when you're working from

home and talk to you and distract you so

make sure you set these boundaries

saying I am NOT going to be distracted

during this time please don't talk to me

unless you need to and really setting up

those rules is super super important for

making sure a that you're productive and

be that you don't overwork yourself and

with that if you combined together all

these different tips and tricks over the

next coming weeks I promise you that not

only is your productivity going to sky

rock but also your overall enjoyment of

working from home is going to be at an

all-time high also if you feel that I

missed anything please let me know down

in the comments below

not only can I learn from these comments

but also other people can learn from

your own experiences and will be able to

help everyone out as a whole also you

can check out my other videos linked

over here and subscribe to my channel

for more videos just like this one thank

you very much for watching and have a

good day