Interestingly, over the past two covid years, office workers' productivity has increased by 10%-30%. Can such a leap be explained? Of course it can. It's very simple: the pandemic forced managers to shift their employees to remote work.
People at home have become more relaxed, for example they can go to the kitchen for another cup of coffee at any time and as many times as they want per day. As you can see, working online for many employees turned out to be much more comfortable and calmer, which became the key to high productivity and efficiency.
On the other hand, remote work can become a trap for an employee's self-discipline. Many people know how to work better in the office, but remotely – this is all new. Let's consider the features and subtleties of remote work for 2022.
Online work schedule — what to improve in the daily routine?
Procrastination is the main enemy of every remote worker. Office employees also face it. However, the tendency for offline workers to postpone important things happens much less often. And this is understandable, because the main boss is sitting behind the wall, and the project manager is watching next to you. As for remote employees, this happens to them quite often if they lack self-discipline and don't have a work day schedule. We take note of how best to work online in order to keep up with everything and not succumb to latent procrastination:
- Early rise. This is the key to the success of a remote worker. It has long been proven that a person works most productively in the morning. It's all about the psychological component: if you start work after 12 days, there is a feeling that the day has already passed and it's simply impossible to finish all the amount of work. But, starting to perform their duties from 7-9 o'clock in the morning, a person feels a surge of strength from the fact that he/she still has a lot of time left. So anyone who likes to sleep until noon should change their schedule by rewriting the time of the "rise" for 6-8 o'clock in the morning.
- A full breakfast. If there is no such item in the schedule yet, then it's time to make it. New Year — new rules and habits. Depending on the time of rising, in half an hour we plan a morning meal to activate the metabolism. Having breakfast at this time is important in order to be cheerful, positively charged and active throughout the day. Egg dishes, Greek yogurt with fruits and nuts, oatmeal with berries or dried fruits are the best ways to increase and preserve energy in the body. A cup of green tea and coffee stimulates brain activity and invigorates the body.
- Active work up to 12 am. If this is an official online job, then most likely the manager will be interested in the completed tasks closer to lunch and at the end of the working day. To be ready for this, it's important to complete most of the tasks before lunch. For those who work informally, this advice will also help, because it is most effective to work until midday. The brain is at the peak of its activity.
- Add lunch to the schedule for the period from 1 pm to 1:30 pm. This is the time when the digestive system turns on at full capacity. Such a new portion of energy will last until the evening. It is recommended to do this in a cozy atmosphere: with your family, on a balcony with a view of the city, in your favorite cafe, with pleasant music or with a loved one. It should be a time of absolute relaxation.
- Is there no time for rest in the schedule? It's time to change that! Many people believe that if they work without a break, they will do everything 1-2 hours earlier and will be able to devote the evening time to themselves or their family. By skipping a rest period, they exhaust themselves, thereby slowing down the brain and reducing productivity. What could have been done in the afternoon in a few hours has to be done within 4-5 hours. But rest helps to reboot and return to an active position, having done the work quickly and efficiently.
- Time for communication. The period from 2 pm to 4 pm in the schedule should be dedicated for communication tasks: calls, communication with clients, answering questions in a chat, discussing tasks in messengers and social networks with colleagues.
- It is better to work online until 6 pm. There is no need to assume that since you are working at home, you can stretch the project until morning. After six in the evening, brain activity is greatly reduced, the body prepares for evening and night rest. So it's worth completing your schedule with the item "dinner at 6 pm and rest".
You can also add another useful item to the schedule and make it a habit for every day. It consists in setting out all the plans and tasks for the coming day an hour before bedtime. It is necessary to write down all the cases, prioritizing them.
Convenient applications for online work
Currently, working online has become very popular all over the world. In addition to popularity, for many this type of work has become a necessity. Over the past two years, the number of vacancies on labor exchanges has increased significantly, both from employers and from job seekers. Now many office workers have to look for new sources of income, get used to new working conditions, learn to meet deadlines and maintain productivity in a relaxed home environment.
Freelancing is a type of professional activity in which a person can rely solely on himself. In order not to stray from the chosen path and not to remove yourself from the base on the labor exchange after the first attempt, you need to get assistants. We talk about the applications for managing time, money earned, for scheduling, compiling tasks for the day, creating reports and many others. The choice of programs will depend on the profession and responsibilities of the employee.
In 2022, experts recommend installing the following applications that are useful for a freelancer:
- A simple Checkiant time tracker. A convenient app for tracking the employee's time spent on work and rest, as well as for calculating earnings.
- Time Doctor. An application with which it is possible to increase productivity by 20%- 22%. The program records all websites opened during the day, helps to keep reports, as well as monitoring through screenshots of PC screens.
- Rescue Time. It will help you use your time as efficiently as possible during the working day. Weekly reports that a freelancer or his employer receives will help to understand how much time is spent directly on work, and how much time is wasted. The experience gained from this data will allow you to work out the right schedule and manage time competently.
- Remember the Milk. It is suitable if online earnings are made from several devices at once. The program will help to combine tasks and simplify the process of monitoring their implementation in due time.
- Pocket. It will be needed when a person is looking for information for work via the Internet. It often happens that a useful site is accidentally closed and lost in a bunch of addresses in the browser history. This application will help you always keep such necessary links at hand.
- Clear. The program will help to systematize tasks by combining them with each other.
- Evernote. This is an opportunity to increase your productivity due to the correct and interesting organization of plans and tasks for the day. They can be recorded in different ways — by text, note, picture, smiley face, audio recording, and so on.
- Shoeboxed. The application will help remoters who find it difficult to get accounts and any financial transactions. With its help, you can easily scan and structure payment receipts by date and then generate expense reports.
- FreshBooks. A program for controlling expenses and time.
- Freedcamp. Helps to manage the calendar and arrange intermediate tasks.
These are TOP programs for working online in 2022, which will help a freelancer to do work on time, increase their productivity, introduce a little game into routine work processes, making it more interesting.
Habits and skills you can't do without
Managers choose employees in their team not only those who have a higher education. Important criteria in the selection are the applicants' ability to self-study, acquire additional skills, as well as the possession of a certain number of personal qualities. Part-time work online will become much more pleasant and profitable, and employers will pay more attention to freelancers with skills and qualities, including:
- communication in the digital world. Today, remote employees are multitasking and flexible personalities. They are no longer sitting in their cozy corner, chained to a computer with a single goal to complete their project. Now freelancers join groups for more effective work, are interviewed online, discuss important points with partners, employees and management. Freelancers should be good with words, express their thoughts competently and understand the interlocutor, be able to support any profession topic;
- online remote work requires employees to be self-motivated. This is important, because there is no boss and manager nearby who will remind you how much you can earn if you do more or take more complex projects, get bonuses and other privileges. The remoter needs to be able to find the advantages of his work himself, which will encourage him to take action;
- technical skills – a remote worker today must be able to use special applications, websites, services and various programs.
Among other skills and qualities of a freelancer in 2022, it is worth noting self-learning, the ability to independently find information and rationally allocate time, as well as work in a team.
What will 2022 bring us?
This year, the following professions are especially popular for working online: brand goods sales specialists, dropshipping experts, SEO specialists, bloggers, online secretaries and online teachers.
In 2022, we should expect the following changes:
- despite the fact that there is a conversation about the return of companies to their former course, the most far-sighted managers will continue to recruit remote employees to their team.;
- companies will become more and more "virtual" with a predominant number of remote workers;
- businesses will connect virtual reality technologies to their work processes.
The trend in 2022 will be communication between managers and staff and careful study of their complaints, suggestions, requests. Finally, it will become clear that the team in the company is its core.
Conclusions
The work of a freelancer is prestigious, profitable, convenient and safe. The trend is that the shifting from offline to online work will not stop, but, on the contrary, will gain momentum over the coming years.
Those who are just getting acquainted with this type of work organization should start by downloading useful trending applications to their PC and smartphone that will help organize the workflow, increase productivity and get rid of procrastination. One of these applications is Checkiant – a convenient tracker of working hours and earned money.
The second important point is the competent organization of the day by the hour in order to have time to hand over the work in due time and not to overwork mentally and physically.
Experts also say that freelancers with special skills and personal qualities will be in special demand this year. So the remoters should closely monitor the trends in the world of freelancing.
See also:
Checkiant time tracker for payroll and HR management
Top 10 factors that affect productivity
Top 10 techniques for work motivation