4 Productivity Tips for Remote Workers

Your alarm goes off at 7 a.m., and you don’t feel worried about being late or fighting traffic to rush to the office at 8. 

You feel relaxed and ready for your workday.

Maybe you take a shower, brush your teeth, put on a nice shirt and some comfy pants, and brew a fresh pot of coffee. 

Now, it is 7:40 a.m., but you still don’t feel the morning anxiety rush.

Why?

Because you are one of the 92 million people in the United States who can work from home flexibly at least part of the time.

While this flexibility has been a positive change for many Americans, there are still growing pains when it comes to getting used to the new home-based work environment.

According to a McKinsey & Company survey, people working flexibly and fully remote workers were more likely to report multiple obstacles than people working in a traditional office.

Sometimes, the obstacles are big problems, like overscheduled video meetings or hostile work environments. Other times, the obstacles are as minor as learning how to deal with distractions in your home while you work. 

If you’re working from home, the biggest obstacle is maintaining focus to achieve the same level of productivity at home as you would in an office. 

This is where our team at STPT comes in. As a company, we also offer flexible and fully remote options to our team members, and over the course of the last few years, we’ve learned some productivity tips and tricks to help you maximize your workflow at home.

In this article, we will offer you some of our best tips for how to stay productive when working from home. 

After reading, you will have new strategies to help you stay on-task as a remote worker, so that you can work productively while also enjoying the coffee and happy home vibes you’ve grown used to.

Increasing Productivity When Working from Home

We all know the Covid-19 Pandemic changed the workforce forever. 

In 2023, more than three years after the start of the pandemic, 58% of American workers work from home at least one day a week, and another 35% work from their homes every day.

But many of us who are lucky enough to work remotely post-pandemic still struggle to figure out our new routine. 

How do we maintain productivity in this environment? How do we find a routine when our dog wants to be walked five times a day? How do we focus on company data when our laundry pile is growing larger by the second?

At STPT, we believe the first step to productivity for a work from home job is setting up a home office that mimics the productive space you’re used to. 

Work from Home Office Setup: What You’ll Need to Succeed 

Although it seems like a no-brainer, a lot of people working from home treat office setup like an afterthought. 

Think about it: are you more productive sitting in front of your well-organized desk, with your grumpy cat mug, two computer screens open, and fuzzy slippers on your feet? 

Or are you more productive lounging on your couch with the TV on and your computer perched on your lap? 

Obviously, the desk is the more appropriate workstation. While some people can work and watch TV at the same time, most of us can’t do that very productively. 

According to FlexJobs, work from home jobs typically require you to set up a home office.

So, you will probably need all the equipment you would find in a traditional office setting to make this work. That means you will likely need:

•    High-Speed Internet Access
•    (At Least One) Desktop Computer or Laptop
•    Multifunction Printer with Scanning Capabilities 
•    Functional Desk with Ergonomic Chair
•    Headset or Headphones
•    Second Monitor for Your Computer
•    Ergonomic Keyboard and Mouse 

Once you have all the right materials and devices, it is time to work on getting to that productive workflow you need to achieve your goals.

Work from Home vs. Office: Key Differences

There have always been distractions at work, even in traditional office settings.

For example, every office has a gossip or a chronic over-talker who visits everyone’s desk in the morning to initiate a 30-minute-long conversation about their cousin’s trip to Bermuda. 

And most offices have at least one of these types—if not both, and they are prime examples of typical workplace distractions for productive workers. 

One of the benefits of working at home is the lack of uncontrollable distractions like these. You may love talking to your fellow employees, or you may find them distracting, but either way—they are outside distractions that you have learned to deal with in the office environment. 

At home, you have a whole new set of distractions to deal with: household chores, your television, pets, and possibly even your partner’s morning smoothie routine (complete with loud, repetitive blending sounds.)

Not to mention, your own inner office gossip who wants to scroll Facebook for the latest news or check Instagram for the hundredth time to see how many likes the picture you uploaded last night has received. 

One of the first things you need to do is set up your office zone at home like a real office, with a focus on productivity. This means moving away from the kitchen blender danger zone, putting away your Facebook-scrolling inner gossip, and getting to work.

Once your new home office is setup to mimic your ideal office environment and you’ve figured out how to deal with your inner office gossip, you are ready to maximize your workday with these productivity hacks for work from home jobs:

4 Productivity Tips for Remote Workers

1.    Plan for Productivity

This means using calendars and to-do lists to plan out your daily tasks. When you’re working from home, it can be easy to get lost in all the things you need to do or all the things going on around you, so a strict to-do list with specific times set up for work activities will help you stay focused.

Make sure you start your morning routine before your workday begins so that your brain has time to switch gears from home life to work life. 

Try to make your coffee, shower, and get dressed before work begins. You don’t want to be caught in your PJs with bedhead if an impromptu meeting comes up. 

2.    Limit Your Distractions 

You will also want to limit distractions: physically and digitally. 

This is where having a good office setup comes into play. Your office should be comfortable, but it should also be a work zone where you don’t have constant access to dirty dishes or laundry piles. 

Try to remember to limit scrolling and focus on getting work done. The occasional, short mental break can be good for productivity but mindlessly scrolling the Internet is only going to make you feel more stressed in the long run. 

If you can keep your work and home activities separate, you will feel more focused during work time and more at ease at home when you’re not working.

3.    Purchase the Right Office Equipment for Your Job

You will also need quality office equipment to keep your home office running as optimally as a traditional one, so what is the best laser printer for home use?

 

According to our experts, the Xerox C315 (pictured above) is great for a home office because its relatively small size and print capacity. 

The C315 model comes with a Wi-Fi kit that allows you to connect the device to your home Wi-Fi network quickly and simply. This printer automatically connects to Xerox Workflow Central and uses Xerox Smart Start technology, so it is a fantastic option for a remote worker that wants to set up their home office without needing additional IT support. 

You will also need a working desk and ergonomic desk chair, as well as a laptop or desktop computer for work use. A high-speed Wi-Fi connection is a must for a productive home office.

4.    Try Productivity Apps and Productivity Software 

There are many helpful apps to help boost productivity at home, including project management tools like Asana and repositories for storing work data like Google Docs and OneDrive. 

Using tools like Asana and OneDrive, you can organize your documents so that they are accessible from any device at any time of day. 

To-do list applications are also helpful productivity tools. Apps like Todoist help you arrange your day by task so that it feels like you have a tight schedule even when working from the comfort of your home. (Todoist is also great for people on a tight budget: its only $5 per month!)

Voted the best productivity app for staying focused (5 out of 5 stars from PC Magazine) of 2023, RescueTime is an app that tracks your productivity on your computer. For $12/month or with the feature-limited free version, RescueTime records how much time you spend on different websites and apps and creates a report to show you your real time production stats. 

For printers and scanners, the Xerox app gallery is another great printing tool. It can be added to your multifunction printer and offers multiple easy-to-use apps and tools to help boost productivity and keep workflows on track.

Check out our blog Top 10 Apps in the Xerox App Gallery for a list of the 10 most helpful apps for Xerox customers. 

Want More Productivity Hacks?

Many of us are working from home, but that doesn’t mean we don’t need office equipment.

Do you ever copy your work documents out by hand in a notebook? Do you like to send hand-written memos to your employees via snail mail? 

Probably not—because those are frustrating and inefficient ways to perform tasks that are made easy by office machines, like copiers and computers. 

Don’t make your work from home job harder than it needs to be. Invest in quality printers and scanners to make your home office efficient, productive, and comfortable for you. 

As a print vendor that has been in the business for almost 40 years, STPT knows the equipment you need to stay productive, and our dedicated team members want to help you find the printers and scanners that fit your work from home job needs and your budget. 

According to the Dallas Observer, there are over 106,831 work-from-home jobs offered in the Dallas area. This means Dallas is second only to New York City in the number of as the best location for remote work in the United States.

And as part of the bustling DFW metroplex, STPT is the resource for remote Dallas workers who need office-quality printers at home.

Reach out to us to learn more about how office equipment can make you more productive at home.