5 Productivity tips for a better work-life balance

Remote work can be challenging! The numerous distractions in our environment and limitless possibilities of another coffee or teacup or a chat with our friends can sometimes take a toll on our time management and productivity skills. It is essential to balance our professional and personal life when working remotely to obtain a harmonious work-life balance - which is crucial for keeping us physically, emotionally, and mentally healthy. 

At STAGIL, we understand the importance of remote work as we are a fully remote company. With this in mind, we have put together some tips to help you keep your work-life balance in check. 

What is Work-life Balance? 

Work-life balance refers to the prioritization between personal and professional activities. Meaning the state of equilibrium where a person equally prioritizes the demands of one's career and the demands of one's personal life.

How to keep your work-life balance while working remotely?

Remote work comes with a unique set of challenges, so you need to develop individual strategies based on your daily routine and habits. 

Here are some tips for a better work-life balance. 

1-Do not overcommit

Depending on your living circumstances, trying to achieve unreal productivity standards can be damaging - analyze your home situation realistically or split house duties with your roommates or family. Create fixed schedules and to-do lists for your personal and professional life with doable tasks and completion times. Having an overview helps to avoid saturation and boosts productivity and provides you with focus. No one can deny the feeling of satisfaction when ticking off things that you accomplished.

2-Stop multitasking 

Multitasking is not the best choice when working remotely. None of the activities you are executing receive your full attention, and your daily work may suffer the consequences.  A study at the University of London found that participants who multitasked during cognitive tasks experienced IQ score declines similar to the effect of staying up all night. The IQ of multitasking men dropped by 15 points, reaching the average score range for 8-year-old children.

3-Take regular breaks, and plan them. 

Taking short breaks during long tasks has been scientifically proven to help you keep a higher level of performance while working on a task without breaks leads to a decline in performance and motivation at work.

A 2011 University of Illinois study revealed that the attentional resources in a human brain drop after long periods of focusing on a single task, decreasing our ability to focus and hindering performance. We recommend planning your breaks on your daily schedule (including lunch break) to avoid procrastinating your breaks. 

4-Get to know the 80/20 rule or "Pareto Principle"

Fun Fact: it is said that Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist, invented this principle in 1897 after observing pea plants in his garden. He noticed that 80% of his harvest came from 20% of his plants, this new discovery led him to look for more use cases in life like when he observed that 80% of the land in England (and every country he studied) was owned by 20% of the population. Pareto's theory has since been applied to many aspects of modern life.

5- Apply the Pareto Principle to your daily life

According to the Pareto principle, approximately 20% of your efforts produce 80% of the results. Keeping in mind, that 20% of your efforts create 80% of your outcomes, it seems only logical to prioritize this 20% margin. You could start by taking care of these 20% on your most productive time of the day, as this will make you feel satisfied after accomplishing them. 

The most important factor to consider when implementing the Pareto principle is time management. We often spent too much time on irrelevant tasks that don't contribute to our daily progress - in your work and personal life. A prime example that it is best to work smart instead of working hard.

We hope that our tips provided useful insights and some help to improve your work-life balance.  If you don't want to miss our updates, follow us on Twitter @STAGIL_TEAM or LinkedIn STAGIL.