There comes a time in every professional’s life when they have to take their work elsewhere and dodge the office for a little while. Unfortunately, it is hard to stay productive at times; especially, when the surroundings do not mimic the working environment. Here are a few ways to kick the unproductive ghost to the curb and keep your productivity in the green without the aid of your trusty desk counterpart.
Prioritize
When you have a lot of work to get done in the office or out of it, you need to prioritize what to do. If you stare at the monumental load of work and assume that you’ll be alright in the long run if you attack it all head on, you might just be setting yourself up for failure. Instead, go ahead and start prioritizing your work from the most important to the least important. Often times, you should try to go by deadline and start with the projects that have yet to be turned in by a previous due date. These projects should always take priority over the lower ones, such as organizing your calendar (though that is still important).
Take Your Work with You
The best way to make sure that you stay on top of your work is to take it with you. Do not let it sit on your desk and pile up. Instead, try digitizing your work and placing it on a portable storage device. If you don’t have access to a USB or something of the sort, upload it to one of the many internet drives available for free on the internet. This way you’ll still be able to access your work from any form portable device be it your cell phone, tablet, or laptop.
Create Time
No matter what the situation, if work is on your mind and feasible, you need to carve out a few hours in the day to get your work done. Make sure these hours are specifically designated for you to sit down and attack the stack before it has a chance to grow further. It doesn’t have to be a lot of time, but make sure that the time spent working on your projects is highly productive. If that means that you have to lock yourself away, then by all means, lock yourself away until you finish your goals for the day.
Stay in Touch
There is no better way than to remind yourself that you are still required to work than staying in touch with coworkers and employees. If you happen to be the CEO of a company or in another seat of power, you need to check in with your company on a regular basis. This will ensure that you get the problems, updates, and other instances that have a nasty knack for creeping up on you once you come back. It is better to stay in the loop while you’re away than to be slammed when you get back. If you can, call the office during regular working hours to get a full report of what you may be missing. If calling isn’t feasible, try texting or emailing and check both of those things regularly.
These are some of the most basic yet overlooked ways to stay on top of things while your office chair collects dust without you. If you follow these simple tips while incorporating a few that are personalized to your line of work, you’ll be sure to always be on top of things even when it doesn’t seem entirely possible. What are a few other ways that you can think of to stay on top of your work while you’re out of the office?
Teddy Hunt is a freelance content writer with a focus on technology. When not behind a computer, Teddy spends the majority of his free time outdoors and resides in Tampa, Florida. Follow Teddy on Twitter: @tedhunt9.
Image courtesy Veronica Belmont
Great advice Teddy! Working away from the office can be a challenge for sure! What has helped me a lot is keeping all my work in the cloud (Dropbox specifically). This way, I can access all my documents and everything I need from any and all devices. I save all my work directly in Dropbox so I don’t have to move it there later on.
I agree that working away from the office can be challenging and stressful. However, these tips should help make the work flow more productive and less stressful that’s for sure. Thanks for the advice!