How to succeed with remote working by focusing on your productivity for improved mental health

Back in March 2020, we all embarked on our working from home experiences, questioning whether our working world had changed forever. Social media became flooded with images of home workstations and people embraced tech to allow us to stay connected with our work colleagues. In fact, tech was so heavily adopted that providers of video communications saw phenomenal growth[1].

Nearly a year on, the novelty of remote working is starting to wear off. Back-to-back video conferences, non-stop email and chat threads, along with the challenges of home schooling and no demarcation between work and home life, cracks are starting to show. Searches around terms like ‘Remote working mental health’ have increased significantly during lockdown in January 2021, with over 90,000 people looking for help and solutions to ease the pressures they are feeling.

GetBusy, a task management software solution wants to reinvent how we work by looking at working more simply in a to-do list style format by breaking down projects or tasks into bite sized chunks to stop us from feeling overwhelmed. By taking away the admin of delegation and chasing, it will provide support for busy workloads.

“Feeling overwhelmed, exhausted and unproductive are the signs of burnout and we want to ensure that people don’t get to that level. We feel it’s important to help people work smarter, not harder and give them the collaboration tools to help them prioritise their tasks” says GetBusy’s CEO Daniel Rabie.

“The thinking is, if we breakdown what we do and how we feel into simple units, the challenges we face become simpler to address, and changes become easier to make.

Daniel concludes: “It’s like the metaphor about when a plant starts to struggle you change something ie. the position, the lighting, the amount of water you provide to help. What you don’t do is blame the plant for not prospering – you work out what it needs to thrive instead. We think employers need to relook at the email drain and the back-to-back video calls and try something different for the sake of their employees’ mental health (and their own).”

GetBusy has given some top tips for remote working and keeping team motivation high.

  1. Ensure your team is happy

First and foremost, make sure you have a happy and motivated team and take time to check in with them regularly. An engaged employee cares about their effort, work and performance and the difference it can make to a business. Organisations that support employees and communicate honestly and accurately as part of the ongoing culture of the company will see the results in the bottom line. Using the right tools to communicate – GetBusy, WhatsApp, and Zoom are all great ways of keeping the lines of communication open and clear.

  • Prioritise your day

Having a to do list is a great way to get organised, but it can often lead to overload. It’s a better idea to have your daily tasks so you can focus on what you need to do in the current day. Why not prioritise it in order and work your way down the list, the science of productivity has shown this is the best way for anyone to tackle their day and make you feel you have achieved something.

  • Get the most difficult tasks completed first

It’s all too easy to put off the hardest tasks till the end of the week and start with the easy ones. Don’t. The dread starts to build as the week goes on and it can really start to play on your mind. Choose the right time of day when you feel the most productive and get it off your to do list. You will feel a sense of accomplishment and you can then crack on with the easier tasks that you enjoy.

  • Practise positive reinforcement

If someone finishes some outstanding work, then praise them. Making employees feel valued usually leads to more work worthy of being praised. That positive reinforcement helps to keep morale high and remember, success is a reward in itself, but a little bit of spontaneous praise can be a source of motivation for every team member.

For more information about GetBusy, please visit www.getbusy.com


[1] Zoom usage hit an all-time high of 300 million by the end of April 2020, increasing its share price by 400% and revenue to £132m by the end of October 2020.

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