Flexi hours might be the new world order, however, they come with their own set of drawbacks. To begin with, you will be distracted more than ever since all tasks scream for your attention, personal and professional. In addition, you are drawn to those things that appeal to you more than those that need urgent fixing.
There is help at hand, though. Just follow these productivity-enhancing tips and you should be able to succeed during flexi working hours.
Set your goals
Putting off work by another day, or worse, over the weekend, can be the biggest stumbling block for you. The negative appeal of flexi timing is procrastination. There are surveys that say that 90% of people put off work at least once every single day.
To beat postponement, you need to set your daily, weekly, monthly and yearly goals. If that is too far-fetched, just go by weekly scheduling. And remember your ultimate goal. Whenever you think of pushing back certain types of work, ask yourself if it's taking you towards your weekly or monthly goal or creating hurdles in your career path. If it's not, then it's time to get down to work. come what may.
Continuous two-way communication
Just because you are not tied to the company physically doesn't mean you are not free to communicate with them about work. You have to maintain communication with your office through text messages, emails, phone calls (even video calls) to keep up your rapport with colleagues and superiors.
Importantly, when you are tackling a personal emergency, please inform them, so they know that you are not reachable around this time, or just to maintain the personal touch that is missing with ‘work from home’ or ‘part-time’ jobs.
Schedule your day
Flexi working hours only mean that you can work whenever you want. However, that sentence needs to be rewired into your brain. Flexi hours doesn't mean postponing work for tomorrow. You have to set your daily work schedule, be it working only in the mornings, or only in the evenings. But set it and stick to it. Develop an office routine and abide by the rules of working.
Consider working at home as working from office. The only difference is that you are working when it's most convenient to you and you are avoiding all the traffic and commuting time. However, whether you are working on your own, or remotely for others, you are still working for somebody at the other end. And there are deadlines for everything. Instead of accumulating all the work on one day, by postponing continuously, you should set down a strict protocol to only postpone if it's way before schedule. For everything else, the deadline is now.
Similarly, don't keep working at it, blurring the line between personal and professional time. This causes much rift in families, with spouses and children complaining that you are not sparing enough time for them. Make sure, you strike the right work-life balance. One hack here could be dressing formally when you begin to work. It plays on your psyche and has its effect, according to some cognitive scientists. Experiment, discover and become more productive. Your time starts now.
