With so many distractions and the comfort of your home as major obstacles, working or studying from home can be a difficult course to pursue. That is why Medical Billing and Coding blog has developed a list of time management tips for remote learners, to help you work efficiently from home. Remote learning is not for everyone, but if you follow these simple tips, it is possible for anyone.
Set clear goals – Each day you should have a list of tasks/assignments that you will complete. If you set a clear list of deliverables for each work day, you will have an easier time working to reach those goals. The biggest mistake you can make is to procrastinate, and push work off for another day; all this will do is slow you down, let your work load pile up, and make you far less efficient.
Limit Distractions – In any work environment, distractions can limit productivity. This is magnified when you are working or studying from home; you might have to worry about walking your dog, or picking up your mail, or answering to your kids, among other potential disruptions. To avoid these diversions you should isolate yourself in your home, in a designated “work” area. While you are working, make it clear to your children that you are busy, and ignore all phone calls, doorbells, and enticing TV programming. Don’t attempt to multitask; your designated work time is for working only, and nothing else.
Establish Specific Work Hours – If you are working from home it is easy to procrastinate and say “I will get to this later”; this is a bad habit! Create a specific time frame each day dedicated to work. Whether it be 9 AM – 5 PM, 12 PM – 8 PM, or 6 PM – 3 AM, establishing specific work hours is crucial to remaining productive and getting your work done in a timely fashion. Your friends and family should be familiar with your work hours, to ensure you are not bothered when you should be working.
Dress for the Job – Rather than sitting around in your favorite pair of sweatpants, you should dress like you are in a classroom or workplace. Your mindset is the most important aspect of time management; if you are dressed to work, then you will most likely work. If you are dressed to relax, then you will most likely relax
This is a really solid article. I have coded ER charts from home for the past 3 years and have to say it’s not as easy as every one thinks. This article would have been helpful when I first came home, it took me 6 months to get into a routine that didn’t have me working all hours of the night.
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Posted by LED TV | April 25, 2010, 1:02 amIt’s funny because I work from home quite a bit and break these rules quite often. However, they don’t seem to limit my productivity. I think in general these are very good guidelines for most. When I first started working at home these guidelines would have been more applicable. Over time it becomes more normal and easy to do (working at home), and you don’t have to be so cognoscenti about these things.
Posted by Rachel | July 11, 2011, 8:06 pmI work from home. Since April 6th 2011 I have averaged 8 – 10 hours each working day sitting infront of my computer. I have started to notice that my eyes are becoming very tired, my back aches at the end of the day and I have a high pitch noise running in my head at the end of the day that will not go away. I am also finding it very hard to sleep as my brain just will not shut down easily and even when I do get to sleep I am waking in the morning at 4 or 5am with issues about business or websites that I am building for people running around my head.
Any advice?
Posted by Nigel Holme | July 11, 2011, 10:53 pmI’ll be back to working at home here again soon, as I’ve got a new job and am working remotely. These are all very good tips that I will definitely keep in mind when I try making my transition…thanks!
Posted by Corbin | July 12, 2011, 12:43 pm