In the 21st century work had already often weaved itself into our personal hours. Now during Covid-19 a record number of people are working from home. Despite working from home can have its advantages (such as avoiding traffic jams on your way to the office) it is sometimes hard to maintain personal effectiveness with some distractions or interruptions.

In addition to your work tasks you might get bombarded with personal tasks such as taking your dog out or cooking lunch for your kids. This means that the overall task list is usually bigger and since there is rarely time for everything, you need to prioritize tasks to be efficient. A great way to do this is to visualize them.   

Below are some examples of how you can use Static Innox Notes to visualize tasks to improve efficiency while working at home. Visualization is important as according to Shift eLearning 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, visuals are processed 60,000 times faster in the brain than text, and 65% of the population are visual learners. For maximum benefit we recommend of using different colored Innox Notes as well as different sizes if possible. 

1. Identify and prioritize tasks visually by setting goals and limits

A good way to start is that at the beginning of each day, identify 3-5 most important tasks and color-code them by importance with Innox Notes. One way of doing this is to using orange colored notes for the most urgent tasks, yellow for medium-urgent tasks and green for the least urgent tasks. Alternatively, you can use those colors for prioritizing work tasks and use pink and blue notes for personal tasks.   

2. Create a Personal Kanban board to manage your workflow

Now when we are working from home, we often have too many things we need to do, we take on too many things, and the result is – nothing gets accomplished. Things get pushed out, forgotten or, worse, done poorly! Personal Kanban is a simple method to improve your own personal efficiency in completing work you need to do and become much more productive.  

Digite explains Personal Kanban more thoroughly, but a simple personal Kanban board can be created with just 3 columns that include the following columns: “To Do”, “Doing” and “Done” as shown in the picture in the beginning of this article. The 2 most important principals of Personal Kanban are to:   

• – Visualize your Work
• – Limit your work-in-progress  

3. Remember to take a break

Science Daily studies show that taking a 15-minute breather from time-to-time can recharge your productivity and help prepare you for your next project. Write yourself an Innox Note reminder to take a break and yourself some thinking time, but also keep them close-by since often new ideas start to develop during breaks.

4. Write down your ideas as they come

Especially now, we are living in a fast paced world, bombarded by impressions and messages. This creates stress and makes our already complex brains cramp up. Whenever you have the chance, open your mind and write down your ideas, so you are ready to identify and prioritize them later. 

5. Use the classic “do not disturb” note when needed

If you need privacy e.g. for a call or writing a report, use Innox Notes or Innox Pads near your office space to create a message that you’re temporarily off-limits. Use the notes to give instruction for when and how they can check back later.

Which Innox Products to use?

All Static Notes are great products for visualizing tasks and ideas. We recommend using many colors and many sizes for maximum impact. That is we have created Project Sets that include multicolor packages of Static Notes as well as Static Whiteboards.