How to Use Rescue Time to Stay Motivated and Find Work-Life Balance When You Work From Home

What is Rescue time?

Let’s start by helping you understand what Rescuetime is, so you can know how to use it properly to make the most of your working hours.

Rescuetime is a productivity app that keeps track of your activities on your computer or mobile. It automatically tracks computer activities including, visited websites, apps used, files opened, and active windows and logs how much
time you spend on them.

It then provides a summarized overview, helping you better understand how you spend your working hours.

This helps you identify where you need to make improvements to ensure you maximize your work hours.

As if that wasn’t enough, it also has a blocking feature that allows you to block distracting websites, so you can stay focused and productive on important tasks.

And we all know it isn’t always easy to stay motivated when working from home.

No matter what – rescue time is there to help

Whether you want to work from home to improve productivity or gain more independence, along with the many benefits to working outside the office, come some adjustments.

It’s important to know that your new schedule and working environment can impact your productivity and performance. 

Let’s find out how to work from home and still stay motivated and achieve work-life balance using rescue time.

From having the luxury to play your favorite games to less commuting stress and improved inclusivity, there are many benefits to working from home.

However, just like anything else, working remotely also has its share of challenges. Some downsides include having trouble managing your time, overworking, and many interruptions and distractions, among others.

With the pandemic forcing people to work from home for the first time, it can be challenging to adjust to the new environment and remain productive.

Working remotely can leave you feeling stressed, anxious, and burned out. This could negatively impact your performance and productivity at work.

Fortunately, there are great work from home productivity apps that you can use to make working remotely productive, enjoyable, and stress-free.

Begin by tracking your new work from home working hours

Sticking to a routine is one of the biggest challenges you face when working remotely. And to stick to your contracted hours and ensure work from home productivity, you need to track your working hours.

Using rescue time, you can set your working hours to showcase your new work schedule. 

Setting your contracted hours lets you create alerts and goals while working at home, block distractions at varying times, and view your working hours only in reports.

This also ensures you don’t work beyond your working hours, helping you move in the right direction while making the most of your time each workday.

Establish your productivity baseline to combat remote working guilt

Full-time or part-time work from home is often considered as working less, which makes many people feel overwhelmed and guilty.

This might make you feel the need to deliver more at work, which usually results in feeling you need to be always available and working longer than your contracted hours.

A great way to combat work from home guilt is by establishing your productivity baseline, which can help you discover growth opportunities, manage expectations, and even gauge the outcome of your new productivity trials.

Tracking your work prevents feeling guilty about never hitting your target working from home.

You can know your baseline by checking rescue time’s weekly, daily, or monthly historical trends.

Identify your most productive hours

When doing remote work-from-home jobs, you need to optimize your working time to prevent overworking or keep up with the demands.

One of the main advantages of working from home is being able to manage your schedule. Identifying when you’re most focused and productive can help you better plan your work and get done more during the day.

Rescue time provides a detailed history of your productivity patterns, helping you identify your peak productive hours and what you spend your hours on.

Once you know when your peak productivity is, you need to set this time aside for priority tasks or those that require more brainpower.

And take care of less demanding tasks like calls and emails when you’re winding down or feeling more distracted.

Blocking Distractions

Setting Alerts to Schedule Breaks and Prevent Burnout

When working remotely, you’re more likely to overwork yourself trying to get more work done. Longer working hours often lead to burnout, causing a drop in performance and a lack of motivation.

If you’re looking to achieve working from home work-life balance and combat burnout, you need to set your boundaries.

Rescue time allows you to set alerts for creating boundaries on your time and build better work habits, helping prevent burnout. 

Alerts can help notify you once you achieve your set target for that day, reducing work from home guilt. They can also help avoid wasting your work hours, allowing you to maximize your time on doing work-related tasks.

Rescue time alerts can also help you know when working beyond your contracted hours, helping avoid overworking yourself and preventing burnout.

No matter the type of work you do, it’s crucial to schedule breaks throughout the day. You can use alerts to remind you to get up and stretch or take a quick stroll around the block. This gives you time to recharge and helps prevent burnout.

Conclusion

No matter the type of remote work from home job you do, rescue time provides you with the necessary tools and insights to improve productivity and find work-life balance while working remotely.

It takes time to adjust to working outside the office, so be sure to stick to your new schedule to make the most of your working hours.

How do you stay productive working remotely? Let us know in the comment section below.