It does not matter if you work from home full time, or just for a few hours, distractions are always there. Social networking, games or internet itself is always much more fun then this task you are working on.
All those distractions can be very dangerous, as you don’t finish projects on time and your reputation can be ruined.
Here are few productivity tips how to keep focused and get things done while working from home.
Table of Contents
Schedule your work day
It doesn’t matter if you are working from home, you must have a plan and working hours. Let your family know when you are working and ask them not to disturb you.
You must have your daily routine, so you can communicate with clients and follow your work goals.
Dress properly
I know, you will say: ‘I am working from home, nobody can see me’. But, dressing properly can be important for you. If you work in you pajamas, you can get sleepy.
You should get up, shower, have a proper and healthy breakfast, dress up and go to your home office to work. This way, you will feel the routine and will not turn into a filthy animal.
Have a proper Workspace
You can not work in your bedroom or in front of TV. Keeping a distinct location for business and home will allow you to balance your professional and personal life. This is particularly important if you have a spouse and even kids.
Get yourself a nice and quite space for your home office in which you will not be disturbed.
Sleep properly and wake up early
The fact that you are your own boss does not mean you can stay late watching LOST and get up at noon.
You must sleep. Without a good night sleep your stress level rise, you drink more coffee and your productivity goes down the drain.
Sleep is important! We are doing business using our brain and it needs rest.
It is also important to get up early. Most people are more productive if they are early risers. They get more work done and their stress level is lower.
Take a break
Having a proper break during your work day is very important. Have a routine, got to lunch at the same time, walk if you have time.
Break will help you concentrate later and get more work done.
Break projects down
If you have a big project and a tight deadline, break it up in little pieces. It will help you work faster.
Whenever you finish one piece of project, your self-esteem will rise as you will feel confident that your are fast-moving to your goal.
Know your priorities
If you order your daily tasks by priority, you will never fail. Don’t waste time when you are the most productive (morning) on tasks that are not difficult or important.
Know your weakest part of the working day, and then do low priority stuff.
Set your goals
Set goals. Set monthly goals or yearly goals, projecting where you want your home business or your work to be in the future. This will motivate you and keep you away from your Playstation.
Keep distractions at minimum
Get away from social networks and internet while you work. You easily get distracted while watching latest videos from your friends on YouTube and you can end up in watching everything related.
Track your time
You must track your time. It is psychological. When I started tracking my time at work, my social networking and other non-productive activities went away. I wanted my productivity chart to be green during the week.
There are some great free applications like RescueTime that can help you track your time and stay productive.
Don’t burn out
Just because you work from home, doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to work 12 or 14 hour days. It may seem like you’re being productive, but the quality of your work will begin to suffer if you’re spending your days cooped up.
Believe me, even the most eager people can work 12 hours work days all the time, but their productivity is lower than one from 8-hours a day guys. Working long will produce bugs and errors.
It is really nice to work from home, you can organize your day anyway you want. But be careful not to fall into unproductive daily activities which will lead to not meeting the deadlines and lose your clients.
Have you got any productivity tips? Share them in the comments section below.
great post!
I use : pomodoro technique as time management and hitlist as taskmanager.
But I want to try rescutime that looks interesting.
Yes, RescueTime is really cool.
Super article. To the point & most important points!
Some important tips thanks
I work from home and your tips help.
Nice article…Will take note on those tips… Thanks
Excellent pointers and reminders for us all…..i remember when i started to work from home…some of the tips i was aware of ….wish i knew about the LOST tip back then ;-)…oh and 24!!
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