There are a lot of distractions in the home, so if you’ve decided to turn yours into your office, it’s important to separate work from play. In this article, we’ll give you the tips you need to stay focused and productive.
Working from home sounds like a dream, but you really need to stay focused if you want to make money, especially if you’re your own boss.
Here are 6 actionable tips to ensure you boost your productivity and don’t get distracted.
1. Define your Work Space
When you’re working, it’s important to establish a space where you feel comfortable and confident that you can manage the tasks at hand.
Try to find an area in your home that you don’t use for anything else and make it into your work space.
Don’t be afraid to invest a little money into it, after all, this is the place where you are going to be spending your working life, so it’s important to be comfortable.
Buy yourself a decent desk and a good chair which is ergonomically designed. Don’t just pull out one of the chairs from the kitchen. Similarly, don’t spend all day on the sofa. Eventually, not only will you get a bad back, but you’ll also be unable to separate your living space from your work space.
Make sure you also have all of the tools you need at your disposal e.g. pens, paper, stapler, files, computer, calendar etc. and keep it organised. This way you don’t have to spend ages looking for everything and it’s much easier to stay on top of the things you need to do.
2. Tidy Body, Tidy Mind
How would you dress for work if you were going into the office? When working from home, you don’t have to wear a suit and tie but at least have a shower in the morning and get dressed.
Get ready for a day of work at home in the same way you would if you went into the office. Make a bit of effort and stick to a morning routine and you will find it much easier to stay motivated for the day ahead.
Another quick tip, straight from the Jordan Peterson handbook, is to make your bed. It’s really good advice. If you wake up and complete one task, you’ll be in the right frame of mind to complete others throughout the day.
3. Have a Plan
Having a plan is really important if you want to boost your productivity. Especially if you’ve got a lot of work to get through.
You don’t need to create a really detailed plan, but you should aim to prioritize certain tasks above others.
Start by making a list of all of the tasks you have on your to-do list and then decide which of those are regular and which are one-off tasks.
Assign a set time-frame for each of your regular tasks and add a slot for the miscellaneous jobs you need to do. Once you have this, you will be able to focus on one thing at a time, without your mind wandering between jobs.
You can always change your plan if you don’t think it’s working for you, but once you do have a plan, try to stick to it and you’ll soon see results.
4. Switch Off
If you don’t have a job which requires you to answer a lot of emails, then try switching your phone off. If your friends, family, neighbors etc. know that you work from home, then they will be more tempted to contact you when it is inconvenient. However, it’s really important to establish boundaries.
Switching off your phone will also stop you from getting distracted by social media and spending all day liking people’s posts instead of getting on with some work.
It’s not easy to do at first, but after a while, you’ll find you rely on your phone less and less and it can even help you to live a better life overall.
5. Keep your Eyes on the Prize
Don’t lose sight of your objectives and always remember why you are working. Set yourself weekly and monthly goals to push yourself and reward yourself when you achieve them.
If you can develop a goal-oriented routine then it will be much easier to complete tasks as you will be focused on your objectives. It will even make your work life a lot more fun as it will give you a sense of fulfillment as you power through your targets.
It’s important to start small, build up and ensure that your goals are achievable. If you set your sights too high, you’ll end up feeling as though you have failed, and this will ultimately lower your morale.
6. Invest in Improvements
Don’t be afraid to put money into your business. If you have your own company and find that some jobs are getting to be too much for you to handle, then consider outsourcing them to other people.
It can seem like quite a leap at first, but there is no successful company on earth which is run by just one person.
Similarly, if you find a tool online which could help you, do some research and work out how much more productive you’ll be if you have it. If you can get twice as much done as a result of using it, then determine how much your time is worth and offset it against the price. If it turns out you could earn twice as much money by spending 10% of your income, then it’s a worthwhile investment. Just make sure that you really do need it before splashing out.