People who work from home know that they need an extra dose of organization, discipline, and focus. But how to be more productive with all the distractions of the home environment?
Housework, pets, young children, people talking, television, or even the cell phone. It takes a lot of willpower not to put aside work.
If you work with digital products or plan to invest in this market and suffer from this problem, don’t worry. To help you in this effort, we have separated some tips so that you can be more productive and make more of your time. Watch some tips to be more productive in this video:
And now, straight to the point, on to the tips!
1. Choose a work environment
One of the biggest temptations of working from home is getting through the day in the most comfortable way possible.
And in fact, starting the day without worrying about traffic, bus schedules and even the clothes you are going to work in, already greatly reduces the daily load of stress that we are used to.
But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a specific environment for work. Choose a comfortable place in your house that is spacious and well lit, preferably where you have privacy.
As if you were in an office, you will need a table with all the necessary elements to carry out your tasks, including a computer and telephone, both for your own exclusive use. Remember that you will be using your computer constantly to reply to emails, chat and store your files.
Whatever your work environment, make it clear to the people who live with you that you’re working and they can’t come into the room all the time.
2. Prepare a comfortable work environment
Your chair or armchair should be comfortable so that you can work in the correct position and with your feet on the ground.
Don’t even think about working lying down! Using your laptop in bed can affect your breathing and cause pain in your neck, spine, and forearms. Which, obviously, directly influences your productivity.
The concern for comfort is valid, as at some point in your life, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). A study of in 2012 revealed that half of its employees read and respond to work emails from bed.
3. Establish a routine
As much as working at home allows you to have a more flexible schedule, it is important that you establish one to start your daily activities. The moment you start work will determine the pace of the rest of your day. That’s our next topic!
4. Plan your day the night before
Most people only start planning their work day when they get to the office in the morning. As a result, they spend a lot of time organizing the tasks that need to be done.
So, before you go to sleep, take a few minutes to define what things you want or need to do the next day.
That way, you’ll have more focus and be able to be more productive when you start working.
5. Have daily goals
If in conventional companies managers establish their deliveries, when working from home it is you who is responsible for your own results. The absence of command can be a temptation to .
From that perspective, what helps keep your productivity rates high is setting . Be it responding to a certain number of emails, resolving lawsuits or recording a video per day, for example.
It is important that these goals are always evolving so that your business does not stagnate. To keep yourself motivated, you can create small “rewards” as soon as you reach your goals, like a break to watch a funny video or have fun playing an online game.
6. Make a list of priorities
As much as all the tasks are important, there are those that cannot be left for later, those that require more time or that have the greatest impact on your business.
For this reason, we reinforce here the importance of having clear goals, since it is thus possible to distinguish priority activities from those that can be left for later.
7. Identify your most productive moments
People are different and therefore each of us has a period of the day when we are more or less productive.
Some people can concentrate better and produce more in the morning, others in the afternoon, and there are still those who work better at night.
A golden tip is to identify when you can focus more and schedule the most difficult tasks or those that require the most attention during that time.
8. Do one thing at a time
you start to and, suddenly, you receive a call that you must answer in that minute, while you talk in the chat.
Known as multitasking, this trend gained momentum in the 1960s, and for many years professionals bragged that to excel in their businesses they needed to do more than one task at a time.
If this is your case, it may be time to rethink it. Doing more than one thing at the same time hampers performance and hurts your performance on the task.
That’s because, despite its high storage capacity, the brain processes only one piece of information at a time. In other words, productivity has nothing to do with multitasking, quite the opposite.
9. Eliminate distractions
If you know that certain objects or activities can distract you from work, the best thing you can do is stay away from them.
Social media, television, smartphones, side conversations, and pets are some of the things that take attention away from work.
So if your activity doesn’t require you to be connected 100% of the time, how about turning off the Internet and your cell phone? In this way, you will discover that the work will begin to yield much more than before.
10. Do not procrastinate on any task
We know that sometimes there is a lot of laziness and the desire to postpone some task, especially the less urgent ones, is enormous.
Don’t make that mistake! Whenever you think about procrastinating, try to think of all the things you could have done if you hadn’t procrastinated.
You will find that when this practice becomes a habit, you will begin to be more productive than you were before.
11. Use apps to organize your routine
Staying organized and focused on day-to-day work can be a difficult task. Meanwhile, there are some online tools and applications that can help in this mission and ensure that your day is more productive.
If you have Google Mail, for example, you can use Google Calendar to list the week’s tasks in advance. As the commitments get closer you will receive all the notifications by email.
Evernote and Google Keep are also widely used for creating to-do lists. In them you can record the progress of your work, post notes, scan documents, insert images, videos and graphics related to different projects.
If you are not a fan of apps then you can set reminders on your mobile phone. Set alarms early so you don’t risk forgetting your tasks. Another habit that helps a lot is the use of notepads to write down the ideas that you cannot put into action at that moment.
12. Do not forget to rest
It may seem contradictory, but rest is essential to maintain your high levels of productivity. For each completed activity, “take” a few minutes to do something that gives you pleasure, or simply disconnect from work.
Free time is also an opportunity to find external references that can help improve your performance on an ongoing basis. In addition to raising the quality of work, rest is essential to keep the body functioning in a healthy way.
13. Knows when to stop
Working in a non-corporate environment also affects our sense of time. Especially since we don’t have the routine of turning off the computer and going home.
That is why it is very important to set a time to end the day. Otherwise, your work will be mixed with your personal life, and in this way you lose one of the greatest advantages of the home office, which is having more time for yourself.
This rule also applies to email messages on the weekend. Never access your email account if it is not absolutely necessary. Align your schedules with your suppliers and partners so that communication between you does not harm anyone.
Do you know other tips to be more productive? Share them with us in the comments and follow on social media!
If you liked this text, read also our publication with !
This text was originally published in October 2017 and has been updated with more recent and relevant information.
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