9 Ways How to Be Productive While Working From Home

When you work at home, you become a manager to yourself – and it’s not always the most rewarding. Home is usually associated with comfort and convenience, and in this pleasant atmosphere, performing your duties can be even more challenging than in a stuffy office space.

And today we’ve put together some simple tricks to help you be more productive if you work remotely.

1. Track your progress

To stay productive with what you’re doing – look for ways to measure, track, and appreciate the progress that happens every day.

Every little victory is a significant push to get your motivation back, even when your brain is trying to focus on the fact that you didn’t do something. This is especially important if you are working from home. There’s no one there to monitor your progress and you have to be your own supervisor.

Before you think about improving your productivity – learn to track your progress regularly. Write down everything you did today, every little thing that affected a project. Tracking your progress is important because it allows you to know if you are moving forward, or are procrastinating and not getting things done.

2. Watch your energy

According to dissertation writing services researchers, if you want to be productive, you must be in good shape: watch your body and its tone.

Any sedentary work weakens your ability to concentrate and stay calm. On the other hand, regular exercise removes anxiety, clears the mind, and increases your potential for creative ideas.

When you exercise, your body releases a chemical in your brain called endorphins that make you feel good. And when you are feeling great, you will be able to accomplish more and get more things done.

3. Take notes and make lists

Working from home can be unproductive when there are distractions everywhere. And one easy way to keep yourself on track is to take notes on your work.

You don’t need dozens of “efficient” apps and notebooks: just one where you can keep all your notes. Use the built-in smartphone app to save all the details you might need: search results on a particular subject, ideas from other people’s Instagram, articles you want to read, and lists of books to pay attention to.

Use a to-do list to help you organize and prioritize what you need to get done during the day. Plan your day and also your week. Do you know that Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Airlines credited his success to having a to-do list? Check out this article to learn more about how billionaire Branson created his to-do list.

4. Use procrastination to your advantage

It’s impossible to be the person who does everything as soon as a task falls on their desk. But you can use the time you don’t want to waste on an unpleasant problem – something that will benefit you in the long run.

For example, you can choose to procrastinate on purpose and do it creatively. When it is time to work, put 100% focus on work. And when you are overwhelmed and needed a break, use the time to procrastinate on purpose. Choose to do something that can recharge your mental energy so that when you get back to work, you can focus better and become more productive.

According to this article on Canva.com, procrastination on purpose allows you to gather your thoughts, take in more inspiration, and look beyond the most obvious solutions to find the most creative ones.

5. Use the 1-3-5 rule

If you have too many tasks and your supposed to-do list doesn’t fit on one page, use a new technique to deal with the clutter. Think about how you can do 1 big thing a day, 3 smaller tasks, and 5 minor ones. Try to shorten your list so that it fits within that framework.

Remember that the most significant task might be not only the one that takes the longest to do but also the one you don’t want to do the most and are constantly procrastinating.

You have to understand that being productive and being busy are 2 different things. You can be busy the whole day but at the end of the day, not making any progress. Hence, the key to staying productive is to focus on getting the most result-yielding work done.

This is why the 1-3-5 Rule can work for you. Focus on getting the key task done first before you move on to other tasks.

6. Turn off notifications

One of the most prominent reasons we are constantly distracted is the regular alerts and messages from colleagues in messengers. Get in the habit of checking team chats every 10 minutes instead of as soon as a notification pops up.

If possible, put your phone into air mode for at least a few hours a week to concentrate on how you’re feeling and analyze where you are right now. If you need to work on a serious project for a few intense hours, you can even de-login on social networks, so there is no temptation.

It doesn’t matter whether you are working at home or in the office, phone notifications are one of the biggest distractions in this modern world. When you need 100% focus, just turn off your phone. You can always switch it on after you have accomplished your task.

7. Reward yourself

Reward yourself regularly: it doesn’t matter how enthusiastic you are about your work if you get bored again after just a few hours. The more time you spend on something without benefiting, the harder it will be for you to keep doing it.

Here are some tips on how you can reward yourself for your hard work…

• Take 5-minute breaks for every 30 minutes of hard work.
• Go for a walk or a trip to another city after the month’s activities are done.
• Watch a movie without feeling guilty for wasting time – after you’ve spent a harrowing day.
• Do something you love.

If you want to learn more about how rewarding yourself works, check out this guide.

8. Socialize with others

That’s right, even if you are working from home, that doesn’t mean you should stop socializing with others.

You have to understand that as human beings, we are meant to connect with others. Isolation and disconnection may be necessary from time to time, but if you are alone all the time, it can be bad for your mental health.

Working from home doesn’t mean you should stop socializing with others or have to work on everything all by yourself. You can still use Zoom or Skype or whatever means of communication to stay connected with others.

9. Create a dedicated workspace

Forget what bloggers keep saying about how you can work from anywhere in the world. To be truly efficient and productive – you need to keep your workspace organized and separate it from your personal space.

What is even more important is to create a dedicated workspace. You don’t want to be working on your bed or from the kitchen table if possible. Why? Because your mind has associated your bed as a place to relax and sleep. Hence, you may not be able to focus if you work on your bed.

Instead, create a proper workspace. Working from home allows you the flexibility to work from anywhere. For instance, you can work from home in the morning for tasks that require your creativity. But in the afternoon, you can choose to work from a local café on tasks that don’t need much of your creative power.

You can change the place where you sit with your laptop – but even if you go to a coffee shop, look for a place where there will be as few people flashing before your eyes as possible.

Takeaway

Working from home may sound flexible, fun, and desirable. However, if you do not take it seriously and thought that working from home is all about working on your laptop on your couch while in your pajamas, you’re wrong.

Your productivity will suffer, and you never get anything done at the end of the day. Plus, it can be lonely and negatively impact your mental health because you are not socializing or engaging with others.

So, follow the tips above to make yourself much more productive while working from home.