| #ThisIsMyEra Team
7 Ways to Stay Productive When You Work From Home
Updated: December 8, 2020
It’s undeniable that working from home has its perks.
Your daily commute is the 30 seconds it takes you to roll out of bed and get your laptop, you have unlimited access to a kitchen with your favorite snacks, and no one can judge you for not putting on real clothes or brushing your hair (unless you have an important Zoom call and in that case, you probably just need to make your top half presentable so you look like a fully functioning individual).
BUT - and yes this is a big but - working from home isn’t a vacation. You still have deadlines, daily quotas, meetings, projects, emails, and all that fun work-related professional stuff. Only now, you have the added challenge of staying on task while all the comforts of home are there to distract you! So how do you stay on schedule and in control of your work life when work has invaded your home?
Here are 7 tips for working from home that will help you stay productive and on task!
1. Create and Decorate Your Home Office Space
One of the easiest things you can do to boost your productivity at home is to establish a designated working space that lets you flip the switch from chill time to work time.
This can be done by converting a spare room into a convenient home office, setting up a desk in your living room, occupying a section of the dining room table or kitchen counter, or simply working in your bedroom with the door closed. Once you’ve carved out your workspace, add some personal touches to it! Consider adding a small succulent to your desk or using an organizer to display fun and colorful pens. Small touches like these help create a warm ambiance that allows you to effectively work with comfort.
Whichever space you decide to occupy and however you decide to decorate, make sure you clearly define your boundaries to signal your brain that when you’re in that space, you’re on the clock and ready to work!
Image: (Source: @pilarwoloszyn)
2. Establish a Morning Routine
Getting out of bed to go to an office is tough enough, but getting out of bed just to stay home and work? Talk about a non-starter!
Luckily, you can quickly remedy this by establishing a morning routine and/or ritual.
Decide what time you want to get out of bed and determine how many alarms you need to set before you stop hitting snooze and actually get up. Take a shower, get dressed, and enjoy a fresh cup of morning coffee or tea. Maintaining the semblance of getting ready to go into an office with other people ensures your creating mental distance between home time and work time.
And if you still need a morning pick-me-up, create a morning ritual that includes some light exercise to get your blood flowing. Sunrise yoga, a light bodyweight workout, and simple stretches can easily be incorporated into your morning flow.
It may take a few tries to find a routine that works for you, but it will be worth it in the long run!
Don’t know where to start when establishing your routine? Use a productivity planner like the #This is My Era planner! You can write down your morning using the daily “My Schedule” and “Notes” section, use the “Goal Worksheet” to track your morning routine week by week, and so much more.
3. Designate Your “Office” Hours
Do you have roommates who are also working from home? Adorable kids who love watching you work and asking every question that pops into their cute little heads? Or are Netflix and Hulu just tempting you to close your laptop and watch the next episode of your favorite tv show or the newest movie that was just released?
It’s time to post your “office” hours.
Okay, you don’t literally need to create a sign that says “working hours are from 9 am - 4 pm” but the sentiment is the same. Let others know when you’ll be working so they know to respect your time and space. This is an essential boundary because not only does having designated work hours to make sure you’re not getting off track during your working day, it makes sure you know when the day is done and it’s time to log off!
4. Recognize and Eliminate Distractions
Recognizing and acknowledging your distractions is half the battle. Take time to reflect on your daily life and see what areas are causing your mind to wander away from work. Then explore how you can eliminate those distractions in an effective and productive manner.
If you have a smartphone, put it in Airplane Mode or head to your app store and find a time-tracking app or productivity app. Install a website blocker extension on your internet browser to temporarily pause access to your most frequented websites like Facebook, YouTube, Reddit, and Pinterest. Wear noise-canceling headphones and listen to a productivity music playlist to tune out your environment and focus on the work at hand. Utilize your planner to detail what you wish to accomplish for that workday.
And for the more methodical at-home workers, consider implementing The Pomodoro Technique. Developed in the late 1980s by Francesco Cirillo, this world-renowned time management technique breaks down your working time into 25-minute increments (known as a Pomodoro) with short 5 minute breaks in between and a longer 20-30 minute break after four Pomodoros. It’s recommended to use a visual timer to limit the time spent glancing at your phone.
(Source: AlessandroZocc | Getty Images)
5. Set Yourself Up for “Mobile” Work
Even if you have created your perfect work-from-home space, sometimes you just need a change of scenery!
Luckily, we live in a time where smart technology is everywhere. Invest in items that allow you to work from anywhere whenever you hit a wall of monotony and need to get some fresh (new) air.
Have a backpack, purse, or laptop bag that is your mobile office bag and equip it with traveling while working essentials. This could be a power bank and charging cord, your laptop, phone, mobile hotspot, pens, daily planner, reusable water bottle, etc.
Once you have those essentials, you’re ready to work remotely from the park, your backyard, a coffee shop, or even your car.
6. Log Off and RELAX
This is a biggie. When your work is always at home with you, it is all too easy to feel like you always have to be working on something.
We’re here to tell you to NOT do that.
If your life is an endless string of days filled with all work and no play, you’re on a one-way train to burn-out central. Being productive doesn’t mean you have to be productive 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It means listening to your mental and physical health and knowing when you need to call it a day and relax.
Order take-out, have a movie night with your family, go on a walk, read that book you keep saying you’ll finish eventually, or write down 3 daily affirmations and reflect on how your day went. Whatever you decide to do during your relaxation time, remember to incorporate at least one social activity! You can FaceTime your best friend, hold a game night over Zoom, or have a good old-fashioned phone call to catch up with someone you’ve been thinking about recently.
(Image Source: @tiffanyvision)
7. Don’t Be Too Hard on Yourself
If you thought tip #6 was a biggie, buckle up - tip #7 is of the absolute most importance.
Don’t be too hard on yourself.
You are currently working from home and that might be new to you. It will take some trial and error. And even if you’ve always worked from home, the game has changed. You are working from home during a worldwide pandemic.
Remove the pressure and expectations you’ve placed on yourself to still maintain the same work ethic you had before the COVID-10 pandemic affected your work life. It’s okay to take a break and have an off day. It’s okay to give 100% one day and 50% the next day.
So give yourself a break. Remind yourself that you are giving what you can every day and to love yourself through the good days and the bad.
Hopefully, these 7 ways to stay productive when you work from home prove useful! And the best part? You can do these 7 things in any order or all at once!
If you’re not sure where to start improving your productivity and still feel a little overwhelmed with the idea of working from home, try daily journaling or using a daily planner. The #ThisIsMyEra 90-Day Planner is a user-friendly tool that guides you through how to plan your day, master time management, and maximize your potential.
