Productivity tips for working at home
Working at home can give you great freedom and the chance to set your own hours, control your own working patterns and essentially – be your own boss. You aren’t tied to your desk, you have more flexibility for other things outside of work and there’s no one looking over your shoulder.
All these are fantastic benefits of being a freelancer or sole trader working from a home office, but they can also lead to a productivity-draining downside. When you manage your own time, it’s very easy to slip into bad habits and procrastination. Your home and social life can bleed into your work time, so you never get as much done as you’d like. Working alone, there’s no one else to pick up the slack, so boosting productivity and efficiency is your sole responsibility.
Eight top productivity tips for working at home
Luckily, there are lots of things you can do to avoid distractions and get more done in your home office. Let’s start with the layout of the office itself…
- Have a dedicated workspace – preferably with a closing door! Some people think that all they need is a table or even just a laptop to work at home. Yes, you can technically do your work while sitting on the sofa or at the kitchen table, but you definitely won’t be as productive as you need to be. Such an unprofessional setup won’t help your mindset, you won’t have easy access to all the equipment you need and importantly – there will be constant distractions, from phone calls to that pile of dirty dishes crying out to be cleaned up, interrupting your work. You need a dedicated workspace, even if it’s just a desk in a spare bedroom where you can set everything up the way you like it and shut the door on everything non-work-related.
- Clean, organise and de-clutter your workspace. A clean, ordered workspace will help you to organise your workflow and your processes, and a spring clean is a great way to kick off your new super-productive way of working. Don’t forget to let lots of natural light in, add in a plant or two and give yourself a nice view or even just a painting to look at – these will boost your mood and energy levels and help you with your workday. For more tips on organising your home office space, read our blog about organising a home office.
- Eliminate unnecessary distractions. The more distractions you can cut out of your day, the more you can focus and concentrate on the task at hand. One thing that can massively disrupt your workday is the phone ringing, as well as deliveries at the front door. You can get rid of these distractions, but still get all of your essential calls, messages and mail, by making use of a virtual office as we wrote about in our blog about the benefits of a virtual office. Virtual offices offer professional reception and call answering services, so you’ll never miss a crucial call, and also have the extra advantage of giving you the credibility boost of a professional postal address. Without the phone ringing every two minutes, you’re bound to boost your output and achieve more of your daily goals.
As All Business Expert writes:
“A business virtual office supplies an affordable and brilliant option for even the smallest budgets to operate a business like a major operation.”
- Track your time. Time is, in many ways, one of the biggest enemies of the home worker. It’s so easy to lose track of how long a task takes you to complete, or to lose minutes or even hours on procrastination and distraction. Productivity expert Anne McGurty, quoted in an article on Forbes.com, recommends setting a fixed work routine to help you manage your time. She says:
“Working from home takes self-discipline, and that means getting things done in the right time,”
“One way to keep your day on schedule is to set a daily start and stop time for working. The structure of a routine will help you avoid procrastination and boost your productivity,”
“If you’re always wondering where the time went, consider using one of the many free online apps, such as RescueTime, to help you track your activities.”
You may also want to consider adopting new work patterns, such as the Pomodoro technique. This involves using a timer app to work in chunks of 25 minutes at a time, with a 5 minute break. It is designed to encourage maximum focus and keep energy and creativity high – this article on Lifehack.org can tell you more about the technique and help you figure out if it’s right for you.
- List and prioritise your tasks every morning. To keep focused during your working day, make a list of everything you need to do that day before you start. Make sure you’re realistic in how much you can actually get done, or you’ll constantly feel dissatisfied at the end of each day.
- Invest in the right equipment. In order to work like a professional, you need to have a professional set up – this is one of the tips advised by Zenhabits.net, which looks at how to balance productivity with staying sane. This means spending some money on the equipment you need, from a decent wireless printer (that doesn’t require minutes of wrangling before it works) to a comfortable chair with the right back support.
- Drink lots of water and eat proper meals at proper times. This is all part of keeping to a routine and also keeping yourself motivated, in a good mood and full of energy. If you want to be productive, it’s important to look after yourself.
- Consider co-working. Sometimes, it can be a real motivation boost to be in an environment of fellow professionals, all innovating and working hard. Even if you’re happy in your home office, it can helpful to spend a few hours a week in a co-working office space – you never know, you may even make some important new contacts!
For more advice on maximising productivity and efficiency no matter what kind of office space you work in, subscribe to the Carrwood Park blog for regular updates, top tips and useful information.