Working from Home- How to Be Productive?

5 replies
Working from home has its benefits. You don't have to worry about weather delays or getting stuck in traffic. You can also create an environment in your home which is quiet and ideal for you to work in. Moreover, when there's time for a break, you can just go to your kitchen and have a quick bite. However, one predicament that people do face while working at home is productivity. Here are some tips which will help you tackle such a situation.

1. Change your Mentality and minimize distractions
Most of the people who work at home have a laid back attitude. They don't take their work seriously. You need to make sure that you create an environment which is quite identical to your office. It is advisable to take a quick shower and change your clothes before you find a place to set your whole equipment. You should choose a work space that has minimal noise and no distractions. If someone keeps perturbing you during your work, you will lose your concentration and slacken off. This is how you can keep the distractions to a minimum.

- Music: Always manage your playlist beforehand so that you don't have to change the song after every ten minutes. You can also tune into your favorite radio station and let it play for longer periods of time.

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Pets: It is essential that you keep your pets crated as you would when you are away from work. Pets can hamper your progress and we all know how adorable they can be. They can take your attention away from work. Well buddy, I apologize but work is also important.

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Guests: If you are expecting guests or some relatives at your home, then you need to adjust your schedule according to them.

You need to have a mindset that you will get things done today. You need to be a goal oriented person to achieve anything in life. If you think that you can just sit there and hope for things to magically work out, then you are sorely mistaken.

2. Keep in touch with your Team!
In an office, you have the luxury to talk to your colleagues and communicate with them about work and this is very necessary for creative cognition. Whereas, in your home, you do not get these kind of opportunities and this can dull your senses. You need to make efforts while working at your home to communicate with your team members, take their advice and keep in touch with them and keep them updated with what you've been up to. Here are some means which can help you achieve this,

- Email: This is an ideal choice if you have to share some documents with your colleagues or other attachments associated with the projects you've been handling at your home.

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Instant Messaging: IM is used in a lot of social media websites and is good for informal conversations or when you need quick answers to the problems you've been facing.

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Video calls: Great for visual interactions and group meetings where you can share your ideas and convey complex information which is hard to comprehend through any other means.

3. Manage your eating habits
You will not have time to cook during your work hours so make sure you have snacks ready before your working time. You can't just order junk food all the time as it might be detrimental to your health. Never compromise on your health because if you do not eat foods which promote good hygiene, you will get sick and this will further affect your work productivity.

4. Breaks
You might think that taking breaks might affect your work but that's not true. Actually, the truth is quite contrary to that. Research says that the human mind has the capacity to function at an optimum rate for 53 minutes before it starts to switch off. It is advisable to take breaks of 15 minutes after every 40 or 50 minutes to keep yourself fresh and focused on whatever you're doing.

5. Hone your Working habits
It's very important to acclimatize to your working conditions. You can't just change your working practices every day because it gets hard to adjust to different settings. If you are working at a coffee shop, then train yourself to work in that ambiance. Self-Discipline is highly important when it comes to working and it can only be gained when you work on yourself day in and day out. Every person is different and has different idiosyncrasies. I like to do a crossword puzzle or read a newspaper before I get to work so I always follow a routine which can make time for all these things.

6. Prepare yourself for adjustments
You can set a timetable and follow it bit by bit but sometimes things just happen to show up inadvertently. Someday your kid might have a big event in his school and on that day, you will need to adjust your work timings. Be willing to change. Always have a contingency plan so you can handle any situation.

7. Do not worry or be stressful
This is one of the most important things. No amount of anxiety can solve any problem in this world. If you stress a lot and worry that you'll never get your work done or you're just wasting your time at home then think of changing everything from scratch. Leave everything and figure out the root cause of the problem. Is it procrastination? Well, assign certain goals and not just one goal before you start to work on a project.
#home #productive #working
  • Profile picture of the author bestIMtools
    Although I have the ability to work from home, I prefer to work out of an office outside of the house. I worked from home for many years and still do if need be, but I have an office that I go to everyday and that allows me to separate my work life from my personal life, which is so difficult when you work from home because you never leave the office.

    I setup my office outside of my home in an effort to increase my mindfulness, to live in the moment, and to have total focus on my business when I'm at the office and total focus of my family when I'm at home.

    Thankfully, my office is very close to home, but I understand this is not the case for many who may need to work from home, which also has its benefits.
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    Invento Marketing | Dominican Republic Boutique Ad & PR Agency
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  • Profile picture of the author StavrosSc
    One thing I recommend that every home based marketer add into their set of tools, is some sort of daily task organizer that lets you organize and keep track of all your daily tasks, appointments, goals etc.

    You have your very basic programs such as Syncd live timer all the way up to the ones with all the bells and whistles such as Evernote.

    I myself thing Evernote is a little to bloated for my liking but know of others who couldn't imagine living without it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Richard Rago
    Hey silveroaks,

    Wow your list is hyper specific.

    For me, there are only two guidelines:

    1) I spend the last hour of every working night on my task list for the following day. I take my time. No rushing this part. Stress free.

    2) I never start the day in my inbox. I won't read a single email until I've built some momentum and gotten my head into work mode. Once my head is in the get-things-done space, I spend far less time reading and thinking, reading and thinking, reading and thinking.

    I love that you brought up music, and I couldn't disagree with your advice more. I can't work without my jams, and I'm always jumping from artist to artist, song to song, whatever tickles my fancy in the moment. It takes about 12.395674 seconds to change a song

    Best.
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  • Profile picture of the author ChrisBa
    It might be off topic, but one of the questions I find I often get asked when I say I work from home - "so you can just sit around all day in your pyjamas or underwear?"

    I guess we could, but with that kind of mindset I have a feeling it wouldn't lead to the best results
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    • Profile picture of the author George Schwab
      Re: Working from Home- How to Be Productive?

      Automate as many tasks as possible. For example bookmark all sites
      you visit together with your log in info. So you can hop through 20 sites
      in about 30 minutes, and even write comments during that time,
      or copy the result stats of promotions to your campaign file.

      Then prioritize all new programs, so you will get to them eventually.

      keep records + backups of all important info + ads + sites you run,
      or participate in. That's essential, or you will get overwhelmed & lost.

      most of all: Focus.Focus.Focus.

      Stay sharp like a fresh razor blade.
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