The ability to work from home can feel like a blessing or a curse, depending on you mood. While it’s nice to have freedom and the opportunity to create your own schedule, this lack of structure can also make the simplest tasks drag on forever. Working from home may be comfortable, but it’s also a situation that’s potentially filled with all sorts of distractions, ranging from your TV to a book on your nightstand.
Now that Christmas is around the corner, many office workers are presented with the chance to work from home. For those newbies, and veterans, honestly working from home never gets any easier, here are five tips that can help you be as productive as possible:
Set a “strict” schedule
The key word here is strict, because you should still take advantage of your schedule’s flexibility. As you work from home try to have a set window for lunch time and for short break, allowing you to get some distance from the work and return with more motivation. It’s also important to maintain your sleep and work out schedules, trying to ensure that you have a routine. Just because you’re working from home doesn’t mean that you’ll have to spend the entire day i doors. It’s actually very encouraged to leave your house.
Use to-do lists
To-do lists are great, making you put things down to paper and helping you visualize your short term and long term objectives. Making a list will help you stay focused and remind you of all the stuff you have to do, avoiding distractions and making you feel accomplished when you get something done.
Prioritize
On your to-do list, highlight the tasks that matter most and that you need to get done as soon as possible. It may feel like you’re staying busy and accomplishing things when you start to do the simpler tasks but the reality is that, at some point, you’re gonna have to do the demanding and annoying work you’ve been avoiding. Prioritize it, get it over and done with, and then complete the less demanding work. Prioritizing will boost your productivity and help you save some time.
Set 30 minute windows to do work
Promising to work for three hours straight sounds daunting and really hard. Distractions and boredom are inevitable so try to be realistic and commit yourself to 30 minute of work where you won’t check your phone or email and where you’ll steer clear of social media. This small window of time will allow you to get work done fast and efficiently. You can even reward yourself afterwards by taking a walk, having something to eat, or looking at some videos. If it works for kids why shouldn’t it work for you?
Leave the house
When you feel like you’re trapped and lonely and like you can’t get any work done, then it’s time to leave the house. Take a walk or take your work to a coffee shop or a library. Sometimes changing your environment is all you need to get some motivation.
