Working from home has never been more popular. With the rise of onlinebusinesses completely operated online, eCommerce stores, virtual assistantjobs and companies saving money by keeping staff at home, now has never been abetter time to work from home.
In this short article, we’ll share 10 tips to stay productive, meet deadlinesand manage colleagues to keep the perfect work from home balance.
If you’ve ever contemplated working from home, but have yet to transition, nowcould be the best time to try it out with so many financial and economicalglobal constraints.
Correctly, working from home can have many advantages that can lead to youbeing more cost-effective and can even boost productivity/sales especially ifyou are thinking about diversifying your income.
Make sure to stay away from all distractions, including pets. Bigger pets,like cats and dogs, need to have their own separate living areas. Smaller petslike guinea pigs, hedgehogs, rabbits etc should be kept outside the house(like in an outdoor rabbit hutch) to avoid any interruptions.
Here are my 9 Proactive Tips For Working From Home:
1. Time-Saving
When you work from home you miss the MAD rush hour traffic. Consequently, youcan wake up at the same time or later but still get a head start on the day.
A great incentive to work from home is the ability to tear through your to-dolist faster. This could be as simple as a 10 – 15min light workout before youstart your day or as committed as a new mediation routine.
Whatever you choose to do with the extra time, make sure it has a directimpact on performance.
2. Imagine you are at the office.
Productivity at home is as much a mindset shift then it is staying away frommultiple distractions. The most productive people can imagine they are in theoffice environment and keep themselves in that mind-frame for the majority ofthe day.
Plan out your day as if you were sitting down in the office and going througheveryday tasks. For example, set an alarm, have your morning cup of coffee,put on your “work clothes” and make it seem as if you are going into theoffice.
The more you feel like this is a typical workday the easier it will be toprepare your mind for efficiency and productivity at home.
3. Choose your work area carefully
Deliberately choose a place in your house for uninterrupted work. That couldbe a particular space in the dining room, a newly purchased corner desk orsetting up a new spare room. (if you’re lucky enough to have the extra space!)
Working in leisure and relaxation areas, like the living room or bedroom, maynot correctly distinguish the roles of work and play.
4. Turn off your socials
Social media is perfectly designed to distract. With each ping, bell, andsound you pull yourself away from what you are doing and engage in thenotification. Once or twice won’t make a big difference, but constantlychecking your phone or tablet while in the middle of work will only serve tomake you less productive.
The best way to perform optimal levels of productivity is to log out of yoursocial apps while on your shift. If that’s too much then you can turn yourphone on silent and have it away from your primary working area.
5. Find the productivity slots
We all have a particular time of day that we are most productive. That couldbe the early morning, the late afternoon or the midnight shift. if you havethe luxury of working from home then test what times of day you work the bestand play to those strengths.
Use the slow periods of the day to knock out the mundane tasks and when yourproductivity shifts start go deep to make them count.
That will be the difference between an OK day working from home and anincredible one.
6. Detailed Daily Planning
Keep a detailed plan of your daily routines and stick to them closely. Themore structured you are, the easier you’ll find meeting deadlines. The mainbenefit of working from home can also be its main disadvantage. You are freeto work whenever and however you want, but this can come at the risk ofblending work and play.
If you keep a detailed account of the hourly tasks you are required to do it’svery easy to tell when you are working proactively and when you are not. Inthat way, if you have an incredible week then maybe you can take a few hoursoff on a Friday to chill.
7. Use work music to keep you motivated.
As simple as it sounds work-based / study music can keep you in the rightmainframe to be consistent and engaged. Anything lyric-free should be a goodstarting point. However the closer it is to calm and refreshing sounds theeasier it will get things done.
Of course, if you are just checking email then you can listen to whatever youlike but playing music is an important part of focus.
8. Always takes breaks
Breaks are an important part of working from home and are vital if you want tostay efficient. A break can be as simple as switching from work mode to relaxmode while watching a funny clip on youtube. But more realistically, a breakshould be structured away from your computer. Although you can browse anythingonline, try and take the opportunity to change your environment, read a bookor do some light exercise.
You’ll return more refreshed and more ready to start the next segment of yourworkday.
9. Choose a time to finish and stick to it
The biggest mistake many people make when trying to work from home is neversticking to the end of the workday. You wouldn’t constantly work for free atthe office, so why do it at home? Instead, choose a clear time to finish workand stick to it as much as possible. This will have the bonus of keeping youengaged and working towards a daily deadline which will naturally keep youmore productive as you have clear boundaries set.
Working from home has become more popular as it is proving to be more cost-effective for employers and employees alike. Using these tips will keep youabove the trend and ensure that your home-based work, even if it’s temporary,is still proactive and productive.
Hey, I’m Amy and I’m in love with my Pets! I have a diverse variety, including2 cats, 1 dog, 3 rabbits, 2 guinea pigs, a rat and a beautiful macaw. I lovewriting about everything pet-related and spend as much time as I can sharingmy personal experiences on my blog. UltimatePetHub.com
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