Tips to Be More Productive Working From Home

There are so many benefits to working from home. Alongside those benefits, however, certain challenges come along for the ride.

If you don’t plan to face those challenges, your productivity can drop quite a bit in a remote working situation.

To help create an environment more conducive to your work-from-home success and avoid a drop in productivity, follow these tips:

Set Boundaries

If you typically work in an office, setting boundaries is one of the biggest challenges in making the transition to working from home.

Your family, pets, neighbors, and friends may see you at home and assume that means you are free. Things can unravel quickly if you don’t set boundaries from the start.

Set working hours and make sure everyone is aware. During the day, it’s ok to take breaks and spend some time with family. In fact, it’s encouraged.

Having you home all day but not being able to talk to you can be very frustrating for your family.

So, set aside lunchtime to spend some time with them and stop and connect here and there during brief breaks.

As long as you clearly define when you are working, you’ll be able to keep everyone around you happy while still staying productive.

Create Goals

Setting clear goals can help ensure you wrap up important projects and tasks on time. Set goals and set deadlines, so you have a pre-determined endpoint. We recommend the SMART goal methodology. Within this frame, you should set goals that are:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Time-based

This way, you can maintain a focus on the right things and have a system in place to measure the results once complete.

Image: SMART goals – Source

Dedicate Email Time

One habit to avoid is checking email constantly. You may feel that you are missing out by not checking your email, but the problem is if you are constantly checking your email, you aren’t working on more critical projects.

Set aside specific time intervals during the day to check and respond to emails. This way, you can stay focused on important projects and avoid losing momentum. 

Chat apps can be a great way to stay connected without stopping to read or write long emails. You can set notifications, so they pop up on your computer, and you can conduct shorter, more targeted conversations with your team when the need arises. 

Take Brief Breaks

At the office, you typically get up and walk around for various reasons throughout the day. A trip to the break room for a snack.

Stopping by a colleague’s office to discuss a project. Simply getting up to stretch your legs.

When working from home, it’s easy to neglect the need to step away from your workspace now and then.

Getting up, walking around, grabbing a snack – these can all help the blood start flowing and provide a boost to your energy levels.

It’s not healthy to sit for 8 hours straight, so be sure to take a walk to the kitchen to grab a snack now and then. Step outside and grab a few minutes of fresh air. You’ll find your energy and productivity both increase as a result.

Final thoughts on work from home productivity

To some, working from home and avoiding distractions comes easily. Others have a more difficult time separating work and home. These tips should help you make that separation clear and help you be more productive throughout the day.

Anthony Gaenzle
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1 thought on “Tips to Be More Productive Working From Home”

  1. Boundaries and breaks work well for me. I take short – and long – breaks every day to be fresh, to think clearly and to blog peacefully. As for boundaries, my offline WAH life is serene enough because my wife is chill and works from home as well. But setting online boundaries in terms of only replying to folks interested in blogging tips boosted my productivity. I ignore all first contacts of small talk; I only chat casually after folks who reach out express interest in my blog or niche, as the introduction. From there, we chat blogging and life. Keeps me productive and aids targeting, too.

    Reply

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