Although working from home can be extremely liberating, it can also be incredibly distracting if you do not adopt the right habits. Here are a few tips on how to maximize your productivity when you work from home full-time, whether at your day job or if you run an online business. It’s important that you do not underestimate the simplicity of some of these until you try them out for yourself.
Put Your Smartphone in Another Room
The average person checks their smartphone an incredible amount of times every single hour. This can easily get you sidetracked and takes away from the task at hand. A simple fix to this problem is to simply put your phone in another room for the day. If you absolutely must check it, try to do so only once every couple of hours or so. You will be amazed at much your productivity increases by implementing this simple tip alone.
Unfortunately we have become slaves to our smartphones and most of the time we’re on them, we aren’t doing anything productive. If you’re having a hard time with this step, at least flip your phone upside down to start. This way you will be un phased by all of the notifications that come in throughout the day i.e. emails, text messages, Facebook notifications etc.
Close Out of Any Unnecessary Browser Tabs
Now this is a biggie. More often than not, we have unnecessary browser tabs open at the same time we’re supposed to be doing our work. The most common distractions in this example are normally Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, Gmail etc. When you simply close out of these tabs (or don’t open them to begin with) while you’re working on an important project, you don’t have the temptation to break away from your work. The saying “out of sight out of mind” fits nicely here.
There’s a time and a place for checking your social media profiles or surfing YouTube, but not in the middle of your work day. We all know that one YouTube video leads to another, then another and before you know it 45 minutes has gone by without you getting a single thing accomplished. Closing out of distracting browser tabs helps eliminate this problem all together.
Put On Stimulating Music For Increased Concentration
This will be a little bit different for everyone, since we are all into various kinds of music. But what I’ve found works best for me to help me intensely concentrate is putting on stimulating study music, classical music, ambient music, instrumental music etc. Something that goes really well in the background and compliments your work can be really powerful. It can also decrease some stress or anxiety levels associated with the project you’re working on, leading to more focus and effectiveness.
Experiment with this step. Try different styles of music until you find something that is really helping you do the best work you can. Listening to music on a good quality pair of headphones can also be very beneficial. This will help block out any external noise and can really put you in the zone.
Take Short Breaks Throughout The Day
Working from home can become very routine and mundane at times, so it’s crucially important that you take short breaks throughout the day to mix things up. I find going for a 10-15 minute walk once a day really helps combat feelings of seclusion at home. Even going for a drive, taking 5-10 minutes to meditate, exercise etc., these are all fast and healthy activities that you could use to break up the day. If you do not take some time for yourself, your work will eventually suffer and some sort of burnout is inevitable. So please do yourself a favor and take those necessary short but powerful breaks.
In order to maximize your productivity when working from home, you need to be mindful of how you approach your day. These steps above could be the difference in having a productive week or getting the bare minimum done. Seriously, give these tips a go for the next month or two, track your results and let us know how you make out!
