Until recently, I was working about 60 hours a week between 2 jobs with my freelance work on top of that. When so much of my time was spent working for other people, I found it very difficult to work on my projects and client work at home.
Through trial and error, I found the optimal way for me to be productive at home! Now that I work from home the majority of the time, this is especially helpful to keep me productive all of the time! Whether you’re in college and balancing a job and school, working full time and wanting to work on a passion project, or full time working from home, I’m confident that these tips will peak your productivity to help you accomplish your work and goals faster and more efficiently!
1. Have a Dedicated Work Space
One of the first things to get you on track to be productive and get work done is to have a dedicated workspace. It could be your dining room table, your living room coffee table, or more commonly a desk. Whatever space you have to dedicate as your workspace, choose it and stick with it. Having everything you need to be productive already set up and ready to go makes it so much easier for you to get working right away when you need to.
We are lucky enough to have a home office so it is easy for me to have my own desk space with my laptop, charger, hard drives, tablet, calendar, and everything else I need already in one space to get right to work.
2. Keep Your Space Clean
Once you have your space and everything you need in that space, keep it clean! When you’re done working in your space clean it up! Don’t leave dirty dishes, trash, or anything you don’t need to do your work in that space. Keeping things in your space that you don’t need only serves as a distraction.
No one wants to work in a dirty space, and you’ll waste time cleaning or looking for what you need in a messy space.
3. ”Dress Up” for Work
Now, this is kind of different for everyone. But the main point is, when you’re working at home it sounds amazing to stay in your pajamas all day, but you aren’t going to be productive in your pajamas all day. How much you dress up is up to you, but you should be dressed to the point that you’re ready to leave the house when you need to.
For me, this means dressing pretty casual. I might wear leggings or jeans and a shirt or sweater, but for my profession that’s okay. If I need to run errands or go to a client meeting that is what I would wear. Most days I won’t even put makeup on, but on days that I do, I'll put it on first thing in the morning when I get dressed. When you feel confident in your appearance you feel good. You want to be in the best mood to work, even if it’s at home because you'll be more productive!
4. Wear Shoes
This is in addition to the previous tip, but it may be even more important. It sounds so funny, but just put on shoes while you work!
Whether it’s sneakers or moccasins, or whatever your preferred shoes are, having your shoes on prevents you from getting too comfy on the couch or laying back down in bed. It also makes it super easy to get out of the house fast for meetings or errands!
5. Create a To-Do List
This is a major tip. Writing things down, or typing them out, helps you to visualize what and how much you need to get done. This helps you see how much time it’s going to take to accomplish everything you have to do.
I used to just have my to-do lists in my head and found myself constantly forgetting about things until right before their deadlines, or forgetting about them altogether! Sometimes I don’t realize how much I have to get done until I write a to-do list of 15 items, and I’m like, "Crap, I need to get to work!"
6. Prioritize
After your to-do list is written out, PRIORITIZE your tasks! Write down the due dates for each item and estimate how much time it’ll take you to complete them. I plan out most of my days hour by hour now that I work from home, and my productivity has spiked in the past couple of weeks.
It’s so easy to be like, “oh, I have the entire day to do work”, and then get absolutely nothing done because you don’t have a plan. Sometimes you think, “I only have 5 things to do, I got this.” Then you realize it takes 3 hours to do each of those 5 things and no one should work 15 hours in a day!
Do yourself a favor and just write it out. Estimate the time it takes to complete each item and when you need to get it done by. You’ll find yourself less stressed and more productive since you won’t have any surprisingly fast-approaching deadlines or find yourself doing work at the last minute.
7. Schedule Breaks
When writing out your to-do list, prioritizing your items, and creating a schedule, DO NOT FORGET TO SCHEDULE BREAKS. Breaks are sooo important to maintain productivity. Stand-up, refill your water, just stare out the window, I don’t care what it is, every hour or 2 you should be doing something other than work. This keeps you from feeling drained or exhausted and burning out.
The longer you can maintain a good energy level, a focused mindset, and a positive mood, the more you will accomplish in a day. On a day where I try to cram all of my work into a couple of short hours, I never end up finishing all of my tasks. Plan a couple of breaks throughout your work time, I find scheduling around when I know I’m going to be hungry helps a lot to prevent me from getting exhausted or hangry which ruins my productive mood.
8. Leave Your House
This one sounds funny because most people want to work from home all the time. What you don’t realize is that when your home becomes your workspace, you get sick of it and need a change of scenery from time to time.
I always schedule my errands throughout my day as breaks like getting gas, grocery shopping, or going to the bank. You can also grab a coffee or if the weathers nice just go for a walk. Getting out of your workspace keeps you from feeling like all you do is work and keeps your mood up.
9. Put your phone away
I know that almost all of us are addicted to our phones at this point. It’s weird that we are so attached to something that usually prevents us from doing the things we would rather be doing with our free time.
Depending on the work you’re doing, odds are that you don’t need your phone to do, so put it away! Put it in a drawer or leave it in another room. If it’s not within arms reach you’ll find yourself less inclined to get up to get it and waste all of your time on social media or playing games.
For me, I use my phone a lot for the work I do. If this is the case for you too, then keep it on do not disturb and face down on your desk while you work. It’s easier to forget about it being there and all of the possible distractions if it’s not making noise or lighting up in your face.
10. Listen to Music or a Podcast
This last one is one of my favorites. I know a lot of people that say they need noise or something playing in the background for them to be able to focus, but TV or youtube is not the answer! With a visual distraction, you’ll find yourself glancing up to watch for 1 minute, 5 minutes, maybe even 10 minutes at a time rather than just focusing on the work you have to do and then watching a video on your break.
With music or a podcast, you can still have that background noise. It makes me feel less alone and also lifts my mood! Queue a bunch of songs you know will keep you in a hype mood to work hard, listen to a curated playlist, or listen to entire albums straight through. You don’t want to waste time switching the music, or searching for something to play.
I’ve recently discovered some great podcasts that I can listen to while staying productive. It feels awesome when you can learn while you work, and I feel like I don’t pay attention to the time as much when I’m listening to podcasts versus music.
Try these tips out and let me know if it helped you be a bit more productive! Also, leave any of your own tips below in the comments! Some things might work for one person and not another, so it’s always helpful to get insight from more than one person about what works for them.