5 Simple Tips for Staying Productive and Organized While Working from Home
By Latisha S. | latisha@pancakedigitalsolutions.com
Are you looking for motivation while working from home? Here are 5 simple tips for staying productive and organized while working from home for entrepreneurs or freelancers.
It’s becoming more and more common for people to work from home. However, it can also be difficult to make sure that we are staying productive & organized.
Here are 5 simple tips for staying productive and organized while working from home:
1. Have a separate workspace
This is really important! You want to make sure that you have a separate workspace. Create a space just for you to work that is separate from the kids’ toys, a spot away from the noise, or a desk where you can have all of your must-haves readily available. This will help keep your work day organized & productive.
2. Set Work Hours
One benefit of being able to work from home is the flexibility & freedom that it gives us with our schedule. However, this can also be a bad thing. If we are constantly finding ourselves becoming distracted and never actually working, then it is probably because we haven’t set aside specific hours to sit down and work. Setting work hours will ensure that you actually take the time out each day to sit down and focus just on work tasks.
3. Use a Planner/To-Do List
Another great tip for staying focused, productive & organized when you are working from home is to use a planner. My favorite way to use a planner is to start with my long-term goals and then break those down into daily, actionable steps. This way, I know exactly what I need to do each day in order to reach the long-term goal at the end of the month.
4. Stay off Social Media
This one is a little harder, especially if you use social media to run your business (and if you don’t, then you are really missing out on connecting with a new audience). But we all know how distracting social media can be! You go to make a business post on your Facebook page, and your eyes are instantly drawn to a video. Then that video sucks you into a conversation in the comments, which then sucks you into the profile or group that the video came from, and on and on it goes. The next thing you know, you look up and an hour has passed by without you actually accomplishing anything.
My advice is to do all the tasks that you need to do before logging into social media. If you need to check emails, create graphics using Canva, write a blog post, etc., do those things first.
Then, when you are done, you can log in to your social media accounts. I would even recommend going to your business pages first and scheduling posts & responding to comments & messages before going to your personal accounts.
5. Don’t Work in Front of the TV
The last tip is one that I have struggled with myself! As a mom with 3 young kids at home, I don’t spend much time watching TV during the day. Once the kids are off to bed, I usually like to relax and watch some TV.
However, this is not the greatest idea when I am also trying to get some work in! I’ve found that I am 10x more productive if I turn the TV off while I’m working and actually get a lot more done in a shorter amount of time.
On the Table…
Working from home can give us so much freedom. But if we don’t have some type of boundaries in place to separate our work life from our home life, then we might end up more like a hamster who’s spinning in circles but never getting anywhere. Following these simple tips for working at home will help you increase your productivity, stay organized, and get more done (in less time!)
Want more helpful tips? Check out our blog!
Originally written for PDS. Updated & Republished here for Rianna M. Hill content.
