Staying Productive While Working From Home

Being able to work from home is a blessing and since Covid happened, we have come to see this as a possibility of work in the future.

Offices have been closed down and some bosses have encouraged their teams to embrace working from home more. Well, I believe hybrid work is the transition stage to fully working remotely.

While this is something good, it can be your undoing if you don’t plan yourself well.

It calls for a lot of self-discipline and focus.

Temptations are everywhere you look; left, right, and center. The TV is literally staring at your face and Netflix is screaming ‘One more episode’. Your cozy bed is right there!! With that soft pillow.

The smells from the kitchen when a delicious meal is being prepared find their way to you. So help you God if you don’t get up and run to taste whatever it is.

So how then do you stay productive and bring out something meaningful from your work?

 

Let’s dive into it!

 

Tips

 

1. Mindset

 

Here is something you want to think about. Success is 20% effort and 80% mindset.

You should know deep down that you want to succeed, although you are working from home.

Determine in your mind that you still respect your work and that the ability to work from home should work to your advantage.

Imagine the fact that you don’t have to commute. Especially if it is by public means. Honestly, this gets you half tired before you get to the office and begin work.

Let your mind see the beauty that comes from working/creating in a comfortable space. “Wow! What a beautiful day to create in this wonderful space!”

Train your mind to know that you have been given a lot and a lot is expected from you.

 

2. Create a Schedule

 

Working from home without a schedule is a recipe for disaster. You will literally be winging the day.

That is not what we want! We want to do more now that we are even saving that commuting time.

Be clear on what hours you are working. Be clear on what are the deliverables for that working time. Determine when you will have breaks. (We’ll look deeper into that in a minute)

Determine how chores will be distributed throughout the day.

A schedule will ground you and not leave room for winging it.

A schedule makes you feel fulfilled and ensures you stay productive.

There is usually the assumption that when someone is working from home, they are open for random visits, random chilling, random outings, etc. You are wrong my friend!!

 

 

Do not give people room for that. Be the person that consults your schedule before making plans.

I hope we know or have heard that work expands to fit the amount of time you allocate it.

So if you are supposed to do something like recording a podcast, but you are not clear on the when or the amount of time, I promise you, you can do it for two weeks.

But you see with a schedule, you break down the podcast to small achievable goals until it’s been published.

 

3. Allow for breaks

 

What’s that saying that ‘all work with no play makes Jack a dull boy’?

The beauty of working from home is that you get to design your day and the life you want.

Breaks between work, are energy boosts. They allow you to clear your mind before embarking on a mind-stimulating exercise.

Breaks play a humongous role in refreshing our mind.

 

 

If your job involves writing, it’s good to schedule breaks between intense writing sessions, then come back and look at your work with fresh eyes.

You see mistakes that you might have missed out. You have new ideas to add to your work.

Breaks help you come back with a solution.

It’s no wonder one of the options for troubleshooting any device is turning it off and then on.

 

4. Create Your Work Set-Up

 

Having an office set-up in your house is a good place to start. It doesn’t have to be complicated.

Start with a simple table and a simple chair. If you already have these in your house, set up one corner of the house and create the ambiance for your work.

It creates a separation between one part of the house and another.

For us, it’s a bedroom that we use for that and it serves us well. I pray that in future I will have an actual office in the house (God, from my lips to your ears, Amen)

 

 

The temptation to work from your couch or bed is real and I have fallen for it before.

Nowadays, I’ll do that just to change the environment a bit or when I am editing a short video on my phone, that I can do even while lying down.

Having that demarcation clear enough does something to your mind and fuels the ‘lets-get-that-money’ part of the brain.

Being comfortable is remedy for laziness.

I’m just saying;)

 

5. Keep your phone from site

 

Phones for sure are the true temptors* of the times we are living in.

I am making peace with the fact that one-hour away from my phone will not kill me.

I am glad I made the decision to turn off app notifications on my phone. It has been pure bliss since then.

We have the tendency to just grab our phones, even for no reason.

You don’t want to do that when you work from home.

You might have nothing to show at the end of the day.

Find a way to be away from your phone for two hours and you will be amazed at how productive you can be.

Take it to another room if you have to and check it during your break.

Put it behind your laptop while it’s on the DND mode so that it’s out of site. Out of site out of mind, right?

 

***

 

These are just a few hacks to bring out the best from your working from home.

I don’t want you to dread your decision to work from home. It can be fun and you can achieve a lot from it.