If you're a blogger or a student or even run your own business, you will be familiar with the concept of working from home. Working from home can prove quite a challenge and there are quite a few things you need to get right to ensure you achieve optimum productivity. Here are a 5 tips on how to stay motivated and make sure you're getting as much done as you can and get it done in the best possible way!
K E E P A C L E A N & T I D Y W O R K S P A C E
Keeping a neat and organised work space is key for maintaining motivation and getting stuff done. Keeping everything in order helps you to focus and limits distraction and you have more space to work which is always much more efficient. A tidy home leads to a tidy mind, as well as it being beneficial for your health. God only knows what kinds of germs are floating about your house so it is crucial to keep things spick and span. You can either do this yourself, or if you're majorly busy and don't have time for cleaning and tidying you can go through a company such as handy.com, an NYC based apartment cleaning service where you can either go online or use their app to book a slot, pay via card and have one of their trusted professionals will come out and get the job done for you. This is such a handy service (as the name would suggest) for those of you who are workaholics like me and work 7 days a week and just can't find time to get on top of the housework!
R E M O V E D I S T R A C T I O N S
This is a very difficult one if you're a social media whizz and are constantly wanting to keep updated with whats going on in everyones lives. Turn off the TV, put your phone on aeroplane mode or throw it out the window or do whatever to stop yourself being tempted to start playing with it. An app I've found extremely useful to stop myself using my phone whilst I'm working is FocusNow. You set a timer for how long you want to work and the app grows a tree in that time and you get a tower starting to build with every tree you grow. If you leave the app whilst you're supposed to be working for a cheeky scroll through Twitter, your tree dies and the app shouts at you. This is a very fun and useful app and it is also free on the app store here.
P L A N, P L A N A N D P L A N S O M E M O R E
I am a self-confessed planning freak. I don't think there is anything more satisfying than ticking off completed tasks on your to do list and watching as your list progressively shrinks as you get work done. I think planning applies to any work really not just to those of you working at home, but sometimes when you're working from home you can be a little too relaxed and not in the right frame of mind so organising what you need to do will definitely help to motivate you and make sure you get everything done. There is nothing worse than being behind on things, and especially if you run your own business you can't afford to be behind on things or not get things done. Having a clear view of everything that needs doing and when it has to be done by will help you get a clear perspective on things and will help to combat the feeling of being utterly suffocated with work. If you're a blogger then my favourite way to plan things is using my Blog Planner Notepad from Dot Creates (full post coming Wednesday) as I can make sure I jot down all of my ideas for a post and I then know exactly what needs to be done before the post goes up. A lot of planning and preparation goes into a post before you all get to read it so this helps me to make sure that I know of everything I need to do and that each post is completed to the highest standard. I also love this weekly planner which I forget the source of, but I think I just typed in something along the lines of 'printable planner' into google and got a bunch of free downloads which have been very handy.
T A K E F R E Q U E N T B R E A K S
This is probably the most important step in making sure you don't run out of steam. Time your work sessions and after completing each one take 5-10 minutes to go for a wander round, get some fresh air and grab a snack so you can reboot and recharge before you get back to work again. This is especially useful if you're working on a challenging project thats causing you stress, taking a break from it and then looking at it again with a fresh state of mind can sometimes be the key to cracking it. I know if I've been struggling with some revision or have been stuck on some homework, constantly dwelling on it tends to be counter productive and going away and coming back to it once you've cleared your mind can be extremely beneficial. I tend to spend my breaks doing something I love, scrolling through Instagram, watching a youtube video or grabbing something to eat and a cup of tea. It's probably not a wise idea to start watching an episode of your favourite TV show on Netflix because you and I both know you're not going to go back to work once you've started that.
K E E P Y O U R B R A I N F U E L L E D
Your brain is simply going to conk out if you don't keep eating and drinking throughout the day, so be sure to keep a bottle of water nearby and some healthy snacks. The worst thing you can do is allow yourself to feel sluggish and tired by either not eating and drinking or simply eating junk. You will quickly begin to lose concentration and all your work won't get the full attention and focus that it needs. Keeping some bits of fruit to pick at and a big bottle of water to keep you going can make a significant difference to your motivation and productivity, and obviously you're aware of the importance of drinking water in general.
That concludes my tips on how to be productive when working from home, let me know if any of these have helped you and also if you have any other tips and tricks leave them in the comments!
Emily xx
This post was kindly sponsored by Handy.com, however all content included in this post was created by me and all opinions are my own. For more information, please visit my disclaimer which can be found in the toolbar at the top of my blog.
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