Working from home can be a blessing and a curse.
You can go to work in your pajamas! If you’re a parent, you’re there when the kids get home from school. There’s lots of flexibility.
But, with all that flexibility, it’s easy to get off track. The TV is only a few feet away. You notice the laundry is piling up.
It takes discipline to keep yourself on task. But it’s worth the effort! Research shows that remote workers tend to be happier overall.
If you’ve recently started to work from home, it’s essential to put your time management skills to the test. Keep reading to set yourself up for success.
Create a highly functional office space
Be more productive when you work from home by setting up a great office space. It should be a designated area that is only used during work hours.
This helps you create a routine. When you step into the space, work begins. When you leave, the work day is over.
After you’ve picked out a spot, decorate it in a way that inspires you.
It should also feel like a real office. Get a filing cabinet instead of shoving papers in drawers. Get a separate phone line or try a service like American Voicemail.
Get into a habit of clocking in and out every day. Train your brain that places like the couch are for breaks, and the office is for work.
Schedule breaks throughout the day
When you work in an office with other people, the flow of the day is established for you.
When you work from home it’s easy to lose track of time. If you’re working too hard, you’ll eventually burn out. Hopefully, you aren’t working so hard that you forget to schedule some vacation time once in a while!
Then there’s the flip side. You find yourself eating lunch, then suddenly you realize you’ve wasted two hours.
Fix this by scheduling your breaks. You can try starting and ending your break at the same time every day.
Want more flexibility? Set a time limit for a lunch and two short breaks. Take them when you feel like it.
Set a timer, and when it goes off, get back to your to-do list!
Create a daily and weekly to-do list
To avoid wasting time, create two to-do lists for yourself.
Start your week by making a list of goals for the next 7 days. Try to organize them from most important to least.
At the end of each work day, create a smaller to-do list for the following day. Look at the things to be accomplished for the whole week. Try to take one difficult task and few easier tasks to round out your daily list.
Be honest with yourself about what you can achieve that day. Don’t set up unattainable goals that will make you feel badly when you don’t succeed.
The more you can cross off on your list, the better you’ll feel. In turn, your productivity will go way up!
Do you have any work from home tips that we missed?
Let us know in the comments!