How To Maximize Productivity When Working From Home

With the advancement of technology, more and more people are slowly shifting from the traditional 8-5 working schedules and adopting other schedules in order to derive more satisfaction from working.

This has been through opting for self-employment while others have opted to work entirely from home; some companies often give their employees options to telecommute even if for a day or two per week.

In as much as working from home can be pretty much fulfilling and the fact that you can do and wear whatever you want while working, it can come with its own set of challenges that you need to deal with such as reduced productivity.

This can greatly affect your chances of attaining financial freedom and even making a living out of your efforts. So, how do you ensure that you maximize your productivity while working from home?

Work on your mindset

You need to start viewing your work area just like any other job or business you would do. If you have the mindset that you need someone to check up on what you are doing at any time, working from home will be quite hard for you since you will definitely have reduced productivity because home just presents too many distractions. You will think of unwashed dishes, a smelling sink, a dirty house, clothes that are not properly folded in the bedroom and many other things that could easily distract you from doing what is most important to you, which is work.

The best way to avoid this is by setting a specific work desk where you will be doing all the work and setting fixed work hours. Don’t just assume you will keep track of your working hours but instead have those hours specified.

Wake up early and dress properly

Don’t expect to be sleeping all you want now that you work from home. Waking up early and preparing fully for work puts you into the correct mindset you need to approach work professionally. Don’t just expect to work every day for the rest of your life in pajamas. In as much as this is totally okay since no one is following you, setting a dress code for yourself puts you into the right mindset the moment you put on the work clothes.

Have a morning routine

You might not realize it but do you know that having something that you do every day between the time you wake up and the time you start working makes a great difference on how you will perform that day. It could be doing some physical exercises, which help in boosting your metabolism, meditation or saying some affirmations that will usher you into the new day. Whatever you do, ensure that your body adapts to it such that it can tell what will happen next.

This ultimately prepares you for a good day ahead, which means that you will probably not have a problem in starting work.
Don’t open emails or social media accounts the first thing in the morning.

These could be pretty much distracting and before you know it, you might have spent over thirty minutes checking out photos of your friend who got married two months ago and getting to learn who got engaged and who traveled to where. As a rule of thumb, set time for social media and emails when you are already tired; it is meant to refresh you remember! Set specific times for replying to emails too and not just any time.

Use productivity apps

It can be tempting to check emails immediately you receive them just to know what the email was all about but do you know that these instant messengers and notifications could be distracting you in your work. They could be the reason why you don’t do what you had decided to do when the day started and even end up having to work for longer hours just to cater for the lost time. When you use productivity apps, you can block or disable certain sites, instant messengers, etc and keep you focused on just one thing.

Use pareto principle in your work

Prioritize your tasks such that you start with the most difficult or challenging tasks first before moving on to the less difficult tasks. According to the pareto principle, 20 percent of your efforts bring in 80 percent of your income and 80 percent of your efforts bring in 20 percent of your income. So, you should be focusing on what brings in the most to you so that you can maximize on that area.

Learn from the experts

If you have a hard time mastering how to remain productive either because you take too much time to create a good sales copy or article, you could instead opt to do some training to master whatever you do. You could try courses meant for working from home such as the one offered by Michael Masterson.

Michael Masterson knows exactly what he’s talking about when it comes to this subject, so you can count on him to impart the right skills in you so that you can excel as you work from home.

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