Working from home can be a blessing or a curse, especially if you’re prone to procrastination or are easily distracted by cute dog videos. But fear not, today I’ve come up with 21 tips to help you supercharge your productivity levels so you can smash out your daily duties in no time at all!
1. Have a Morning Routine
This one is kind of obvious, but not necessarily easy, especially when you’re not bound by regular office hours. Resist the urge to take that extra hour in bed, eat breakfast, and get ready to show the world what you’re made of.
2. Work Out
I find if I work out on a morning, even if it’s a 25 minute HIIT session, I work so much better during the day. Try it out for a week and see how you feel.
3. Get Dressed
Working in your PJs is novel, for about a week, but then it makes you feel groggy. Instead, get dressed like you’re heading out for the day.
4. Be Passionate
If you don’t love what you do, you’ll never give it your all. So, check-in with yourself… are you happy with your job? If not, what can you do to make it more enjoyable?
5. Create a Tranquil Workspace
Because your bed won’t cut it. Working in bed all day sounds appealing, but it can make even the best of us lazy and promotes terrible posture. Instead, create a vibrant desk area/workspace with lots of natural light and limited distractions.
6. Separate Work and Life
Set your work hours and commit to them, whether that’s 9-5 Monday to Friday or every day from 7-12. Find what works for you and once you’re done for the day, try not to think about work anymore.
7. Use Do Not Disturb
Ditch your biggest distraction and turn on DND, it’s an actual a life-saver! Newer phones now have a ‘focus mode’ too, so you can only use apps related to your work – perfect if you need to take calls during your workday.
8. Ditch the TV
Your TV, including Netflix, is far too big of a distraction, so turn it off. I’m sure we’d all love to get paid to binge-watch Suits, but for 99% of us, that’s not going to happen!
9. Play Some Tunes
Music, on the other hand, is perfect for boosting productivity. I recommend something without lyrics and find piano or jazz the most inspiring music.
10. Set Goals
Set yourself mini tasks for the day/week and then bigger ones for the year. You’ll soon be all fired up once you start crossing them off your list.
11. Use A “To-Do” App
Speaking of lists, use a to-do app to help you manage them. There’s a boatload out there, but I like Google Tasks as it syncs with all my other Google software. Todoist and TickTock are also great alternatives.
12. Try the Pomodoro Technique
Do you lose focus fast? Then the Pomodoro Technique could be the answer! Do quick 20-minute bursts of work followed by a 5-minute rest and repeat 4 times. I use Tomato Timer to help me stay on track.
13. Remember the 80/20 Rule
You know, the one that says 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts. Look at where you’re spending your time and see if you can rejig things to maximize productivity and results.
14. Embrace Parkinson’s Law
Set a deadline and stick to it. If you have a task that should take an hour, complete it in an hour, the longer you give yourself to complete a simple task, the more unnecessarily complex it will get.
15. Use Project Management Tools
I recommend Trello because it’s free. You can add your staff to cards, set deadlines that automatically sync with your current timezone and categorize jobs. They also have an app too!
16. Communicate Well
I love tools like Slack because you can link up with co-workers no matter where you are in the world and can get answers to your questions quickly. It’s basically an IM for businesses. Zoom is also perfect for video calling.
17. Take a Break
Step out for lunch and again for a quick coffee in the afternoon, it’ll allow your brain some time to relax and reset so you’ll be ready and raring to go in the afternoon.
18. Join Relevant Facebook Groups
Groups help you to share your thoughts and ideas with likeminded individuals and will keep you more motivated throughout the working day; try to only use them outside of work hours, though.
19. Try Digital Co-Working
Join people from around the globe for a digital co-working session and get them to keep you in check with your deadlines and goals.
20. Listen to Podcasts
Download a few podcasts in your free time and learn from experts in your field. It’ll allow those creative juices to flow and inspire you to think of new ideas.
21. Read
Take a leaf out of the most successful entrepreneur’s books and expand your knowledge by reading in your spare time. The ideas are likely to stick around and could come in handy while you’re working away one day.
What do you think of the tips I discussed today? Have you tried any? Or do you have a trick that you swear by? Let me know in the comments below!