Working from Home – photo from Shutterstock
One of the hardest parts of working from home is keeping yourself accountable and productive without the structure of your typical work environment. By implementing a few small changes to your routine it’ll be easier for you to stay productive when working from home. No matter if you are an SEO expert or an insurance agent, you should allocate your time wisely.
To stay productive while working from home: keep a schedule, take breaks, separate your spaces, get dressed, and don’t procrastinate when issues arise. These small changes and make a big impact on your motivation and productivity.
Table of Contents
1. Keep a schedule
It’s easy to throw your routine out the window when you get the opportunity to stay in bed a bit later every workday. There’s nothing wrong with a little extra sleep, but to stay productive, you should maintain some sort of schedule. This could be a completely different schedule from your usual workday schedule; experiment and find a schedule you can maintain.
2. Don’t procrastinate when IT issues arise
Not having the convenience of in-house support can make it easier to procrastinate fixing issues, which is going to hinder your productivity. While you may not have IT support down the hall from you anymore, make sure you know how to contact the IT company that your work uses, or have the number of your local IT company on hand for when problems arise.
3. Get dressed
Who wants to get dressed when they’re just sitting around their house all day? I get it, but keeping the routine of getting ready for work can help keep you motivated and productive. While you don’t need to put on a full suit, changing into something different from what you usually lounge around your house in can help you switch from “binge-watching-a-whole-tv-show” mode to a more productive mindset.
Working from Home – Photo by Luke Peters on Unsplash
4. Separate your spaces
Without the ritual of leaving your home to go to work, it can be easy for your work to bleed into your home life. This could mean working during your off-hours, or not remembering to take breaks. Try to create that separation between work and home that you’re used to by designating a separate space for your work.
This is very important because you can easily get distracted if you are working in the living room. For example, if you continuously hear the noises from your dishwasher, you might want to call a dishwasher repair technician to fix the issue. However, confirming the appointment takes some time, so you might need to take long hours to finish your work.
5. Take breaks
It’s easy to work through lunch or forget to take a 15-minute break every few hours when you’re working from home. It’s easy to grab a quick snack and go back to your desk and eat while you work, not giving yourself the time to decompress.
Schedule breaks into your day like you would when you’re at the office or set an alarm to remind you when to step away from your work – whatever you need to do to make sure you’re not burning yourself out each day.