Whether freelancing or telecommuting, numbers of professionals are swapping from office to home office.
We have all heard about the advantages of working from home – more time with family, no long commutes, calls in your comfortable pajamas and etc. but they do not think about the challenge they have to face! It is not as easy as it looks to stay productive with number of distractions.
Generally if you are working from home, odds are that you are a consultant, a freelancer or have a small business which you operate from your home. This states that your capacity to earn money is directly proportional to how productive you are. Being a freelancer, wasting time means wasting money.
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Below are the tips on how to stay concentrated as you work throughout the day time, while benefitting yourself of working at home.
Image Credits:flickr
Table of Contents
Show Some Respect To Your Time
When you work at an office, friends and family always respect your work schedule. But when it comes to working from home, you get prone to get calls at 10:00 a.m. and to handle all the household works too.
By this I don’t mean that you have to wait to reply to your text messages or wait for the cable appointment, but be watchful of how easy it is to get time torn from your workday.
It is very important to set bounds, if required. People will only respect your time if you start respecting it first.
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Levy Time Limits on Particular Tasks
It becomes difficult to deal with a job or a task if you find it boring or challenging. If you find yourself losing interest, narrate yourself to give 20 minutes more to the job on hand.
Later knowing that there are only few steps left in the completion, might give you energy for the project. And if not, then without wasting any more time, move onto another task and after completing it return back to where you left the latter in a good mindset.
Establish Harsh Deadlines
Have you ever thought on how you become so productive when facing a deadline? While an easy job can take hours to complete, you will finish it well under time if under pressure, if go by Parkinson’s Law, it states that a task will enlarge to fulfill the time you can bounce on it.
Fight with this fact by giving yourself deadlines for particular tasks. It can be tough or simple, depending on task you have to complete.
Sign Off for Productivity Periods
When we talk about digital distractions, we not only consider YouTube and Facebook. For most, daily bombardment of IMs and emails from colleagues and friends results in the day’s largest time going in the sink.
If you cannot go out of your email inbox, give big chunks of the day when you sign off from your email and phone to get the work done. You can sign in after completing your work and give your responses.
Change Your Environment If You’re Slowing Down
If you have already failed the tactic of “just 20 minutes more”, simply change your environment. Go out at a café near your house or at the park. A change in the background and scenery can build up new ideas in your mind and can also spring you with new focus.
Organize a Time Inspection
Ever wondered where you time went after finishing the day’s work? It is really important to get knowledge on how you are utilizing your time if you’re self- employed.
Always do a detailed inspection your day and keep an eye on what all tasks you performed and how long it took to be completed.
Such inspections can give you the inside view on your daily flow of the job and will help you make corrections wherever necessary,whether you have to compact trips to the grocery store or sending a mail to a demanding client.
Make a List of Tasks
I usually have number of lists running at a specific time. One list will keep a track of extended term goals, for e.g. those tasks I need to complete by the end of the month or week.
Then on the other hand I also have my other daily tasks which I have to focus on. Try to schedule your list in a realistic way and uncluttered as much as possible.
Looking at a list full of tasks to be performed which you possibly cannot complete will just juice your motivation.
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Have Good breaks and Make Them Count
When you are working at home, it is not possible to stay focused till the work is fully done. Breaks also play an important role in the day’s work, but make sure you count your time.
You must have said a “No” to your friends for a trip to lunch “because you are busy?”
On that very same day you must have already spent more than an hour browsing shopping site, looking at Facebook, watching TV, organizing your cabinet or checking your bank statement.
Busy work won’t recharge your batteries or finish anything.
So take good time out and do whatever makes you happy, like taking your dog for a walk, take an actual lunch etc. eventually this will make you more productive as well.
Conclusion
Increasing your productivity does not mean that you should work harder. It’s about how smartly you work. Always start by giving priority to more important work and then for other tasks go by having a plan.
Take breaks in between which is necessary to recharge the body. Keep an eye on the picture at all the times which will help you shape your day and give directions to your work, which will result in shaping your career in the right direction.
Follow the steps mentioned above and you will surely find yourself productive at home office. Time management is strategic and smart way to run your business.
Be responsible and be mature with your work.
If you have any queries related to work productivity, please do ask in the comments below !
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