Work From Home Tips For Productivity and Focus For New People Working at Home
Since we have operated a work from home company for many years, I was asked by the local Valdosta Chamber of Commerce & Seeds Business Resource Center to create a video on productivity and how to stay focused while working at home. We hope these tips will help you if you work for a company that has recently decided to have their employees work from home. Watch the video below and let us know if there’s anything we can help you with.
Hi I’m Sally Sutton with Anchored Media Marketing.
And today I would like to share with you a few tips about working from home how to stay on task and how to be more productive.
I’ve been working from home for well over 10 years now and I remember in the very beginning it was quite an adjustment. It was hard to get used to. It was very easy to get distracted. You’re working and all of a sudden… Oh No I have five loads of laundry to do and there’s dishes that can be done, and it needs to be dusted. There so many things that that can take your focus away from working from home.
So, first of all don’t beat yourself up if you do find yourself distracted. Just get back on course and get back to work. So there are things that you can do to his set a routine and to start to get used to it. The first thing he has to have a place to work. If you can avoid working your kitchen table, then that would be good. If you could have a room or an area in a room set up specifically for working at home, that would be a good thing. If you have an extra room where you could shut the door that’s even better. But not all of us have extra rooms that we can work out of, but if you did that would be ideal. If you are at the kitchen table., you know you want to make sure that you let other family members that are around let them know you know this is my time to work and we need to keep things quiet, and that way you could be productive. When there’s noise in the room and in the house, it’s very easy to get distracted. Now, if that’s your only choice and you do have other people, maybe a set of noise canceling headphones would be good or some headphones were you can use some sort of music. Maybe like… a good website even when you have your own room, a good website is something like brain.fm and this is music that can really help you to be focused and to stay focused.
So you have your place to work. You want to make sure that you set regular working hours. You also want to make sure that you set the time for breaks. Just like you would at work and you know you go in at 8 o’clock you have a break from 10 to 10:15, you get back work at 10:15 and you work to 12. From 12:00 to 1:00 it’s lunch and so on you You want to make sure that you do that and that way that gives your body a rest and your you’re looking forward to that breaking. You know you have a certain amount of time to get this work done.
Also one thing that I have done too is to set blocks. Blocks of time. OK so let’s before we get into the blocks of time let’s talk about making your list the night before. So if you know that there are certain things that you have to get done the next day, go ahead before you go to sleep and write then down and get them off of your mind so that you can sleep better. You want to make three lists: One list is I have to get this done tomorrow, the second list for these are things that would like to get done tomorrow, and then the third list for things that need to be done, but don’t need to be tomorrow, they just need to be done. Those are just things to get it out of your head and onto a piece of paper so that you can sleep good at night.
So now that you have your list and you’re ready to work, you’ve gotten up and don’t just get-up-and-get out of bed and come to work in pajamas. It’s important that you act like you’re really going to work. You get up you take a shower, if you shower in the morning, you have a good breakfast, well get ready, have a good breakfast and then be ready to work at your specific time. If it’s 8 o’clock, if it’s 7 o’clock, 8 o’clock, 9 o’clock, whichever time you choose to get up and and you start to work, make sure you’re working at that specific time.
OK so now let’s talk about the blocks. So one of the things that really helped me in the beginning is just to take cell phone and set a timer for 15 minutes…. 15 or 20 minutes and then I am focused. I’ve got all my social media turned off, my phone ringer is down, my notification ringer is turned off so I’m not constantly being interrupted by text messages or phone calls. Unless I have a scheduled phone call on my schedule and on my still paper schedule. I like that, I like being able to write things down. I also use my Google Calendar as a schedule too but I really like my paper schedule.
So you start to work, you set your timer, and time it for 15 or 20 minutes and just really pound into the work and see how much work you can get done in the 15 minutes and after those 10- 15 minutes or 20 minutes you might want to get up real quick and stretch and then once you’re done stretching, Take a drink of water. I always have some water, I have my water bottle right here next to me. Always have a container of water, so you’re not having to stop, and get-up-and-go get water. Just have everything you need right here with you. Your pen, your paper, your schedule your water, a snack if you want to if you’re a snacker. Something healthy and try to stay away from all the junk days because that tends to eat your energy up and kind of drag you down.
So when you have all of that ready, then you’re more prepared for your day. You’re prepared to do those 15 minute blocks and by doing that and getting used to doing a certain amount of work in a certain amount of time, it becomes easier and easier. And in your mind you’re still going to think…. Oh gosh I need to go put that laundry on, but then you can catch yourself and say NO let’s refocus and get back to work because I have time after work to do that laundry to do, to run the errands or to whatever.
So let me look at my list here because I made a list of the things that I have done. So -OK another thing is to make sure you had a comfortable working space meaning you have a really good share that you can sit and you have a nice… a desk area it’s tidy even if it’s your kitchen table, make sure it’s tidy you have the proper or computer equipment and pens and papers and anything that you need to make your space comfortable and ready to work and then I’ve already mentioned I’m listening to music that really can help you focus but you want to make sure you’re listening to the right type of music because if you have it just on a regular Pandora station you could get distracted by the music or the commercials or whatever but you really will use really important to have some sort of music that has been made specifically to help you focus so those are the things that have helped me to be able to work from home for over 10 years. Boy do I remember those 1st few months when I chose to start working from home it really was an adjustment and it was something that you know its new so you have to get used to it and you have to work at it and then also too, make sure you don’t work too late. Make sure you take that time for your family, because it is easy as a business working at home, it is easy to say “Oh I can work another hour”. And that hour turns into 3 more hours and the next thing you know it is 9 o’clock at night. I say this because I have been guilty it and then you’ve lost all of your family time, So make sure you set that alarm on your phone. You may even set the alarm to like 30 minutes before stopping time, so that you can kind of wind down the things that you are working on. And then set that alarm for It’s Time To Get Off, just like at school, the school bell rings. Make sure you set that alarm on your phone so that you can stop working and then you have that time to be with your family, or to do the errands and all of the other things that you need to do. So I hope these tips have helped and I hope you have a great day.
