Staying productive while working from home may prove very difficult at times but especially so now that most people are home with family. Whether it’s your lack of drive or your partner or children driving you insane, here are a few tips that will help you overcome your productivity slump.
Develop a daily routine
Plan ahead how your days will begin, what activities you intend to do, when to eat, take a break or do chores and also when to go to bed. Balance it out, by including personal goals alongside work tasks and spreading out tasks to be accomplished on a reasonable amount of time. If followed diligently, this will eventually help you have the cooperation of your body to complete tasks.
Create a home office
If you do not have a home office or study area, this should be top of your list. You need to create a space where you will report or maybe escape to every time you will need to concentrate on working. A desk, comfortable chair and good lighting are very essential as you will need a comfortable place to work from. Try to keep your desk decluttered and full of things that motivate you to work such as motivational stickers.
Develop a clear daily schedule to stay productive at home
Working with a daily or weekly schedule ensures both important and minimal tasks are accounted for and helps prevent forgetfulness. Be in the habit of listing things you need to accomplish and allocating time to actually do them. Balance is key here. Prioritize urgent tasks but balance them out with minimal tasks to avoid feeling overwhelmed.
Work in intervals (Promodoro technique)
Divide your tasks into smaller portions using time intervals to make them manageable. This is also known as the Pomodoro technique which was developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. All you have to do is decide the task to be accomplished and set a timer (usually 25mins). Next, work on the task until your timer rings and mark where you have reached. Finally, take a 3-5 min break if the checkmarks are fewer than 4 and a 15-20 min break for 5 or checkmarks.
Put your phone on silent to stay productive at home
Our phones are always chiming up with messages and unnecessary social media notifications. These notifications easily distract us from accomplishing a task. It is important to silence your phone or disconnect it from the internet when you intend to work. Put your phone on silent face down and get to work, you will even forget it is there.
Reward yourself after completion of a task
Make sure to reward yourself with breaks when you accomplish a task. You can use your break to reply to messages, check news and social media or just unwind. This will give you the necessary balance and maybe encourage you to accomplish tasks just so you could reward yourself.
Set time aside for nothing to stay productive at home
One of my favourite books, 101 Essays that will change the way you think, claims, “What we call doing ‘nothing’ is actually crucial for our physiological selves and is essential to maintain a happy, peaceful and balanced lifestyle.” I found this to be true in regards to myself. I used to pack my days from hour to hour with no real breaks until I became overwhelmed and unproductive. Strive to allocate time to unwind and do nothing. Not only does this help with brain function but also body functions.
Self-discipline is essential for any of these tips to work. Read about how to be more productive using planners.
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