Working from home sounds pretty great, right?
Waking up with no alarm, morning coffee watching the sunrise, snuggling your puppy, sweatpants and blankets….ahhh. Until you look at the clock and realize it’s 1:00 pm and you haven’t gotten one work-related thing accomplished.
The reality is that you CAN have all of these things when you work from home – but in order to move the needle and make things happen your productivity needs to be on point. After spending the last two years spending a majority of my time working from home I have discovered the top 4 productivity hacks that work for ME.
- Having a solid morning routine
By having a morning routine I spend the first part of my day taking care of my needs. I used to jump right into emails or start off the day cleaning my kitchen, but the next thing I knew I was well into the afternoon and really hadn’t gotten anything done. I will share more details about my morning routine in a later post, but my total routine takes about 2-2.5 hours each morning and it starts the second I wake up – with no alarm 😉
- PLAN. OUT. YOUR. DAY.
Now I don’t care if you’re Type A, B, or X Y Z – everyone needs to have a plan for what they are going to accomplish that day. I am a paper planner type of person, so I write down my Big 5 for the day of what I need to get done. The Big 5 are my five most important, most crucial, and the biggest needle-moving tasks that I need to get done that day. Nothing else can be checked off of my list until these five tasks are completed. By having a list of things you need to get accomplished for the day you can ensure that all of your tasks actually get done, and it clears up brain space when you can jot down a list instead of trying to remember everything throughout the day.
Read more about the Big 5 strategy here
- Batch Work
What is batch working? Batch working is highly-focused, topic-specific forms of working. For example, I will spend one day a week writing all of my blog posts for the month, editing them, and scheduling them. I will spend another day of the week creating, scheduling, and writing captions for all of my social media for the month. Batch working will save you tons of time and get you hyper-focused on the tasks at hand.
Read all about batch working here
- Take breaks throughout the day
Now this one might seem a little contradicting to the subject of productivity, but studies show that taking small breaks about every hour and a half can give your brain a break and really increase your productivity. When I like to take breaks I usually fill up my water, grab a snack if I’m hungry, switch laundry, or go outside and hang out with my animals for a few minutes. I try not to be on my phone during this break. Afterwards I feel recentered, recharged, and ready to focus on the next task.
Here’s a few more items that could help you become a productivity ninja…
Whether you’re working from home full time or just need to get a bunch of stuff done, try these productivity hacks to get more accomplished. Which of these tips helped you? Do you have some of your own ideas to increase your productivity at home?