21 Ways to Stay Productive While Working From Home
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21 Ways to Stay Productive While Working From Home
Working from home has definitely become the new normal in the last few years and it seems like almost everyone is working from home these days.
I, myself, am a newbie to working from home and I’ve come across an entire new world of distractions that I never even thought existed and often struggle to stay productive!
Our big comfy couches and cozy beds, simply do not exist when we have to physically go into work, and there’s no denying that it’s way too easy to hang out in bed or on the couch when working from home.
I’ve created a list of 21 Effective Ways to Stay Productive While Working From Home! Keep reading the blog to learn more!
1. Take Care Of Your Pets Needs First
If you have pets, (especially a dog) it’s important to make sure that they won’t be distracting you when you are working from home.
Take your dog out before you start your work day and try to include a short mid-day walk during your lunch break.
Ensure there is a small area at home that is enriched to keep your pet entertained and busy. You can also set -up an area in your workspace (like a cat tree, or pet hut/bed) for your furry companion to hang out and chill in.
2. Avoid The TV
If you’re a TV lover, KEEP THE TV OFF WHILE YOU ARE WORKING and try to avoid working near the TV. This is easily the biggest distraction (next to our phones) that keeps us from staying focused, especially if one of your favourite shows is running in the background.
There’s even “TV for your cat/dog” with a peaceful, soothing outdoor ambience so you can stay focused while your furry companion is entertained!
3. Put Your Phone Away
Hands down, cellphones take the gold medal in distractions when we are working from home.
If you can, keep your phone in another room while you’re working from home and schedule blocks of time to check your phone notifications and catch up on social media posts and messages.
Limit the time you spend on your phone, turn off notifications, set your phone to “do not disturb,” and keep your phone in a drawer or lock box if it needs to stay in the same room as you.
With a phone lock box, you can set boundaries and increase your productivity, giving you time to focus on your work and time to unwind afterward!
Avoid using your phone as a timer. Instead, use a timer on your Smartwatch, this super adorable desktop timer which I enjoy using when I’m working from home, or the free ZenFocus website to time your work sessions.
I find the ZenFocus website to be my favourite, helpful, free timer for my tasks. ZenFocus is a free website designed to help you stay focused and productive by using the Pomodoro Technique. (Keep reading this post to learn more about the Pomodoro Technique!)
4. Avoid Unnecessary Internet Browsing
Practice only keeping tabs open that you need and use website blockers to prevent you from scrolling through distracting sites during your work hours.
Make it a habit to write down your tasks and spontaneous ideas as they come to mind. That way, you can come back to your notes at a later time and tackle them then.
5. Save Errands For The End Of The Day
Since you’re working from home, you’ll probably feel inclined to get some things done around the house. These errands add up and next thing you know the day is over and you didn’t get any work done.
It’s fine to fit errands in that work around your schedule and don’t take more than 5 minutes of your time.
Getting a little bit of laundry or dishes out of the way are small tasks that can be done in 5-10 minutes during your break time.
Save everything else for after work and days off.
6. Use Music To Focus
If you can’t work in complete silence, then look up a focus playlist on Youtube or Spotify and avoid playing songs you like to “turn-up” to and songs with distracting lyrics.
I LOVE to listen to playlists with the words “Focus,” “Chill Beats,” “Chill Lofi,” or “Chill Vibes” in the title and I’m currently listening to this playlist as I write this post: Coworking & Focus
7. Wear Headphones To Cancel Out Noise
If I’m home alone, I avoid wearing headphones because I like to keep an ear out for things like an Amazon delivery or my cat, Didi, getting into mischief. Otherwise, 90% of the time, you’ll find me with headphones on and one of my favourite focus playlists playing, so I can stay productive when working from home.
I switch between these wireless headphones and ear-buds, and BOTH have become incredibly helpful in blocking out the noise from neighbours, barking dogs, and the typical sounds of city living.
8. Be Prepared To Satisfy Those Munchies
Meal prep for the week and schedule your meal breaks ahead of time.
Have easy-to-grab snacks that don’t require much prep for when you get those mid-morning and mid-day munchies, and make sure to keep a limited snack stash in your office or workspace, such as granola bars, trail mix, pudding, or popcorn.
9. Create A Daily Schedule
One of the best things about working from home is the freedom to make your own schedule and being able to make time for both business and life, without feeling overwhelmed.
Make up several schedules and try them out on different days throughout the week and see what works best for you. Everyday doesn’t have to be the same, remember it’s your schedule.
Let your friends and family know about your working hours. It’s great if they can be considerate, respect your work hours, and avoid interrupting you just because you’re working from home. Just like any job, make yourself unavailable for any personal calls and texts, unless it’s an emergency.
Without a schedule, you’ll most likely get nothing productive done with your day…and that’s speaking from experience!
10. Transform Your Space Into a WFH Haven
If you find yourself working from home (either your couch or bed), you’ll eventually notice that you’re not as productive as you would be working out of a dedicated distraction-free workspace.
If you don’t have a spare room in your home to turn into an office, you can convert an area in your home that can be your office/workspace nook.
For example, my “office” is what is traditionally supposed to be the dining room in our home. Since it’s just my boyfriend and I living together, we never actually sit at the dining room table for our meals. So, I decided to convert our dining room into an office! *Photos to come once it’s complete*
I still use our old dining room table and chairs, but plan to transform the space into the ultimate boss babe haven for my home-office and skincare brand!
Try to keep your workspace clutter-free, inspiring and to your liking, by decorating with your own touch of style and surrounding yourself with things you’re inspired by and love!
Do you have any ideas or inspo to share? Leave them in the comments, I’d love to hear from you!
11. Have Your To-Do List Ready
Make a weekly to-do list and break it down into daily to-do lists.
Start by making a weekly to-do list for work, then break that list down into smaller daily steps.
Then, create a separate list for your daily work tasks, and chop them into mini steps to keep things easier to manage!
12. Take Breaks
Don’t just settle for one lunch break in your work day.
Unless you work better powering through the day, schedule several 5–15 minute breaks for about every 30-90 minutes that you work.
If you spend most of your day sitting, use these breaks to stretch, take a quick walk, dance around, refill your water bottle or get some small errands completed around the house.
13. Pomodoro Technique
Speaking of taking breaks, the Pomodoro technique is my favourite way to stay focused, especially when working on tasks that I don’t love doing.
What is the Pomodoro Technique? Pomodoro is a time-management method designed to boost your productivity by breaking your workload into short periods of focus (Pomodoro), followed by a short break. This motivates us to work with focused bursts of energy, followed by brief rest, improving concentration and preventing burnout.
I normally stick to the traditional 25-30 minutes of focused work, followed by a 5-minute break; but you can feel free to work for 40 minutes, 45 minutes or even 2 hours before taking a break.
*Learn more about the Pomodoro here*
14. Get Out Of Your PJ’s
Staying in your jammies all day is prone to make you feel and act lazy.
Get dressed for your day and at least put something on that you would leave the house in. It doesn’t have to be professional workwear, but wear an outfit that you feel comfortable, confident, and motivated in.
15. Connect With Virtual Co-workers
Online workspaces can add an element of fun to your workday, especially if you’re more of an extrovert and miss yapping with people at work, or if you enjoy body-doubling to be more productive! Virtual co-working is known to help fight procrastination and get work done. You can also set up an online group with co-workers, friends, or like-minded strangers, using Zoom, Discord, or even Facebook.
These are some great virtual co-working spaces to consider:
If you’re more of an introvert or you simply don’t want to host, you can participate in a co-working live streams on Twitch, TikTok or Youtube.
What is a co-working live stream? Co-working is a form of body doubling where a virtual colleague hosts a live stream for people to work together. It helps with focus and keeping accountability for ourselves while getting our tasks done.
Let’s co-work together!
16. Pretend You’re Not Working From Home
Set office hours, get dressed for the day, create an organized workspace, and have your lunch packed.
Make sure your friends, family, roommates and kids are all aware of your schedule and ask them to respect those hours as if you were out of the house at work.
17. Join A Local Co-working Hub
This is not exactly working from home, but if you find it really hard to get work done at home, you may benefit from coworking and renting a desk from a shared office space.
Here are some great co-working space options for you, if you live in Ottawa!
- La Collective Co Work
- WorkAway Offices
- Collabüro
- Wellington Cowork
- Impact Hub Ottawa
- MBO Coworking
- Head Office Ottawa
18. Write Down Ideas
Have a pen and notepad handy, or a word document open to jot down any ideas or thoughts that come to mind as you’re working.
This way, you’ll stay focused and can simply revisit your notes when you are done your work.
19. It’s Okay To Say “No”
You’ll find it almost impossible to stay productive working from home if you’re always saying yes to friends and family.
Most favours and get togethers can wait until after you’re done working, so let your friends and family know that you are busy but will be more than happy to help or hang-out when you are free.
I struggled with saying no for years, until I realized how it was starting to negatively impact me working towards the goals that I had planned for my life.
If you have friends and family in your life that support you, they will understand and respect that you are not free during your dedicated work hours.
20. Hire Help
I haven’t considered hiring any help…yet, but I have a few friends who have benefited from doing so.
Help isn’t always a nanny or personal assistant.
Help might include things like hiring a cleaning service a few days a week, hiring a dog walker, subscribing to a meal delivery service, or working with a mentor or coach. Whatever makes your life and workload easier, is always considered help in my book! 😉
You can use Upwork to hire freelance help to get support with daily tasks and household duties. On Upwork, you’ll find freelancers who are willing to assist in everything from cleaning and meal delivery, to virtual assistant services, making your work from home life a lot easier!
21. Spoil Yourself!
Who can resist a little self-love after all that hard work?!
If you’re new to working from home, blogging, or starting your business, you might find it hard to focus for an entire day of work. Rewarding yourself with something small at the end of your work day can help keep you motivated.
Once you’ve wrapped up your day, watch your favourite guilty pleasure, have a glass of wine, hang-out with a friend, buy yourself a donut, or have a bubble bath and exfoliate with a moisturizing shea sugar scrub!
The best thing about rewarding yourself, is that you get to choose the reward!
if you’re able to find a way to make working from home fun, you’ll get a lot more done!
Can you think of other ways to stay productive when working from home?
How do you stay focused when working from home? Let us know and leave a comment below!
xo, From Sasha
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