5 tips to be more productive when you work from home

 

As Creative Entrepreneurs, we all have had a time when the dining table was our ‘office’. Some of us do that even today. So how can we work from the chaos that is our home and still stay on top of our game?

Before I moved into my lovely cottage studio in 2014, I had been working from home for more than five years. And being a messy creative, I found it really difficult to stay organized. 

When I started out, my studio was in what used to be our living room. It was not bothersome, because I did not sew much. Later it moved to a small room just outside my bedroom. And when we redecorated our house, I finally had a dedicated sewing room. 

It was very difficult to get from ‘home’ mode to ‘work’ mode. But it was harder to get from ‘work’ mode to ‘home’ mode. I found myself going into the sewing room whenever I had a free moment. So either I was ‘working’ at home or ‘working’ in my sewing room. I had no down time! I remember having a quilt idea at 2.30 in the night, getting up and working! This was so unhealthy!

Gradually, over the years I found that there were some things that helped me stay on top of my work and yet, take time off work.

Here are my 5 best tips to be more productive when working from home.

1. Wake up early. My number one tip will be to wake up early. You do not have to get up an unearthly hour like 4 am if you are not a morning person. Just get up an hour earlier. Make sure you are the only person awake at that time. I get up at (the unearthly hour of) 4 am. The time that I get in the morning is just incomparable with any time that I can get all throughout the day! I get more done before my kid and husband wake up than I do in the next 15 hours. Think it is hard to get up an hour earlier? Try getting up 15 minutes before the time you get up right now. You can implement this new time for about a month and then wake up 15 minutes before that. Continue this for a few months and you will be waking up an hour (or even two) earlier. Once your body gets used to it, you will not even need an alarm to wake you up. My alarm rings at 4 am, but I am awake at about 3.45 am everyday. 

2. Have a schedule. Make a schedule to work and stick to it. Even if your business is your side hustle while you are working a full time job, make a schedule and stick to it. Even if it means your ‘office hours’ are something like 11 pm – 1 am. This will create a routine that others will start to observe and then you will not have to keep reminding them that ‘you are working’ as they expect ‘a nice cup of steaming chai and some pakore in the wonderful weather’.

3. Have a designated ‘Office Space’. Create a dedicated office space. It could be a corner in your dining room or even on your dining table. But make sure that you do not plonk yourself on a different place in the house when you work. Work from a dedicated spot. You can create a carry-with-you office, by putting the regularly needed stuff in a tote bag, basket or a rolling cart that you can store out of sight when not in use. If space and budget permits, you can convert a small corner into a home office. Follow my Pinterest Board Small Office Spaces for inspiration.

4. Work in batches. I use the Pomodoro method to work. I set my timer for 25 minutes and work with complete concentration till the alarm goes off! After that I treat myself with a 10 minute break where I may choose to do a household chore on busier days or just walk to the kitchen and grab a glass of water on leisurely days. I even award myself 10 minutes on Facebook or Pinterest. Working this way makes it easier for me to get large amounts of work done in a shorter time. And the fact that I am sure I will be doing anything that I need to do or want to do in a few minutes can keep away distraction! You have no idea how much work can be done in 25 minutes of complete attention!

5. Let go of guilt. We are all humans. There will be days when your work will spill over into your home or things at home will affect your work. Don’t beat yourself up over it. It is just one of those days! Stop feeling guilty, finish the work at hand and move on. Tomorrow will be a new day and it will bring new challenges. Get ready to face them and don’t think too much about the past. Be a little lenient with yourself. Give yourself some grace. 

I hope my tips will help you be more productive in your home office. Do you have a tip that works for you? Do share it so that others can benefit from it.