Working From Home? Stay Productive With These Top Tips!

 Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. Please welcome today's contributor. 

Photo by Corinne Kutz on Unsplash

Working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic allowed many businesses to continue offering their services to customers and has even been noticed to have a positive effect on company culture. As a result, it is likely to become a much more common practice as we continue to move forward. In fact, here are just SOME of the benefits of working from home:

• Companies can save money on renting/purchasing office space.

• Staff members can save money on commuting/daily expenses.

• Staff can develop a better work-life balance. 

• Work schedules can become more flexible depending on the needs of the individual employee.

However, moving from a busy office environment to working in your living room can be a difficult transition. As you are surrounded by distractions such as household chores, your family, or maybe even the TV, you may have noticed that you aren’t as productive as you once were. Thankfully, there are various ways in which you can banish unproductivity. Here’s how to get started.

Hold yourself accountable. When working in the office, you may feel more focused as you are held accountable by your superiors or those around you. After all, you don’t want to appear as though you aren’t pulling your weight. When working alone, that element of accountability may diminish slightly - but your workload will stay the same. Therefore, in order to manage your deadlines and continue to the job to the best of your ability, you need to find ways to hold yourself accountable. Set yourself daily targets and goals, and ensure that you stick to them by celebrating all of your successes and figuring out where you went wrong if you didn’t meet your goals on a specific day.

Plan out your day instead of winging it. While you may feel as though you work best under pressure, adding structure to your day by writing a to-do list is the best way to boost your productivity. This is due to the fact that it ensures you are spending your time wisely - and dedicating a fair amount of time to each project as opposed to pouring all of your energy into one task and neglecting the others. When putting together your daily schedule, organize the tasks by order of importance. This could mean that you might have to tackle the most challenging projects first thing in the morning - but this is actually good news, as we are usually more alert and focused in the morning.

Think about what is slowing you down. There are many reasons as to why you may be struggling with productivity - and some of them may be out of your control. For example, if you are using an older computer or laptop that has almost reached its storage capacity, it is likely to run much slower, limiting how quickly you can get the job done. In fact, it can turn a five-minute job into a thirty-minute one. Thankfully, there are various ways to resolve this issue - such as figuring out how to clear other storage on mac.

Set up the perfect workspace. We are often more productive when working in an environment that allows us to get into a professional mindset. This means, however tempting it may be, you probably shouldn’t log into your next zoom meeting from bed. Instead, find a space in your home where you can set up a mini-office or desk. This will help distance yourself from any distractions and ensure that you can focus on the task at hand. However, this does not mean that space has to be dull and simple, as studies show that adding color to your house or home office can actually help the space appear more welcoming.

Emulate your old routine as much as possible. While working from home means that you get to spend a little more time in bed, you still need to ensure that you stick to some kind of working routine to ensure that you are in the right headspace to start work each morning. As a result, you should ensure that you wake up at the same time each morning and give yourself the time you need to properly wake up. This means that you need to be able to prepare a healthy breakfast and get ready without rushing to clock in on time. If you are used to a morning commute, you might also want to go on a short walk before you get started. Putting together a routine will help you improve your productivity as it gives you a sense of direction.