5 Tips for Staying Productive While Working from Home

From young people to retirees, more and more people are working from home than ever before. Whether you’re traditionally employed and simply enjoy the privilege of working from your home office, or you’re self-employed, everyone who works from home could benefit from a better work-life balance.

When you’re working remotely, it’s easy to let your personal life and your work life blend together too much — use these productivity tips to help keep yourself on track.

Dress for Work

Even if you get to enjoy working from the comfort of your couch, get dressed as if you were working in an office. There’s nothing productive or inspiring about sitting around in pajamas all day.

Pick Working Hours that Work for You

While you may have to jump online to answer some emails in your off-hours every now and then, it’s absolutely crucial to set working hours for yourself. Otherwise, you may put off starting work until much later in the day than you’d originally planned. Once you set working hours, hold yourself accountable and stick to them!

Create an Inspiring Office Space

Staying productive often means staying inspired, which can feel difficult when you’re at home by yourself without teammates. Set up an inspiring desk and office space. Consider adding a vision board or spiritual altar to help you maintain your focus and perspective.

Invest in a Good Planner

A planner will be extremely helpful in helping you develop a plan of attack for your projects. Many planners also have features for goal setting, visioning and affirmations. Find a good planner (or planning app, if you’re more tech-inclined) and make it a point to use your planner every day. Want something fully customized? Try bullet journaling.

Make Peace With Blurry Lines

The fact of the matter is, when you’re working from home, distractions are going to happen. But this doesn’t have to be detrimental to your productivity! It’s easy to fall into the thought pattern of “it’s 11:00 a.m. — I shouldn’t break for lunch until 12.” But part of the appeal of working from home is the ability to set your own schedule. Learn to make peace with coffee breaks, emails at 10 p.m. and other blurry lines.

Set your work hours as discussed above, and only take 10 minutes of time for coffee breaks or other distractions. Do the opposite during non-work hours (only allow 10 minutes of checking emails before bed, etc.). Giving yourself this flexibility will be much more productive than forcing yourself to maintain rigid and potentially impossible standards.

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