How to work more productively

I thought I’d bring you some tips to help you work more productively. Because I understand, under the circumstances right now we are all under quarantine we’re trying to get through this together. We’re stuck at home and it is one heck of a change for a lot of you who are used to going out to the office to do your work. So, it can be hard to work from home because there are a lot of distractions and it’s just a new environment. Coming from someone who has been working remotely for the last two years, I am sharing these tips with you on How to work more productively hoping that it will be helpful.

Keeping your Communication on Point to be productive

Number one is making sure that your communication is on point. You have to communicate openly, and honestly. Most importantly communicate with your partner whether it’s your husband or your wife. Whoever makes sure that you communicate to them what your goal is and what your plan is.

I understand that maybe some of you have been laid off but you’re still using your time at home to be working on something. Whether it’s building an online business or whatever you’re doing, you’re working from the computer. Sometimes our spouse or children they see us on the computer, and they don’t realize that it is us working. They think that’s just us doing fun games or whatever.

How to work more productively

Children will always come and interrupt us. You know they don’t mean anything by it but it’s very distracting and if you want to be productive you can’t have distractions. The most important thing first of all is to communicate with your spouse. Let them know that at this time are my work hours and just so you know I’m going be in that room over there. I will have the door shut and when the door is shut please make sure that nobody disturbs me.

Unless there’s an emergency and as long as you openly communicate that, also let them know that this is the time for me to be working. Something that it’s going to benefit us, I’m doing this for us and for the family.

You also have to ask your spouse; how can I help you and how can we fit this into our schedules. Basically you have to be able to work together, especially if you have children. Decide on who’s taking care of the kids, from what time and just build a schedule together. Communicate with your partner without leaving them out of the loop. It’s only going to make things harder for you.  If you can communicate with them, you can build a schedule that works for the both of you. That’s the first thing to do.

Communicating with your kids

The second thing is communicating with your kids.  If you do have kids, letting them know that when mommy or daddy is in that room and the door shut, don’t come in.

Generally, kids sometimes forget that. My recommendation for you is to put something on the door, maybe like a stuffed animal that has like arms and show this to the kids.  Tell them, “Hey you know what this is? this is for you to know when this is on the door don’t enter.” because mommy or daddy is working. When it’s not on the door you can come in whenever you like. This will serve as a symbol so that the kids will remember easily.  If you give them a cue, I recommend using some sort of stuffed animal or toy that you can hang on your door. That’s going to help you to have less interruptions from your kids.

Have a schedule

Now the third thing is to make sure that you have a schedule. If you don’t put it in your calendar it’s not going to happen. Okay, so you know because we’re all at home our schedules are just like there is no schedule at this point. You know we’re all just kind of like whatever happens today happens. I recommend that you don’t just let things happen. Always schedule things in so whatever it is that you’re doing in your day, if you can schedule it in, that’s better.

For your work make sure you have set hours so whether it is 6 to 8 p.m. Whether it’s 10 to 12 a.m. or it’s 4:00 in the morning to 7:00 in the morning, whatever time you can commit to working on your business. At your work, set a time and stick to that time. This means again you go with that time, you communicate that to your spouse. By doing so it will help you to work more productively.

Communicating your schedule with your family

Everyone in the household knows that this is your time for work and also when you set this time for yourself. It’s really powerful for you because even if you don’t feel like it, you have to go to work. You have to treat this time that you are working from home as though you were working from your job. I know it can be hard because when you go to work, you have to go there physically.

Having to show up and at home you can just say oh you know hit the snooze button or whatever. You realize that you’re sabotaging yourself when you do that. Make sure that you know when you treat whatever it is that you’re working on as a job. Schedule that in and that way it’ll be better for you. Overall, you’ll have more of a routine and routines are powerful. Whenever you can create a routine for yourself, you’re going to be so much more productive.

Eliminate all Distractions

The next thing I would suggest is to make sure that you eliminate all distractions. When you are working, whether it is at your computer or whatever else you’re doing.  Probably going to be at your computer, make sure that you block your social media pages. If you know you’re someone who checks Facebook every 10 minutes, cut that out, log out, block it or do whatever you got to do to not be able to check it. Put your phone on airplane mode so that you don’t have incoming texts or calls.

Eliminate all of the distractions because distractions are the enemy. You could be super focused, and you could be in the flow. Sometimes you are getting a lot done but then all of a sudden someone texts you some news. Because every single day now there is some major update. All of a sudden, you’re like whoa this is huge I’ve got to go and watch the news. Now you’re totally distracted from what you were doing which was important. Turn it all off, cut out all the distractions.

Taking Breaks In-between

Another tip that I have for you is to make sure that you take breaks. Taking breaks in-between work is important. Because if you don’t schedule in your breaks, then what might happen is whenever you feel like it you might get out of your chair. Get out of your office, go to the kitchen and open up the kitchen door. You know you just stand there looking for snacks or looking for drinks. It’s just a way to distract yourself at the end of the day.

I would recommend instead of just letting that happen when you’re working at your office, say okay everyone hour or every hour and a half or two hours I’m going take a five-minute break. Make that your time to go to the bathroom or time to get a glass of water. Then you can schedule your lunch break just like you would do it your job.

At your job, you have a lunch break at a certain time, and you want to do the same thing. Scheduling breaks for yourself will be really powerful and help you to work more productively.

Having your own space

One more thing I want to mention is that if you’re working from home, it’s really important to have your own space. It can become really hard if you live in a small apartment because you know there’s not that much space. But if you can create a space you know makeshift space whenever you get time. You know it’s really important to have that space for yourself because that is your way to separate yourself.

There are distractions from the family and all of these things that are taking you away from your work. For example, if you and your partner both work from home, make sure that each other have your own office space. This helps so much because otherwise what happens is you travel; you’ll be sitting in a small Airbnb together. Working side by side on the computers together, you’ll have enough and more questions to ask each other. All of a sudden, we have this ongoing communication with one another and again it is taking us away from our work.

Hence why it’s better to just have a separate space. If you have something to say to your partner or to someone, you can say to them at the end of the day or after the workday is done. Having an own space is a key factor which helps you to work more productively.

Communication is the key

Those are all of my tips for working from home, nothing fancy here or nothing crazy. It’s just simple tips that I have for you. There’s not much to it, and I think the most important thing is just communicating. Letting your family know that, hey you know when I’m on my computer I’m not like playing video games. I’m not on Facebook this is actually work.

This is me in the house doing work. Find a way to communicate that, at the end of the day that’s the most important. Because distractions are the enemy and that way once you’re done with work, you give your undivided attention to your family. Either way you’re missing out because then work is done, you know you’re not working from ten minutes in the day or an hour in the day.

Your family doesn’t know when you’re working and when you’re not working. Hopefully, that was helpful for you guys in learning more on how you can work more productively.