When you work from home, there will be a million different things vying for your attention—the television, Facebook, your kids, your pets, the dirty laundry, the dishes in the sink that haven’t been washed since yesterday, Facebook, the nice weather, friends, co-workers you haven’t seen in a while.
Oh, and did I mention Facebook?
So how do you get all your work done productively, efficiently, and without distractions while also ensuring that you don’t become an overworked loner? Here are 61 of the best ways I know.
1. Have a separate working space. Even if it’s not a dedicated office set-up, it needs to be something that’s yours and used for work only.
2. Don’t have a television blaring in the background. Find a comfortable workspace where you have the peace and quiet to think and make important decisions.
3. Set fixed office hours. This could be 9 am to 5 pm or 1 am to 1 pm, doesn’t matter. What matters is that you work those fixed hours every day and don’t deviate from them ad hoc.
4. Determine your best creative times and create a work schedule around those times.
5. When working on something important, hang a “Do Not Disturb” sign outside your door. Make sure your family understands that you’re not to be disturbed when that sign is on the door. Don’t use it too often.
6. Get dressed every morning. Wear something comfortable, but not so comfortable that it makes you want to jump back into bed.
7. Stack up on office supplies and make sure you replace them weekly so that you don’t have to run out in the middle of a workday to buy post-its.
8. If you have noisy children in the house, buy noise-cancelling headphones.
9. Make sure you have your technology and equipment set up before an emergency need comes up for it. Better yet, set up your equipment when you first start working from home and then check it on a set day each month to make sure it’s functioning correctly.
10. If you have children, paying for childcare can be a very good investment. Grandparents, by the way, come free.
11. Take the weekends off.
12. Take an hour for lunch every day. If your family is at home, spend that hour with them.
13. Get out of the house every single day. Fake a commute to work and walk to the grocery store and back every morning.
14. Take the time to get out of the house and meet with like-minded people and people who work in the same or similar businesses. It not only helps improve your efficiency and productivity, but can also be a source for ideas and commiseration.
15. Get organized. Have systems in place that increase your workflow and reduce the amount of time you spend checking things and following up with people.
16. Track your time. The sooner you figure out how much time you’re spending on each task, the sooner you can find ways to minimize the inefficiencies.
17. Don’t be a slave to e-mail. Reply to all non-urgent e-mails once in the morning after you start work and once in the evening before you finish.
18. Don’t take on too much. You don’t want to overwork yourself to a point where it becomes counterproductive.
19. Don’t take on too little. Many people who work from home have the tendency to slack off when there’s no boss telling them what to do and giving directions on how to do it. Try not to fall into that trap too often.
20. Celebrate all your big and small victories. You don’t get promotions or pats on the back when you work from home so remember to reward yourself for a job well done.
21. Learn to say “no” to non-work requests in the middle of a work day.
22. Set daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly goals.
23. Delegate and outsource as much of the grunt work as you can so that you have the time and space for creative thinking.
24. Don’t eat at the computer.
25. Stay connected with friends, co-workers and other professionals through Facebook, Skype and Twitter.
26. Designate certain days of the week for certain kinds of work.
27. Batch similar activities.
28. Every once in a while, try working from a different environment, like a coffee shop or a library or even a different room in the house.
29. Know before the start of every single workday, the tasks that you have to complete that day. Have that to-do list ready.
30. If you don’t feel like working and your deadline schedule allows it, take a day off. Go out for coffee with a friend. See a movie. Take your kids to the zoo.
31. Get a good night’s sleep.
32. Reduce web clutter. Don’t open thirty windows when you’re doing research and don’t save every single thing to your desktop. Find ways to organize your computer that helps you find the things to need without cluttering up the machine.
33. Allot a set quota for social media each day. When you’re done, you’re done.
34. Use apps like Bufferapp to schedule your tweets and FB posts in advance.
35. Find an accountability partner in the same industry as you who can keep you goal-oriented and motivated and for whom you do the same.
36. When facing work-related problems, don’t struggle with them alone. Get different perspectives from people who’ve been there and done that. These days, help is only an email away.
37. Automate whatever you can.
38. Don’t schedule personal tasks, such as bill paying and grocery shopping, during your workday.
39. Have a day each month dedicated to running work-related errands, like sending out brochures or meeting the accountant.
40. Impose a time limit on every single task that you’re meant to do. That helps you stay focused and on target.
41. Set strict deadlines that are always a couple of days in advance of actual client deadlines. This gives you a bit of cushion for the inevitable week (or month!) when things go very very wrong.
42. Set aside one day every couple of weeks when you have no to-do lists and no goals. Just go where inspiration takes you.
43. Lose the habit of comparing yourself to other people. Nothing good can ever come of it.
44. Do the task you most dread first thing in the morning. Or as Mark Twain would say, “Eat that frog.”
45. Vary your day with different tasks. An hour of writing, an hour of designing, an hour taking client phone calls will keep you much happier, saner, and more productive than eight hours of straight up writing.
46. Don’t multitask. I repeat: Do not multitask.
47. Don’t get sucked into unnecessary client meetings that do nothing to help you achieve your goals and do your work.
48. Co-working spaces are great, but if you can’t afford the cost, team up with another at-home worker and share your office. Next week, you can share theirs. Invite other solopreneurs over whenever you can. It’s great for productivity, but it’s great for networking, too.
49. Try, fail, try again. Be willing to experiment and see which routine, which productivity tips, and what types of jobs suit you best. Don’t be afraid to change things when they stop working.
50. Keep your skills sharpened by taking trainings or courses in things that will help you grow professionally. This will give you a break from the everyday humdrum, but also get you motivated to do more and achieve more, which leads to more productivity.
51. Use the Pomodoro technique, which is to work for 25 minutes, take a 5-minute break, work another 25 minutes, another 5-minute break, etc. It’s great for keeping your mind focused and sharp.
52. If you like background noise but find music distracting, search for rain sounds or ocean sounds on Google and have them play in the background while you work.
53. Have separate business and home phone numbers.
54. Figure out your weak spots and actively work towards fixing them instead of simply ignoring them. Similarly, figure out your strengths and actively work towards honing them.
55. Optimize your technology. Sync your various gadgets so that you can work from anywhere and get small items on your to-do list checked off while you’re on a train or waiting at the doctor’s office.
56. Keep essential phone numbers and addresses handy. You want to know where to go when your computer breaks before it breaks and who to call when your Internet goes down before it goes down.
57. Break projects down into manageable pieces and then attack them one by one. Give yourself a small reward for each task that you complete.
58. Do something productive first thing in the morning and it’ll set the tone for the rest of the day.
59. Every day for an hour, do one thing that makes you happy. One project that you’re doing for the fun and the joy of doing it, not because of the money.
60. Mix things up when it gets stale and boring. Keep yourself inspired by playing with a new productivity app or tool, going to a conference, or meeting with a new client instead of just talking over the phone.
61. Figure out what works best for you.
This is the book for every writer who ever needed a kick up the backside to get words on the page.
With her characteristic humor, practicality, and hard-earned wisdom, Relph demonstrates an understanding of the creative mind. She shows you how to write anything–and finish it.
