Working from home can be a blessing and a curse (more like a blessing to me 😊) at the same time. It is very easy to get distracted, to procrastinate, which may end up hurting your work performance.
Here are my 10 tips to still be productive at home, and especially at this time when we are stuck at home and have to social distance ourselves from others.
Get a good night sleep
As obvious as it may sound, this is very important to set yourself up for success. Getting a good night’s sleep will help you to stay healthy and stay alert.
I found my mind wandering around a lot more if I don’t have enough sleep, or if I wake up too early and sleep late.
Get dressed as if you were going to the office
Wearing real pants helps me to be in a professional mindset and I do feel a little bit more put together.
Getting properly dressed set a major boundary and it is not only for appearances. It signals your brain to transition from home to work.
I usually shower first in the morning, brush my teeth, drink my vitamin, and put on clothes as my morning ritual.
Choose a designated workspace
It is important to create a separate workspace at home. The purpose is to create some boundaries so your work time and downtime are not blended.
This does not have to be a dedicated office in a separate room. It should just be an area that prepares you to be in a work mode, not in a relaxed mode.
If you have a spare room, this would be an ideal office space. But if you don’t, it could be a small desk in the corner of the living room.
If you could set up your workspace near a window, that would be a natural mood booster!
You might have to spend a little bit of time researching and money to build your workspace. If you have an unused desk or some money to buy these items (check out nextdoor.com/craiglist.com/letgo.com to find good used desk and chair deals).
I spent a few hundred dollars for a monitor, laptop stand, a hub, a desktop, and a cable box organizer. I think this is a worthy investment.
Related post:
If you are currently working from home, you can try to ask your company if they are willing to provide a dock, a monitor, a mouse, or a headset for a meeting.
Declutter your desk and your digital workspace
I personally also struggle with my clutter. But I try to be a little bit better by doing these more regularly. Decluttering my desk helps me feel more comfortable, find the focus, and feel less anxious about my work.
This task does not have to be fancy. You can wipe up dust and organize my desk, grab your iPhone box as storage, and coral my pens in a mug. I found that cleaning up my desk feel therapeutic.
I also made sure that all my pens are working so whenever I grab them it works right away. I clean my desktop and close any chrome tabs whenever I am done researching a topic. This helps me feel a lot less overwhelmed and stay focus on my next task.
Ask yourself a question – at the beginning of next year, what will I regret not starting today?
What would be the cost of not following through with your action plan? I found this is such a powerful question because most people are driven by the pain of potentially losing something than the pleasure of potentially gaining something.
Asking this question has helped me push myself a little bit harder. For me, I regretted not starting this blog, contributing to Roth IRA, and reading sheet music sooner.
I found the emotion of regret is more painful than failing at something (because at least I tried).
Ask yourself a question – What would be the cost of not following through with your action plans? Perhaps delay of promotion and salary raise lost credibility with a client, wasted time, missed opportunities, or having to retake the class (which will add your tuition bill). Write these thoughts down and use them as your motivation!
Think about this as doing a service for future self.
Create a to-do list, set your priority, and break down your big tasks into smaller steps
I found this is a game-changer for me because it helps create more structured work and urgency for me. I love the feeling of checking off a task that I did and then I can move on to the next task smoothly.
A to-do list simply works for these reasons: they help us to prioritize, they give us structure and a plan we can stick to and they are proof of what we have achieved that day. It also helps reduce anxiety when we have a plan to achieve our goals.
The next step is you would want to prioritize your task lists. Ask yourself these questions:
- What are the important and urgent tasks? For me, these are writing my post, setup new pins, and sight-reading music.
- What are the important but less urgent tasks? For me, this is doing my local tax.
- What are urgent but less important tasks? Things such as text messages, emails, and calls can be categorized in this list.
- What are not urgent and not important tasks? Things such as watching Netflix, internet surfing, and social media fall into this list.
Based on this list, you would want to focus on the most important task first. Ask yourself a question: what is one thing you want to get done today to make today a win? This accomplishment will be the highlight of your day.
Often, the most important task is the hardest one. Mark Twain (the author of Eat the frog) mentioned that it is best to eat a frog first thing in the morning. Frog is usually one thing that you have on your to-do list and the one that you’re most likely procrastinate on.
To me, this is writing a blog post and practicing piano. I found it helps to wake up a bit earlier in the morning to complete these tasks. then I continue my day to work on my 9-5 job.
If you have an essay to write and feel overwhelmed – it might help to start with the outline for each paragraph or collecting some ideas to write in the essay. It is less daunting to fill in those paragraphs than starting from a blank page.
What also helps me is also breaking a big task into smaller lists. For instance, instead of writing “publishing a post” – I would break it down into
- Research a topic
- Create a list of key points
- Elaborate key points 1-5
- Elaborate key points 5-10
- Proofread and double-check grammar with Grammarly
- Create a pin for the post
- Create a pin description and publish a pin on Pinterest
After finishing these tasks, I cross them and this made me feel a sense of accomplishment!
Avoid social media and surfing the internet mindlessly
I found myself that this is one of my biggest struggles in being productive. A few things you can do
- Disable WiFi on your phone
- Put the phone as far as possible (For instance – put it in the bedroom instead of on your desk)
- Disable email notification
- Answer email only at a certain period.
- Simply delete the Facebook and Instagram app. If you don’t want to go that far, you can create a folder inside a folder (you get the idea) and make it harder for you to access that app. I found this works for me since I found myself too lazy to find the app.
- There are also browser extensions you can use. I am using Block Site to block Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
Take a productive break
Taking a break helps to restore my energy and become less burnout. A few ideas:
- Listen to a guided meditation
- Do a 5-minute yoga stretch
- Take a walk to get some fresh air and sunlight
- Clean up your desk space or folding some clothes
- Cook your lunch or try a simple a new homemade cook recipe
I try to take a walk more often and always remind myself that it is a-OK to take a break from work.
Doing something physically would be ideal. But if you don’t feel like moving, here are some ideas:
- Download language learning apps such as Duolingo and take a lesson or two.
- Call your mom/dad.
- Read a chapter of the book you always want to read.
- Play with your pets
- Watch TED talks
- If you love to solve math and science problems, check out briliant.org.
Keep a water bottle at your desk
Dehydration can potentially make yourself less energized. Also, drinking more water helps me to snack less. I am a big fan of changing up my environment for success so I try to keep a water bottle on my desk. I come across myself drinking more water when doing this. It is just so much easier to grab the water and drink it since it is sitting at my desk.
Make a plan to look forward to
Parkinson’s law is the tendency of work amount to be increased as the time available for its completion. If you give yourself a week to complete a two-hour task, you will more likely to finish it in a week than actually two hours.
This means that If I give myself a day to finish a task e.g. writing a post – I tend to procrastinate or get distracted because I know I have a whole day to complete the task.
But if I add one more thing to do such as calling my mom at 6 PM – this gives pressure to myself to finish the post quicker and work more efficiently. Although I may not finish it before 6 PM, the amount of completion is a lot higher and I found that my progression rate is faster.
In your list, try to add a bullet to do something you can look forward to. Maybe just schedule a phone call with your friends or mom, or simply just to take a bath or watch your favorite movies.
Being excited about future rewards is a fundamental human desire and you may find yourself more motivated to quickly finish those tasks!
I hope you guys all stay safe and found this helpful.
Vi, a software engineer with a keen interest in personal finance, had planned to retire once she reached her lean FI/RE (Financial Independence/Retire Early) goal. However, after achieving the goal, she took few months of a mini-retirement filled with travel and adventure and decided to continue her career.
For the past five years, Vi has been using Personal Capital (Empower), a free financial tool. Her favorite features include the dashboard for net worth, allocation, and planning, which help track her FI/RE goal and keep those investment fees in check.