10 Tips To Help You Be More Productive When Working From Home

​Working from home is a great perk of a normally 9-5 job, but for some of us it is our reality, so whether you are just home for the day or you have a full-time in-home office like me (and 54+ million other Americans) we all face one major problem throughout our day, distraction. It surrounds us in the form of kids, the cat, the dog, your bestie snapchatting you, Netflix or just the recipe you found of Pinterest you are suddenly hungry for. As the queen of ‘dog and squirrel syndrome’ I have curated 10 ways you can routinely reduce your distraction and boost your productivity.

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• Have a Dedicated Work Space! While it may sound like just a good suggestion, I cannot stress the importance of this enough. It gets you away from the hustle and bustle, if you have kids, and if you live alone it’s a good way to save money during tax season. I for one got a lot of money back this year due to having a dedicated room in my home for my entrepreneurial ventures!
• Take Some Time to Get Out of the House. This one rings especially true if your work demands high levels of creativity! I have about 5 coffee shops I go to regularly to answer e-mails, think of topics, read or just chill. They all are within a 15-minute drive of my house and have excellent wi-fi. This works because you have a deadline to get stuff done, the coffee shop closing, your next meeting or even dinner time! 
• Resist the urge to stay in your PJ’s. One of the biggest reasons I do Instagram and Facebook Live Videos in the morning is it forces me to shower, do my make-up and get going! Your body is used to producing melatonin and going to sleep as soon as those comfy clothes are on, so getting ready for the day is a great way to shake off the morning sleepiness and get your brain working (before the morning cupssss of coffee).
• Make a daily work to-do list. Make a schedule and to-do list. I almost separated these into 2 categories, because they are so important, but I feel like everyone tells you to schedule your time or time-block your day. And to be totally honest I could tell you I do it 100% of the time and it works, but it doesn’t and about every 6 months I must sit down and get myself back on track time-wise. I have used and use a lot of different methods, but the ones I have found that work and have stuck with me through the bullet journaling, morning to-do list and multiple apps are the tried and true:

Scheduler: I am a big fan of google and recommend google calendar because it syncs on multiple devices at once, you can color code it and you can set-up it up to give you multiple reminders, kind of like an alarm clock but for your tasks

Little Note-Book: Much of my business is creativity and I must write an idea down before I lose it, so I always have it on me.

• Make Yourself Accountable to Others.  Share your goals and plans with friends and family, go out for coffee or maybe post on a message board to create a sounding board for yourself. Every mom knows this, but not every entrepreneur does! We get so caught up in getting XYZ done that we forget to take a minute and have a conversation about something other than work. It is important to include people in our little bubbles of creativity. I actually schedule coffee dates with girlfriends, so we can talk about normal life stuff and I can recharge my batteries.
• Set a Scheduled Amount of Work Time for Yourself. To piggyback from that, set regular work hours for yourself and decide how long you are going to work. If you are working for a company from home it is easier to turn the computer off when you shift is done, but it is much harder when your livelihood and reputation as a small business owner is on the line. Nonetheless you must do it! Use that scheduler, automatic e-mail and Facebook messenger responders and ‘leave’ the office at the end of the day!

• Find a way to add a workout. Living in Wisconsin the winter blues can set-in and a daily walk or rand is hard, but I found that a large exercise ball substitutes well for a chair it keeps my core tight, and I guess it helps with brain function as well. 

• ​​Meal prep. This might sound crazy since you are home already, but just because you work from home doesn’t mean you don’t have a ‘job’. By meal prepping you can cut down on unhealthy snacking which leads to poor brain function and it will also help you keep on task by not scrolling through Pinterest to see what you are hungry for and then finding you don’t have all the ingredients so you have to go to the store, you get the picture. Plus, your waistline will thank you for sticking to a well-balanced diet!
• Keep deadlines. I have always worked better under deadlines and most other entrepreneurs do too. By maintaining a baseline of pressure on yourself you can laser focus in on your goals and beast-mode some fantastic stuff!
• Use a cloud-based filing system. Not only is it more secure and safe, it also will cut down on the time trying to make sure you have all the right documents on your travel tablet or whatnot! I am a Google girl when it comes to longevity storing, but recently discovered how handy Microsoft’s OneDrive is as well! They both update in real-time are smartphone compatible and if you click on the links you will get a discount!

​Planning for success is key, and the 10 strategies above should help. Do you work from home? If, so what are your best tips for productivity? I would love to hear them, leave them in the comments before or share them on social media and tag me @jocelynjkopac!

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