Freelancing and gigging are gaining popularity fast. Not only do you get the flexibility to work when and how you want, a lot of these jobs let you work from home. However, if you’ve never worked from home before this can be a challenge.
Treating your home like an office can take practice, especially if you don’t have enough space for a dedicated home office. If you’re freelancing and want to work more efficiently, here are some tips to help.
Clock in
The first step in creating a home office is separating your work from your day-to-day life. An easy way to do this is to have a morning routine. Don’t work from your bed or stay in your pajamas all day. Treat your home office as you would any other office. If you’re living in a small space, doing little things like making the bed or tucking the TV remote out of sight can do a lot to help your brain switch gears. Also, don’t fall into the trap of waking up and having your breakfast sitting in front of your computer. Carve out the time for yourself to relax and have your breakfast or coffee before you jump into work. It will be another way to signal to your brain that you’re switching from home to work.
Another way to help you be more productive when working from home is ensuring you’re working the right hours. Are you a morning person or a night owl? Optimize your schedule by altering your sleep schedule to so you’re at work during your most productive hours.
Setting up for success
Once you’ve clocked in it’s time to get your office set up. Ideally you would have your own room for this, but most of us don’t have the luxury of a dedicated office. Find an area of your home that has limited distractions, or the right kind of distractions. A lot of people like to face their desk toward a window so they can look outside. Try and face your workspace away from your TV or an any other distractions. You don’t want to be looking at a reminder of others things you could be doing.
If you’re really tight on space you can use something called Activity Based Working where you find the right area for each task. This could be responding to email in your recliner, catching up on Twitter at the table, and searching for your next gig while at your desk. Depending on what tools you need for everything you do, you can find an area that suits each. For instance, you can browse Twitter on your phone or a tablet, so you don’t necessarily need your laptop, this means you can do it from a chair without having to have your computer on your lap.
Dividing up your work by area will also help you get less distracted. If you only check Twitter at your table you can break yourself from the habit of checking it in between responding to emails and searching for another gig.
There’s other ways to break up your day to improve efficiency. A popular time management system is the Pomodoro Technique. This technique requires you to set a timer for 25 minute intervals. You work for 25 mins and then take a break, with longer breaks every four cycles. The idea is that mini deadlines will force you to complete each task before the buzzer goes off. If you do work that requires longer per task you can always change the time limit. Or you can change the time based on the task you’re trying to complete. For instance, give yourself 30 mins to address all the new emails in your inbox. When the timer goes off you have to move on to a different task. This will stop you from languishing over the perfect responses or leaving the most important emails to last.
If you really can’t break from the distractions you can try apps like Freedom that will temporarily disable your wifi while you work. Or try working in a single tab opened the full size of the screen. This will limit the things you can see while you’re trying to concentrate. If it’s the analog that’s distracting you there are ways around that too. If you find yourself tidying up before you work, or suddenly getting the urge to organize all your files when you’re supposed to be filing your expenses, it may be time to declutter. Don’t give your mind anything else latch onto when it’s supposed to be working. If you’re still having a problem, refer to our first tip to find a way to create a distraction free workspace.
Clock out
This one seems obvious, but it’s something less and less people are doing with the rise of mobile technology. When you’ve hit the end of your day, be done. It’s common for people who work from home to still be dabbling while they make dinner, watch TV or tuck the kids in bed. Just shutting down your computer isn’t enough.
Like creating a ritual to signify you’re going into your office, you need a similar one for ending your day. Whether it’s putting aside all technology for a few minutes to think, going for a walk around the block, or leaving the house to run a few errands, your brain needs the separation. Once you’ve completed the ritual, don’t move back into your workspace for the rest of the night.
By optimizing your home office you can make the most of your most precious commodity, time. It’s important to work more efficiently so the hours you’re putting into your business are yielding the greatest results.
Original Source: Xero Blog
Good tips. Clocking out, now that’s the real challenge I think, otherwise everything just bleeds into the each other and it’s hard to know when it’s ok to relax or to work…it’s still a struggle for me, 4 years into full time freelancing.
Awesome Post of increasing productivity. I also work from home and your steps are really helpful for me.
Thanks
These are all good tips! Clocking out is a struggle for me. There are always small tasks I try to squeeze in at night time.
Working from home should be treated with the seriousness similar to that of a traditional work place.Having a home office could eliminate the disruptions say of kids,dog or a temptig piece of pizza in the kitchen.
Very useful tips,i recently started working from home and its lot better than my previous job.I agree on most of what you said but I love to be in my pajamas and work as am more comfortable in it.And I love my work so it keeps me dedicated and intervals inbetween are like the cerry on the cake,am happy with my work and my life and i hope you are too.Thanks for sharing dear
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The Pomodoro Technique works wonders for me! I find it helpful to use a Pomodoro tool that lets me customize the interval times. Sometimes, I work best with 45 minute intervals followed by 10 minutes breaks. It’s good to experiment to find what works best.
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Thanks for the tips! I started working from home and your tips helped me to get rid off distractions and now I can focus more on my work. (It also saved my office rent :D)
Lots of great advice in this post. i have been running my business from home for a while and its so easy to stray from what is business and what is not. Getting up and getting dressed as if I am going to the office is the first thing I had to change in my routine.Also knowing when to take lunch and when to clock out are very important for me to stay productive. One thing I have found to be helpful is when I have a day of paper work I usually slip out to the public library for the day as its quiet and a different atmosphere.Usually one of my more productive days.
Great tips! I’ve been ‘clocking in and out’ for a few years now, and it really helps!
I am a number one culprit when it comes to working from home in bed, in my pjs. I know it’s bad but it’s just so comfy! I definitely need to give myself more of a routine in the morning so I am in the mindset of working. I’m going to take your advice and set up a designated work space and try my best to treat everyday as an office day!
Thanks!
Without passion, obsession or addiction for what you do, you can forget about being productive when working from home. Especially without a boss on your case.
Great post, thank you for good advices.
Like other commentators, I also have a problems with clocking out. On many days I have really clear mind on the evening and I can find better solutions for any issue’s. That’s the main reason why I really like to work on the evenings. Unfortunately it’s not good to work everyday till later evening. Hormones are hormones, after few days of late work I have worst mornings.
Maybe good way is to have 1 day per week when we work later?
About Pommodoro Technique. I think it’s not for me. It would be great just for making a little breakes for each 25-60 minutes, but not for deadline with finishing tasks. Too much deadlines per day for me 🙂
Of course, when we have precise time for e-mail answers, social media etc. it’s good, but I’d prefer to do that independent from little breakes for each 25-60 minutes.
Working from home can either be awesome or horrible for me, depending on the day. If the family is home, it’s always a struggle, but if I’m alone, I can be crazy productive. One thing that always helps me out is using lists to identify the day’s priorities. Before I get started, I will write down everything that I have to get done in order to make sure I stay on track. There is nothing more ruinous to a productive day than getting sidetracked by a video and then realizing you fell down the rabbit hole that is YouTube.
Hello,
I am a associate marketer with Amazon and i work at my home too. I know how hard it is to focus on work staying at home. You have arranged some good point. Will try your advice. Nice post
You need great work environment, quiet to help you focus on working. Make a plan to this with specific time periods.
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Hi Jayne,
Very true that it’s easy not to clock off for the night with technology readily available. Working from home certainly takes planning so you can be productive. In my role, I go to companies but sometimes work from home.
Regards, Wendy.
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I work from my home since last 5 years. I use to work from my room until I was in college but now I have graduated and to continue this full time, I have turned half of my home to my office. I live in a 2 floor apartment so ground floor is for casual living and stuff and 1st floor is whole my office. Differentiating your work from other things is must once you start working full time.
Try it and thank me later. 🙂
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Sometimes, it’s very hard to be productive at home, with a lot of distractions.
This is where self-discipline comes into the picture.
I think it’s also important to form a productive habit when working at home.
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Really great tips for working from home. Setting yourself up to be in the right frame of mind and preparing your work space is crucial for getting off on the right track. I’ve only been working from home for a few months and I already find it more difficult to quantify my achievements than I did when I worked in an office for someone else who was setting the goal posts. I agree with moving around the house if possible to different locations; I find that works well for me too if I want to concentrate on different tasks.
Thanks for sharing the nice your insights. I believe that working from home is just like making your own jail inside your home, I have been working since my college days and I feel that I am turned out to be more anti-social and kind of become a loner, though working from home comes from its own advantages but it has some negative effects as well, particularly on our social behavior.
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Truth be told, I do struggle a lot working from home. It takes great disciple I tell you. Balls of steel. Televison, video games are my worst handicap!
Working from home is definitely fun and interesting as you get to do lot of other thimgs. On similar lines coworking spaces which are sprouting everywhere tend to give you the seriousness of work and at the same time they make you feel home.
Creating mini work spaces throughout your home was an original idea that can be an excellent “work-lucrative-experience”. Setting separate places to check your emails, twitter accounts, updating your blog and writing articles seems quite efficient.~PDBS (smiles)
Everyone who works at home can be benefited from this video. Thanks a lot for sharing.
Very useful tips, I latterly started out operating from home and its lot higher than my preceding job.I agree with most of what you stated but I really like to be in my pajamas and work as being greater comfortable in it.and i really like my work so it maintains me committed and intervals in between are just like the cherry on the cake, am glad about my paintings and my existence and that I wish you are too.Thank you for sharing expensive
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Thanks for writing such a good article on Work from home topic. I am looking to try these tips from home topic or my website birchi.in People always try direct method but most of time these trick don’t works. Your tips are helpful for the person to make good blog posting for their websites or blog. Work from home is a good business for free people have spare time. I am sure people will enjoy this post. thanks and have a nice day.
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