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Work From Home Like a Pro
Whether you work from home during the Coronavirus Pandemic or thinking about starting a side hustle you need a good strategy that will help you to work effectively, create motivation and stay focus on your goals during these chaotic times.
That’s why today I am sharing with you 11 simple ways to stay organized & keep your motivation flying high during your workdays!
Don’t forget to grab your FREEBIES!
1. Structure Your Workday
Most highly motivated, productive and successful entrepreneurs start their day at 6 am or even earlier because it gives them enough time to perform their powerful morning routine, revise their to-do list and drink their coffee in peace instead of doing all of these things on the run.
They start their day on their own terms because they know that it will help them to approach their workday much more ambitiously. They take full responsibility for their life, words and actions. They set themselves up for success before they start their workday. There is nothing casual about how a successful, self-motivated and highly productive person approach their workday.
So if you want your productivity to skyrocket and your motivation to flow effortlessly every single morning you need to create a sense of stability and balance in your life. Or more simply, you need to structure your workday for maximum productivity and balance.
Structure creates a sense of stability and balance in your everyday life. It helps you to regain control of your time, day and life. And more importantly, it helps you to redirect your focus on your top priorities so that you can get important things done faster, better and more easily.
- Create a powerful morning routine that will put you in an instant good mood
- Develop productive night routine
- Develop positive morning rituals to set the right mood
- Create morning focus rituals to enter Flow State
- Get into the habit of being seriously organized
- Organize your mind for maximum productivity & balance
- Use The Rule of 3 to plan and organize your days
2. Plan Your Work In Advance
An effective schedule means getting things done. So if you want to achieve your goals and priorities within a specified time you first need to plan out your agenda. Otherwise, instead of managing your time effectively and focusing on what’s really matters, you will be wasting the most productive hours of your day. Knowing exactly what you want to accomplish in the time you have available will motivate you to do a good job.
That’s why I highly recommend you plan, organize and schedule your work the night before so that your working hours can be as productive as possible. In other words, make planning a habit, or focus ritual, as I like to call it, to set yourself up for success the night before your workday even begins. And to help you with that, here are my tips on effective planning:
- Reflect on yesterday and use yesterday’s experience to build a better today
- Identify what went well and what you will do differently next time
- Set your goals and intentions for the upcoming workday
- Set your MITs for the upcoming workday
- Create a prioritized to-do list (remember to batch similar tasks together!)
- Schedule things that you need to get done (I use Google Calendar and Classic Daily Planner)
- Schedule “me time” for yourself to create a healthy balance between your professional and personal life
- Avoid overplanning and overscheduling to feel empowered instead of overwhelmed
3. Avoid Work-Life Blur
Home to many of us is associated with a comfortable, cosy, and relaxing place, where you can unwind and recharge internal batteries after long hours spent working at the office. But things change when your home is your workplace and you need to figure out how to set crystal clear work-life boundaries. Otherwise, you will be constantly mixing your personal and professional responsibilities. And this does not lead to living a passionate and productive life but to chaos, confusion, lack of effectiveness, low productivity levels and of course, enormous stress.
It may not be that obvious but remote working creates the risk that the lines between personal and professional lives will be blurred if not completely eliminated. And when it happens your physical health and mental wellbeing will be affected.
If you don’t want “work-life blur” to become a real issue for you, you need to set crystal clear boundaries between personal and professional life.
- Plan your day according to The Rule of 3
- Batch similar tasks together
- Plan & schedule powerful breaks
- Plan against distractions
- Get your priorities straight with The Eisenhower Box (FREE printable worksheet below!)
- Master single-tasking
- Have a clutter-free workspace to avoid distractions & time wasters
- Turn off social media notifications while working
- Put your phone on aeroplane mode during your working hours
- Improve assertive communication & learn to say NO
This workbook (53 pages) is designed to help you maximize your productivity and increase your effectiveness without sacrificing your life balance.
Whether you work from home during the Coronavirus Pandemic or thinking about starting a side hustle, this workbook can help you build a more thoughtful work-from-home strategy, bring structure to your workday and create a healthy work-life balance.
INCLUDED:
- Tips for Working from Home Effectively
- Tips To Stay Organized & Motivated
- Tools for designing your own schedule, rock your to-do list and create an ideal daily routine
- Time Management Tips (The Eisenhower Box, The Pareto Principle worksheets included)
- Yearly, Monthly & Weekly Goal Setting (+ Goal Progress Index)
- Yearly, Monthly, Weekly Planner
- Daily Plan & Schedule
- Monthly & Weekly Organizer
- Time blocking method schedule
- Daily Routines for successful entrepreneurs
- Work Task Checklists
- Powerful Work-Breaks Planner & Checklist
- Yearly, Monthly, Weekly Project Planner
- Creative Worksheets
- Password Keeper
- Healthy Meal Planner
- Flow State & Mindful Motivation Checklist
- Professional Skills Development Tracker
- Healthy Habit Trackers
PERFECT FOR:
- Entrepreneurs
- Small Business Owners
- People currently working from home due to Coronavirus
- Work from home Moms & Dads
- Direct Sales & Network Marketing
- Online Shops
- & more!
4. Get Dressed
Remote working has its own rules. Since you don’t have to leave the house to go to work you can stay in pajamas, have messy hair and take a morning shower later than usual. You can also take more coffee breaks than you could ever do in an office environment. It’s like dream come true, right? Well, not really.
The lack of structure and self-care routine can cause increased stress and anxiety, inability to concentrate and focus on a task. But that’s not all. According to Dr Dragonette “Wearing pajamas all day and not sticking with our usual schedules for work could cause a disruption in our internal biological clock and lead to sleep problems, along with low energy and moodiness” And when you don’t get quality rest on a regular schedule you are exhausted, easily irritated, distracted and “tired all the time”. I think we can all relate.
Having a healthy morning and evening routine while working from home is a must if you want to stay seriously organized, motivated, productive and well balanced.
5. Get Active To Refresh Your Brain
Physical activity is one of the best ways to accelerate your mental performance and enhance your thinking skills. It happens because during the exercise your blood pressure and blood flow increase in the entire body, including the brain. As a result, you become more alert, attentive and focused during the day.
Another amazing benefit of regular physical activity stimulates the release of dopamine, norepinephrine, serotonin and endorphins. These chemicals, also known as “happy hormones” are directly responsible for your mood. That’s why even low impact and relatively short physical activity has the power to drastically improve your mood and boost your energy levels.
So if you want to organize your thoughts and maximize your brain’s performance during the day I highly recommend you add some type of physical activity into your daily routine. It can be anything from simple stretches, a morning walk or a solo dance to your favourite morning wake-up song to a full-body HIIT workout but it has to do something with moving your body.
6. Write Down Your Top Priorities
When you have a lot of deadlines to meet it’s easy to mix up priorities or even forget to do important things at work. It happens because when we have a significant amount of tasks to do it may seem that everything is a priority. And when each task seems to be equally important chaos and confusion prevails.
To avoid that you should identify your top priorities, write them down and place them in front of you so you don’t forget them.
When setting your daily priorities, your daily Most Important Tasks (MITs) focus on choosing 3 to 5 daily activities that lead to your key goal or goals so that you know you’re focusing on the right things and you’re moving toward your main goals.
7. Have A Detailed To-Do List
According to scientific research, our short-term memory can hold approximately seven separate items for less than half of minute. This is due to the fact that human brains are not designed to remember things but to process them. So if you’re having a hard time memorizing multiple information at once or you „easily” forget what’s on your never-ending to-do list, it’s because it is simply impossible.
Relying on your memory is a quick way to get overwhelmed and confused. Not to mention that, if you don’t write things down you will simply forget them. To prevent that you should make a list or multiple lists. The rule is simple: if you don’t write it, you will forget it.
A written list is an amazing tool to determine your most important tasks, categorize your to-do’s, and organize your information. Keeping things out of your head will help you to organize your thoughts and focus on doing the right things, at the right time, in the right way, and in the right order.
8. Batch Similar Tasks Together
According to a University of California Irvine study, “it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back to the task.” That’s an awfully long time to switch your brain into productivity mode again. Not to mention that waiting instead of doing is one of the main triggers for procrastinating. And once you fall into the trap of procrastination, a momentary lapse of self-control can snowball into hours and hours of wasted time. So just don’t take any chances.
To avoid procrastination and stay focused on your professional tasks when you work from home you need a strategy to create momentum. From my personal experience, one of the best methods to achieve that state is to group similar tasks together and doing them all at once. Trust me, it works wonders for both pleasant and extremely boring tasks.
Batching similar tasks together such as responding to emails, making important phone calls, doing meetings, doing errands or getting administrative work done is exactly what you need to develop laser-like focus and increase your efficiency at work.
Best Posts On Achieving Success In Life
- Discover 10 simple ways to train your self-discipline muscle
- Use best time management apps to keep you on schedule at work
- Organize your day around your goals
- Use the Eisenhower Box to identify your top priorities and avoid the urgency trap
- Create and maintain a powerful morning routine
- Develop morning rituals to make your motivation flow effortlessly
- Keep your mind sharp
- Create motivation through action
- Start before you are ready
- Improve your decision-making process
- Overcome your self-limiting beliefs that block your progress
- Balance productivity and happiness
- Cultivate self-care routine
- The 3 x 8 rule for Perfectly Balanced Day & Life
- Create rituals to induce a flow state
- Try Dopamine Detox for Maximum Productivity
9. Master Time Blocking Method
Time-blocking or calendar-blocking is an effective technique where you define specific time blocks for particular tasks, activities or events. Each block is dedicated to accomplishing a specific task so that you know what to focus on and how much time do you have to get this thing done.
This simple technique will help you build momentum and develop laser-like focus so much needed to get more things done in less time. Not to mention that you will not have time for procrastination unless you block time for it!
We live in a world full of distractions where one lapse in concentration can create a “snowball effect” where if you don’t block time for your key tasks, I can guarantee you that you will find millions of things to do instead. Potential alternatives to your top priorities will pop up out of nowhere like crazy making you think that every task is equally important.
To avoid that you need to get in control of your time and attention and time-blocking will help you to do that. And if you combine the strategy of batching similar tasks together with time blocking you will become unstoppable!
5 Steps To Time Block Like A Pro
- Get out tasks of your head into your notebook
- Add all your tasks to your prioritized to-do list
- Decide on specific time slots in your calendar and reserve them for the tasks (you can also schedule your breaks to boost your productivity levels)
- Work on your tasks within the prescribed time period
- Be disciplined and act on your schedule
Best Time Blocking Apps In 2021
10. Plan & Prepare Your Meals In Advance
Since you work from home your fridge and pantry are dangerously close to your workspace. This may not be a problem if you have high levels of self-control. But if you are at the beginning of your journey towards building self-discipline you will need a plan to avoid snacking and eating all the time.
Planning and preparing your meals and snacks in advance will help you
- avoid decision fatigue (destroys focus, motivation and drive)
- follow a nutritious diet (eat to fuel, not fill)
- follow a regular meal & snack schedule (improves digestion)
- maintain or develop healthy eating habits
- maintain healthy lifestyle
- save money on UberEats (convenient but pretty expensive)
- boost your creativity levels (cooking extravaganza!)
11. Take Frequent Breathers
There’s a tendency to think that taking frequent work breaks ruins workflow and triggers procrastination. When in fact, the opposite is true. Several studies have shown that taking regular breaks at work is a powerful strategy for increasing self-motivation, boosting productivity levels and accelerating your results.
We have to remember that our ability to focus is a limited resource which means that, every once in a while, we need to reboot our brains and restore our mental energy if we want to be productive and efficient.
From my personal experience, I can say that taking frequent breathers and changing your energy during your workday not only helps you reboot your energy (mental & physical) but also prevents you from feeling stagnant and stuck. Not to mention that if you plan your breaks strategically you will finally have the time to listen to podcasts, watch a motivational video on Youtube or plan a weekend getaway trip with your friends that you’ve been putting off for weeks.
Stay positive, be mindful & get seriously organized while working from home!
xo Kate
