And, it’s not surprising. At the end of the day you, me, and Elon Musk only have 24 hours to work with. No amount of money can buy more time. So, instead, we strive to do more with the limited time we have.

Remote workers are no exception. In fact, telecommuters often work extra hours to increase their productivity.

Unfortunately, working more doesn’t guarantee greater productivity. For many, working too much actually has an opposite effect (more on that in a minute).

That’s why it’s so important to establish productivity tips for working from home for good. These practices set the foundation for a thriving remote-focused career.

What is Productivity Anyway?

First, let’s talk about productivity. There’s a common misconception about what it actually means to be productive. The literal definition of productivity is: 

Unfortunately, this is a simplistic take on the term. Sure, you can easily measure the rate of output versus input when dealing with machines. For example, printers are assigned PPM (pages per minute) to inform consumers how quickly their inkjet can churn out documents. 

But, we’re not printers, machines, or robots. We’re human. And humans have variables that affect their productivity every single day. 

What Affects Our Productivity?

You know that feeling when you’re in a state of flow? In those moments, you hit your stride and effortlessly sail through tasks. Then you stop for lunch, eat something that doesn’t sit well with you, and spend the afternoon aimlessly floating from task to task seemingly busy but not getting much done. 

Other factors that affect your productivity include:

• Sleep
• Stress
• Health
• Relationships
• Work environment

These factors result in varying states of focus and flow! That’s why I always preach productivity tips for working from home for the long run. Remember, you’ll never achieve automated robot status on the daily. And that’s okay.

The ultimate goal is not to be robotic. Instead, focus on healthy time management habits to promote productivity for the long haul.

Long Term Productivity Tips for Working from Home 

Most remote workers want to continue telecommuting long term. In fact, 97% of surveyed remote workers want to remain remote for the rest of their career according to the State of Remote Work 2022.

This desire to create long-term remote careers is totally understandable. After all, remote work comes with tons of documented benefits like less stress, more time, and money saved without a daily commute. 

But just as many remote workers fear being called back into the office if they are not productive enough. Sadly, these fears are not unfounded. A Harvard Business Review (HBR) study found 38% of managers agree that remote workers perform worse than office workers.

In response, remote workers work longer hours. They believe longer hours = more productivity. However, working longer hours is not the solution. In fact, roughly 20% struggle with working more than they should.

Not only is this an unhealthy way to work, working too much leads to decreased productivity and increased mistakes according HubSpot.

So, if working more doesn’t work, what’s the solution? For remote workers, the secret to productivity is all about work quality over work quantity.

1. Prioritize Tasks

Have you ever heard of the Pareto Principle? Often called the 80/20 Rule, it suggests just 20% of activities account for 80% of results. 

80/20 Examples: 

• 80% of vegetables come from 20% of plants
• 80% of revenue comes from 20% of customers
• 80% of points earned come from 20% of players 

The Pareto Principle helps remote workers amplify productivity by using their time on tasks that produce results. In other words, you get rid of busy work to focus on high-impact items. 

How to Use Pareto for Work from Home Productivity

First, create a master to-do list for the day. Next, scan through your list. Your goal is to sort high-impact tasks from low-impact ones. High-impact tasks produce immediate results (quick wins) or are an important step in completing a larger project. Always prioritize high-impact tasks first. These go at the top of your to-do list.

Low-impact tasks are fill-in tasks (busy work) or thankless tasks, ones that take a lot of time to complete with little to show for in the end. Save low-impact tasks for the end of the work day when productivity and focus fizzle out. It’s not uncommon to discover some low-impact tasks are actually unnecessary! 

That’s it. Prioritizing tasks is one of the basic yet most effective productivity tips for working from home. Just ten minutes of pre-planning your work-from-home day helps you focus on tasks that matter! Remember, regularly putting the Pareto Principle into practice has the greatest impact on your overall productivity. 

Keep Learning: 

Check out The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More by Richard Koch. 

2. Set Work Boundaries

We already know that working less is better for our productivity. And the first of the working from home productivity tips showed how you really can work less yet do more. Our next productivity tip also focuses on time management to help boost productivity.

It’s no secret that remote workers complete the majority of work online and communicate with coworkers via text, messenger, Slack, or similar platforms.

This is great for remote collaboration but not so great when it’s time to disconnect at the end of the workday. In fact, a survey of remote workers showed working too much as one of their biggest struggles. 

Honestly, it’s not surprising. In our ever connected world we’re conditioned to constantly be doing. We wear busyness like a badge of honor. The more we do the more bragging rights we have.

In the end, we place ourselves in competition with, well, ourselves. This self-imposed competition is commonly called hustle culture.

As a lifestyle, hustle culture prioritizes work over all else (even family, friends, and hobbies). Unfortunately, hustle culture is toxic.

Examples of Hustle Culture:

• Emails are answered during family dinner time
• Client phone calls are taken on weekends 
• Personal plans are canceled to continue working 

Eventually, boundaries no longer exist and work spills over into every aspect of life. In the end, relationships become strained and work performance declines. Instead of increased productivity, working more has an opposite effect. 

Research tells us that individuals who work longer hours produce poor quality work, make more mistakes, and experience reduced happiness.

Who wants to work like that? 

To build a happy, healthy career from home it’s important to set clear and consistent boundaries. 

How to Set Boundaries for Work from Home Productivity

You work from home, but that doesn’t mean you have to work whenever you’re home. Instead, separate the two even though they happen in one place. 

A lot of productivity experts will tell you to shut down your computer and turn off your phone after work. I disagree. It’s impractical to completely disconnect. After all, your personal life happens on your phone and computer too. 

Fortunately, you don’t have to do a drastic disconnect to enjoy well deserved down time. Instead set boundaries that separate work and home just by communicating. That’s it.

Communicate Your Work Boundaries

Let coworkers know when you’re signing off for the day and when you’ll be back. This is especially helpful when you work with teammates or clients in different time zones.

Next, consider using an email autoresponder after hours, on weekends, during holidays, and for days off. A simple automated reply clearly communicates to senders that you’re not in but will respond when you’re back.  

Similarly, set yourself away on Slack so coworkers know you’re not “in office.” 

Coworkers, companies, and clients don’t expect you to answer 24/7. (If they do, it’s time to look for a different job). However, if you regularly answer emails, texts, and messages every day of the week at all hours, you condition others to expect . Stop it!

Get in the habit of clearly communicating to work connections when you’re in the office and when you’re out of the office. Let them know they can message you when you’re away, but they won’t receive replies until you return. 

Remember, boundaries are a good thing. They are simple, effective, and a healthy part of working remotely.

Get in the practice of setting them and actually following them. You’ll avoid burnout, feel happier, and routinely boost productivity.

Productivity Tips for Working from Home: Apps to Help

Finally, I want to include apps to help you improve time management to increase productivity. Technology is awesome. You should definitely put it to work for you.

1. RescueTime 

RescueTime is a good place to start if you’re looking to develop better productivity habits at home. Why? RescueTime runs in the background of your computer or mobile device and tracks all the time spent using individual apps and websites.

This gives you a really good idea of where exactly it is your time goes every day. At the end of each week, you get an email summarizing your activities — you also get a Productivity Score.

You might be surprised to learn how much time you actually spend answering emails, checking Facebook, or Googling various things.

I like that RescueTime lets you set daily goals and easily view your progress. For the longest time, I felt like I spent too many hours in front of my computer — and I was, but on the wrong things. RescueTime let me spot inefficiencies in my day and become better at time management. And remember, time management is actually the secret to increased productivity!

2. Pocket

You know when you’re on Twitter for a legitimate work reason, like sending a direct message to a contact, when you see a tweet with a link to a story you just have to read? Well, when you use Pocket, you can save that link and plug along with your workday knowing that your good-read is safely stored for later.

This free productivity tool keeps you from clicking through time-sapping links, helping you stay focused on the task at hand. Once your workday is over, you can see all of the items you put in your Pocket (articles, videos, GIFs, memes) you name it, you can probably put it in your Pocket.

I love Pocket because it makes it easy to view things later on (when I actually have time to spare!) Plus, you can access your Pocket through your computer, phone or tablet — you don’t even need an internet connection.

3. Any.do 

Any.do is perfect for remote workers because it helps you draw lines between work and home! You can to-do lists that separate work and personal tasks. Plus, Any.do allows you to share your lists with others – a handy feature when you need your SO to grab groceries. create lists and tasks and share them with others.

Cal, the Any.do calendar feature, beautifully displays your daily agenda so you can see, at a glance, what’s going on and what needs to get done — whether you have to pay a bill or attend hop on Zoom, Cal has got you covered (and yes, you can see your Any.do lists directly in Cal!)

Any.do is also unique in that its Moment feature is a fun and easy way to develop healthy productivity habits by encouraging you to set aside time every morning to plan out your day.

Plus, you can break large and seemingly overwhelming tasks into manageable subtasks, set recurring tasks, and add custom notifications.

You can manage your tasks and to-dos just about anywhere — Any.do is a free productivity tool available on most devices.

4. Time Doctor

Time Doctor is an accurate productivity software on the market, and offers time management apps on all the most popular platforms. It lets you harvest time tracking data on your company’s work habits and then provides analytics to show key areas where improvements can be made.

With Time Doctor on your side, you can stay super productive by getting more done in less time — even when working from home. How so? Time Doctor has built-in features that helps get you back on track when distracted and monitors how your time is really spent so you can easily see where you can make improvements to your workday routine.

And with optional integrations and a screen monitoring feature, you can seamlessly demonstrate your day’s work to others — especially helpful features for the remote freelancer.  By using Time Doctor, you can conquer working from home and feel confident knowing you’re making the most of your time each and every day.

5. Strict Workflow

If you like the Pomodoro Technique of working, you’ll love the free productivity tool, Strict Workflow. This is a Google Chrome extension that follows the 25 minutes of work followed by a 5-minute break (what the Pomodoro Technique is based on) approach to getting more done.

The idea is, when you give a task your all for 25 uninterrupted minutes followed by a short break, you avoid mental fatigue and are able to get more done. You follow this pattern over and over until your task is done.

I like Strict Workflow since it really does help me focus intensely on a task in manageable blocks of time. It’s amazing what I can get done in a three-hour period, even though I’m taking a five-minute breather every 25 minutes. If you’ve never tried this method of working — it’s a must! You’ll be surprised by just how much you can get done in just 25 distraction-free minutes.

Time Management: The Real Productivity Tips for Working from Home

Thankfully, remote work is here to stay. However, remote workers still worry about getting sent back to the office if their productivity is not on point. To compensate, they work too much which actually causes productivity and work quality to decline.

Remember, there are no secret productivity tips for working from home. At the end of the day, time management plays the biggest role in getting more done. Always remain mindful of the time you have and prioritize high-impact tasks first and foremost.

And don’t forget to work less! Although you work from home, you shouldn’t work any time you’re home. Too many hours logged in a given week is unproductive! Lack of separation (boundaries) between work life and home life leads to burnout and productivity loss.

Fortunately, you don’t need to rely on quick fixes or life hacks to be a productive remote worker. At the end of the (work)day, time management strategies are the best productivity tips for working from home. You’ve got this!

Happily,

Ashlee

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The post Productivity Tips for Working from Home appeared first on Work from Home Happiness.

What’s appealing about most work from home opportunities (setting your hours, lack of office politics, working in PJs) can also be total motivation zappers. The lure of the couch, binge-watching TV series on Netflix or an afternoon trip to Barnes & Noble can sometimes seem infinitely more appealing than just about anything having to do with work.

No matter your work ethic, you’re bound to feel unmotivated while working from home. It happens to the best of us.

But don’t worry, there are some practical methods to help get (and keep) yourself motivated. Below you’ll find five work from home motivation tips to give you a little get-up-and-go.

1. Get Showered & Dressed

Thanks to the popularity of The Odd Couple which introduced us to the disheveled, slovenly, sportswriter, Oscar Madison, work from home pros sometimes get a bad rap where hygiene and cleanliness are concerned.  This might be true, for some, but certainly not all (or at least not all the time!).

Full disclosure, there are definitely some days I wake up, roll out of bed, grab a coffee and answer emails, make phone calls and write well into the afternoon without much consideration into the fact that I’m wearing day-old clothes and greasy hair. I mean, who is there to impress in that regard, my cat, Lenny? He’s seen me at my best and worst. And frankly, he doesn’t much care what I look like as long as I keep his food dish topped off and offer a lap to sit on.

And when  you’re working from home, there will be those days when you feel pretty good about the fact that you even managed to get a pair of clean-ish yoga pants on. And if you’re getting work done and staying ahead of deadlines, more power to you!

But then there’s those days when you’re feeling less than ready to tackle the simplest of to-do list items. And that’s when your sweats and tangled hair can really be working against you.

Thankfully, a shower and clean change of clothes can make a world of difference. There’s something about the process of rinsing away the previous day and a fresh set of clothes that can really refresh your entire perspective and put a little spring in your step. As a bonus, you might find that a shower provides you with a little inspiration as well as motivation.

Work From Home Motivation Quote to live by:

2. Leverage Your To-Do List

Getting things done can, well, motivate you to get more done. If you’re a freelancer, you probably already use a weekly or monthly calendar to help you keep track of looming deadlines. This is a great practice that you should use to help you keep motivated throughout any given workday.

Invest in a small dry-erase board, you can pick one up at Amazon for around five bucks, and each morning (or if you’re a night owl, afternoon) write out each of the things you need to do that day, no matter how small. As you complete even seemingly insignificant tasks, cross them off your list. Why?

The idea is that accomplishments, even the smallest ones, are motivators. That’s right. If you get something done, you’re likely to get more done. Something about checking an item off of your to-do list really gives you a sense of satisfaction and achievement. And you’ll want to replicate that same sense of satisfaction by getting more done.

By the end of the day you’ll have a whiteboard with a long list of completed tasks and a sense of accomplishment that you can parlay into tackling the next workday.

Work From Home Motivation Quote to live by:

3. Change The Way You Think

Easier said than done, right? Not exactly. Science tells us that motivation is really a psychological thing. Changing the way you think about the things you need to get done can make them easier to do.

When you’re feeling unmotivated, you’re likely looking at a task or a list of tasks and saying, ugh, I have to do this. By telling yourself you have to do something, you’re psyching yourself out. Instead, opt for the more motivational-friendly “I choose to.” As in, I choose to write this 1500-word article about the intricacies of the catalytic converter. When you feel like you’re in charge, you’ll be more compelled to complete a task.

Remember, when it comes to work, there’s not a whole lot you really have to do. You choose to do these things because you like to earn an income, have a roof over your head, food in the kitchen, and an Amazon Prime membership. The next time you feel like you don’t want to do something, remember you choose to do it.

Work From Home Motivation Quote to live by:

4. Reflect Don’t Deflect

Scientists have found that your motivation really flourishes when you stay true to your values and beliefs. So, if you find yourself constantly demotivated when it comes to completing your work, perhaps it’s time to reflect on why you started doing the work to begin with.

As far as work from home motivation tips goes, this one often resonates. A work from home life is not always easy, but if you can think back to why you opted to get into whatever work from home field you chose (writing, virtual assisting, customer service, etc.) then perhaps it can reinvigorate you, too.

Did you start freelancing as a graphic designer to spend more time with your family or opted to become a virtual assistant to achieve a better work-life balance? Whatever spurred you to work from home to begin with, can also motivate you to get work done.

Work From Home Motivation Quote to live by:

5. Let Music Move You

When thinking of work from home motivation tips, this is one of my gold-star standards. Even as I write this article, I’ve got my headphones plugged in and have been listening to a random playlist for the last hour or so. I can’t tell you song for song what’s been played, but I do know that it has put a little pep in my writing step.

There’s a reason you see people at the gym and marathon runners plugged into music as they push themselves to the limit. But, why?

Music utilizes our body’s sympathetic nervous system to get a rise out of us. Auditory signals, like those we get from listening to music, can increase heart rate, get blood flowing, and open airways. With such responses, are body is at a state of readiness that allows us to get things done, whether it’s running a 5k or finishing an assignment.

Some studies even suggest that music increases our coordination and is responsible for sending signals to our brain which helps us with perceptual and cognitive reasoning. Perhaps this increased ability to understand allows us to more clearly see an assignment for what it is. With this clarity, we’re able to more easily and readily take on and complete a task.

Thankfully with streaming services, like Amazon Music Unlimited, you’ll never be without your musical motivation.

Work From Home Motivation Quote to live by:

What do you think? What are some of your tried and true work from home motivation tips? Share them in the comment below.

The post Work From Home Productivity Tips To Help You Get (And Stay) Motivated appeared first on Work from Home Happiness.