Staying Productive While Working at Home

The Trend

A lot of professionals nowadays leave the corporate arena and choose to work at home as a freelancer or most commonly known as a Virtual Assistant. There are a lot of advantages of working as a Virtual Assistant. These advantages include working from the comforts of your own home, getting to choose the time to work, being close to your family, and being able to work while wearing your favorite PJs on.

The Downside

While it’s awesome to have flexibility, one of the problems I see in a work at home set up is the loads of distractions that can be around that keeps a freelancer from being productive and as such staying motivated to get the work done.

The Answer

If you are a Virtual Assistant like me and you’re having a hard time getting your usual work groove, here are some ways to boost your motivation and increase your productivity.

• Have a work space.

Having a home office is great, but it is not for everyone most especially if you only have a small space at home or just a one-bedroom house. A work space is fine as long as it is clutter free and helps you focus on work. If you’re truly going to get work done, you need a dedicated work space at your home. For best results, your work space should be 100% free of distractions. This means that you need to set ground rules with your family or roommates about when they can and cannot stay in you work space.

• Get ready for the day.

When you are working at home and have no set schedule, the desire to stay in bed compounds. If you want to stay motivated, do yourself a favor and set a specific time to wake up every day. If you are a morning person, then wake up early. But if you are not and find yourself more productive at night then go ahead and get things done at night. The point here is knowing the time when you are at your best and setting the time for it.

A better way to get ready for the day is to establish a daily routine that works for you. For most, that may mean waking up early, exercising, showering, getting dressed for work, eating a healthy breakfast, and then making a checklist of everything you need to accomplish for the day. As you get into your routine, you’ll find it’s much easier to stay motivated and accomplish your goals. It has been proven that it takes over 2 months of daily practice to develop and establish a new habit.

• Dress up.

Well, this may sound like nothing to do with increasing productivity but some recent studies have shown that wearing nice clothing, even when you work at home actually boosts your confidence, helps you feel more powerful, increases your ability for abstract thinking, helps you earn more money, and enables you to see the big picture. “Dress up for success” may seem like just a catchy motto but clearly it is not. When you wear nice clothing even when work at home, you feel better about yourself and are more productive.

• Eliminate distractions.

Do you find yourself checking on your social media accounts when you get bored or whenever you hear a notification from your phone. Well, you are not alone in this. But a solution I see to this is to also set some breaks during your working schedule. This has to be included in your daily routine. Part of your schedule should be a break where you can check on your social media accounts or simply do some stretching BUT be mindful of the time. This may take discipline but if steps one to three are set then this is a lot easier.

• Reward yourself for work done.

You can make a deal with yourself that as soon as you finish the week’s work, you get to go to your favorite restaurant or get some bonding time with your family. It can be as simple as this because you are your own boss and you are entitled to a reward. Maybe this will motivate you to accomplish all your work by Thursday instead of Friday, and you’ll get a day off. Perhaps you can motivate yourself by going to a movie when your tasks are completed for the day. It doesn’t matter what kind of reward system you put in place. It just matters that you take the time to create a cool company culture of your own by setting up a system of rewards for achievement.

• Get out.

Some great ideas are created when you are out and about. Just keep in mind that the goal of outside walk is get your thoughts clear, have a short break and get some fresh ideas around. You can also go to a nearby coffee shop and get your work done there. This can also help in eliminating distractions from home.

• Log off.

One of the most important aspects of a healthy work at home routine is creating boundaries. Log off for the day—and not just from your laptop. Consider developing a phrase you say to yourself at the end of the day, to signal your mind that it’s time to stop thinking about work. Just because you have access to work anytime doesn’t mean you should be logged in 24/7. Allow yourself to have downtime to create a work-life balance—we all need it, no matter where we are working.

Feel the Difference

If you’re struggling to deliver results while working remotely, or if you’ve never done it and are afraid to try, well, now you know what to do. It may take a while to put these ideas into practice but the important thing is to keep trying and to never give up because the end result of these is really for the success of your freelancing business.

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