So you work from home—or you want to. It’s a great way to bring balance to your life and make time for the things that are important to you. Whether you want more time for your family, friends, a hobby or just downtime to decompress, working from home and ditching that long commute can help. But it can be easy to get distracted when you work from home, so learning how to work more efficiently is critical to your work-from-home success.
Here are 10 tips for working from home efficiently, so you can have some more time for yourself.
1. Stop Multitasking
Everyone thinks they’re good at it—I can read this email while I’m listening to a conference call, no problem!—but dividing your attention means you’re not really paying attention to either activity. Better to focus on one thing at a time, cross it off your list, and move on.
2. Remove as Many Distractions as Possible
Sometimes your office doubles as your gym or your craft room, and it’s easy to get distracted thinking about how much you need to exercise this week or when you’re going to start that new project. Stop it! Put a screen up to cover your recumbent bike, cover your project table, do whatever you need to so distractions are out of sight and out of mind.
3. Establish Boundaries Around Work Time and Personal Time
Family and friends may think it’s okay to drop by when you’re working—you’re home, right? Make it clear that when you are working from home, you are still responsible for getting work done and must limit distractions.
4. Make Sure Your Office is Set Up for Maximum Productivity
It may be nice to get up and stretch your legs every time you get something from the printer—but if you need to refer to printed documents in every interaction, which can waste valuable time. Put the things you use most close to your desk—your printer, a small stash of extra paper and pens, and whatever else is essential when you’re working.
5. Make the Most of Technology
There are so many programs, apps, and tools available to make it faster and easier to cross tasks off your to-do list. Use those tools to your advantage, setting timers, or taking advantage of reminders to be sure you accomplish everything on your list.
6. But Beware of Technology Distractions
There are so many things you can do with Internet access—Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, Shutterfly, Reddit, etc. The time you spend “screen sucking” during work hours translates into more time you’ll need to work … when you should be done for the day. Occasional checks are okay, but use a timer to be sure an hour hasn’t passed without you noticing.
7. Take Regular Breaks
Even if it’s just to walk to the kitchen to refresh your coffee or check the mailbox, a change of scenery can greatly improve your ability to focus and concentrate. Just a few minutes of thinking about something other than work can help you reenergize.
8. Schedule Appointments and Personal Activities at the Beginning or End of the Day, Whenever Possible
Treat your workday as you would if you were working in an office. It’s more efficient to go to the dentist first thing and work a little later to make up the time than to stop your flow in the middle of the morning, go to your appointment, and have to refocus when you get back to your desk.
9. Use Your Willpower
It can be difficult to work from home when you’re surrounded by chores you could do and hobbies or activities you enjoy. Set boundaries for yourself, too, to make sure you aren’t folding laundry, scrapbooking, or trying to finish that overdue library book when you should be talking to a customer.
10. Spend Time at the End of Your Workday to Prepare for Tomorrow
Make your to-do list, plan your calendar, and prepare what you can so you can hit the ground running. It will make the beginning of your day go much more smoothly and be less stressful.
Conclusion
Working from home is wonderful in so many ways. One of those ways is controlling your schedule, and you can do that better when you learn how to work more efficiently. Give these ideas a try and let me know what you think of these tips for working from home. What will you do with the time you’ll save by working more efficiently?
Karen Beaman is the Director of Agent Acquisition and Onboarding at LiveOps and has enjoyed the benefits of working from home for the past seven years. She is responsible for sourcing and onboarding talented, independent contractor agents to work from home and provide professional contact center services to LiveOps’ clients. Karen has held a variety of leadership roles in her 15 years of contact center experience and now leads her team in the development of cutting edge recruitment, crowdsourcing, and onboarding strategies to effectively grow a large distributed workforce and improve the talent available in the cloud. For more information on LiveOps, please visit join.liveops.com.
Julia Harris
Great blog, the multi tasking one is a biggie. It’s ridiculous that we are brought up to believe multi-tasking makes us more productive when actually it slows us down and fries our brains :)
Holly - The Work at Home Woman
Glad you enjoyed the tips, Julia.
Lisa Jordie @TheDriftingDesk
I think people who want to work from home often overtook how brutally hard it can be to actually set boundaries with yourself! Thanks for posting this today. I needed a reminder to continue to clarify my boundaries with a few family members.
Holly - The Work at Home Woman
It is hard … especially if you run your own business. Glad you enjoyed the tips, Lisa.