Work from home

Never thought we'd be talking about this, but here are a few tricks that might help you if you need to be working from home and actually getting things done.

We don’t quite remember when our transition to this full-time work from home situation happened. All we know is it took us quite a while to figure out how to stay productive when working from home and not just go down a rabbit hole of watching videos and making myself snacks whenever things got challenging at work and we didn’t feel like doing what we knew we were supposed to do.

How To Work From Home

So if you need to be working from home right now, here are our best tips:

1. It’s still work

That means wake up on time, get dressed, put makeup on, keep your desk tidy and be disciplined to do what needs to get done. Working from home doesn’t mean watching Friends in your PJs. Treat it as work and get ready – it will put you in that work mode.

2. Avoid distractions

You’d think this shouldn’t be that hard when you’re alone at home, but today distractions are everywhere whether you have kids, parents or dogs or plants living in the same space as you. We're talking about your phone, the 10 open tabs on your computer, social media and the kitchen. Make sure to have a minimum amount of tabs open and to use a Pomodoro timer to stay focused on your tasks and as a reminder to take mini-breaks.

If you are distracted by others, either set actual boundaries by saying “we work from…until… we can talk later.” Or wake up early before those people and get your most important work done when it’s quiet.

3. Define your priorities

One of the most challenging things about working from home is that it’s hard to draw a line. Work never ends and it’s hard to choose what to do next. Therefore you need to define your priorities every day and stay focused on them. Define 3-5 important things you want to get done, things that will have the biggest impact when it comes to reaching your work goals and work on them first.

4. Use your breaks

5. Have a plan

We usually make a plan for the week. We define our top 3 goals for that period and we list the tasks that need to get done. Then we work off of that list every day. This is simple, but it has changed everything for us. Being clear on what you need to do and why you need to do it, is key.

Whether you schedule things or not – depends on what you like. We like flexibility, so we decide what to do at the moment. If we have, let’s say, 20 minutes we can look at our list and choose a task that we can finish within that time frame. We don’t need to start a task we know will take us 3-4 hours, because we know we won’t finish it. Speaking of…

6. Finish

A half-way done task isn’t done. Finish whatever you start within that day. Always keep this in mind when you’re starting to do something – that you have two goals: do your best and finish, don’t overpolish.

It’s simple to start something new. It’s exciting and it seems like it will change everything. Finishing is the hard part. Once you get to the things you don’t feel like doing and you’re 2 hours into work, you’ll want to quit. Take a break, then get back.

If the task is too big – break it down into a checklist and work on that checklist. It’s better to have finished one thing, than to have 5 half-done projects. You might never come back to them.

7. Procrastinate On Non-essential Work

We’ve all heard this, but it’s true. Cleaning up your inbox, looking at your social media and doing small nice-to-do tasks shouldn’t be on your priority list every day. You could dedicate an entire day to small tasks like that or have an hour for that later in the day, but don’t start with these things too early.

Now, it’s time to get started and go ahead and do what you need to get done today. You’ll feel happy and accomplished if you start with your priorities!