“Time is money, and yet 90% of the people fail to cash on it”.
While you are scrolling down your social media feeds, you sure love taking a sneak peek on who’s doing what and what’s happening around you. But, don’t you secretly wish to spend your time meaningfully?
A huge number of people are working from home these days. While there are a great many advantages to working from home, the biggest challenge is to stay productive.
It indeed is a challenge because our homes don’t have the atmosphere the same as the offices. You are not working in a zone where everyone around you is wagging their hands around to be as active as they can be.
You are, most probably, surrounded by people who are either watching television, sleeping in a cosy bed or eating favourite meals.
But, wait. The non-office atmosphere isn’t the only reason people working from home fail to be productive. Here’s a lot more you need to know.
Let’s accept the truth. Productivity is not a mantra you magically learn. Our brain has a lot to do with how we function throughout the day. It’s the primitive parts of our brains that decide whether a person should procrastinate or make the most of the time they have.
With a very personal experience, I can say that home workers tend to procrastinate things until it’s a do-or-die situation. Ever wondered why?
This do-or-die response is otherwise inactive because we know we still have time to make the final submission or answering the email.
And, this is the deadliest disadvantages that keep a person from focusing on their work.
We are all greedy, and the same goes for all our brains too. I say this with conviction because our brains have two parts:
These two parts make huge differences in our lives. And honestly, these are the parts that separate winners from losers.
For example, successful people have a tendency to not give in to greed of quick rewards and instead work their way to long-term consequences.
Still confused?
Let me explain with an example. You are sitting in front of your computer but your brain reminds you of a quick reward: the Netflix show that’s airing, the final episode of Game of Thrones, unhealthy snacking, or scrolling down the Instagram feeds.
Most of us cave-in to these greedy signals and don’t even care about the long-term benefits of staying productive.
Our brain prefers to spend energy on the things that really matter. This is especially true if you’ve never tried to change your habits: You are used to staying in bed hours after you’ve woken up or sitting lazily in the hammock. And this is the main reason why humans procrastinate.
We procrastinate to stay on the energy conservation mode, which by the way, may sound environmentally friendly but is actually an unhealthy habit.
As much as our brain is the master source for regulating how we function, it’s also a part of a body that can be manipulated with some effort.
There are easy ways to change our habits, control greed, and make the most of our life. Below is the eleven-step solution for everyone who’s working from home and trying to be productive:
‘‘As soon as the sun sets, I feel the wheels of my mind switching off and I want nothing but to be in bed. However, I find myself most active after the sun rises.’’
That’s me. How about you? I am dead sure there’s a time slot when you can literally be the best version of yourself. This time slot doesn’t have to be the ungodly hour like 4:30 a.m. or post-midnight. It can be anything depending on your routine.
Believe me, it’s not a tough code to crack. You can find the answers in a matter of two days.
Remember how I mentioned the biggest challenge of staying productive when you are working from home?
Majority of work from home employees work among people who are either watching television, sleeping in a cosy bed or eating favourite meals. So, we can blame our surroundings too.
There’s a straightforward solution for this:
The purpose of this space is to cut off from everything that can distract you from concentrating on the work.
How many times have you created a time table for work? Probably 100?
How many times did you stick to it for as long as a month? Without s doubt, 0.
Creating a schedule and not sticking to it is nothing but a self-defeating strategy. I am not going to rant on why it’s important because I am sure that is something you’d be reading for the billionth time.
As I said in the first step about finding the hours when you are most productive-you can create work hours around that time.
Take breaks in the middle but make sure you get back to work after the break-time is over. Because as a home worker, you never know how the 10-minute break session stretches in 2-hours.
Since you are working from home, chances are your boss or employer sends emails and task updates for you to review. So, I can’t ask you to deactivate your social media handles because a) your job demands that, and b) who am I kidding?
Here’s what you can do instead:
I suggest using the timer for check-out because diving into other people’s lives through a mobile phone can be an immersive experience. Isn’t that so?
Similar to the time you’ve dedicated to social media, you can dedicate time for the business meetings with your clients.
This will save you from checking your phone once every two minutes and killing time in that process.
If you work on the computer and your job involves typing, it’s high time you learn the keyboard shortcuts.
Depending on the operating system in your computer, learn all the keyboard shortcuts and save a great deal of your time.
Once you know how great of a virtual assistant to-do lists can be, you’ll never stop using it for managing your work and time.
To-dos are the best ways of managing your tasks and staying productive.
Have you ever come across something while doing some other thing, and decided that you’ll get to it later? I bet a hundred times. I can also bet that half these things are something you never get back to because you are always busing with managing what’s important at that hour.
I suggest creating an “I'll get to that later" file to:
There’s a reason why this is the best productivity technique ever.
These are many similar techniques but nothing beats Pomodoro because the time slots are as practical as us humans can be.
Conclusion
I am sure you noticed how most of the steps mentioned here came down to simple things. Truth is, managing time and staying require simple but consistent steps.
It can be really easy if you follow these steps every day and a real pain in the neck if you get back to being the ‘productive superhero’ once a leap year.
I Suggest starting with small tweaks and winding your way to streamlining the workflow with the Pomodoro technique.