15 Tips on How to Stay Focused and Productive When Working at Home

Starting and maintaining a virtual office from home is highly attractive to new business owners. The Digital Age allows entrepreneurs to build their startup company with just a website and a dream; requiring little to no capital to get started. However, having the discipline to stay productive while at home can be challenging.   

Some small business owners that work from home find it incredibly difficult to stay focused and productive. Since you don’t have co-workers or employees to hold you accountable each work day, you can easily succumb to distractions found in your home. Improve productivity at work by following these #ProductiveWorkHacks that’ll keep your home office in business.

How to Improve Productivity While Working From Home: 

1. 1.) Sure, you make your own hours and don’t have a formal office to go to. Don’t snooze your alarm clock just because you can; wake up at a reasonable time each day. Even if you don’t have any pressing matters to handle on a particular day, force yourself to work on bettering your business between important project deadlines.    

1. 2.) Develop a morning routine that you would commit to if you had to leave the house and work in an office every day. Walk your dog, eat breakfast, drink a cup of coffee and check your personal social media profiles. Handle all personal matters before sitting down to put in your 8 hours of productive work.

1. 3.) Get dressed each morning. Working in your pajamas or house clothes is going to trick your mind and make you feel like you don’t have to work.     

1. 4.) Commit to a work schedule that makes sense for you. No matter if you start your workday at 9 am or 12 pm, make sure you’re consistently working during the same time-period every day.

1. 5.) Set aside a designated workspace in your home. Don’t work while sitting on the couch or while curled in bed. You need a functional workspace that has all the tools you’ll need to complete your daily tasks.   

1. 6.) Music and some background noises can improve your focus and encourage you to be more productive. Some use classical music while others allow the television to play in the background. Youtube even has office sound effects so that you can pretend you’re in a busy office environment.  

1. 7.) Keep a digital journal of when you start and stop work every day. Clocking in and out will allow you to hold yourself accountable to your fixed schedule.  

1. 8.) Plan your day in bitesize pieces by blocking off time for specific tasks. Coordinate times that make sense for you to handle administrative work, correspondence, social media monitoring, client relations, etc.

1. 9.) Check your emails and business social media activity during designated times. This will force you to keep your attention on a task instead of getting sucked into a wormhole on the Internet.  

1. 10.) Use time management apps that give you a customizable timer for each work task and accounts for minibreaks. The Pomodoro Technique is featured on many apps and it uses a timer to break your work into focused time blocks (usually 25 minutes) separated by a 5-minute break.

1. 11.) If you often find yourself doing chores at home instead of focusing on your work responsibilities, incorporate this distraction into your day. Use household appliances to act as a timer. When the sound goes off, take a minibreak to empty the dishwasher or load the dryer.  

1. 12.) Get into the habit of creating a daily task list and make a point to diligently follow it. Each time you cross off an item on your list, give yourself a minibreak as a reward for staying on point.  

1. 13.) Improve productivity at workby having designated times when you speak to your customers and clients. Constantly answering incoming phonelines can easily derail you from your daily agenda. Forward your lines to a virtual receptionist that’ll take phone messages throughout the day that you can return at a more opportune time.   

1. 14.) Make a lunch date to socialize and/or network outside of the house at least once a week. Scheduling a lunch or meeting up with someone for happy hour forces you to get out of the house and interact with other professionals for a more balanced work life.  

1. 15.) If you’re a business owner that has a real hard time staying on task while working from home, brainstorm ways for others to hold you accountable. Place a “Video Chat Now” button on your website that allows your customers and clients to initiate a video chat with you during your normal working hours. Hire a virtual assistant that can confirm your daily schedule has been completed.     

Want Us to Help Improve Your Productivity at Work?

Since opening our doors over 30 years ago, our virtual receptionists have helped thousands of small business owners improve productivity at work. We give you the ability to offer 24/7 customer assistance and the freedom to focus on revenue generating tasks only.

Start forwarding your business phone lines to a team of qualified customer service agents and allow us to help you keep your focus while working at home. Give us a call today at 1-800-785-6161 to discuss our monthly rates that can be as affordable as $19.95.    

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