11 Steps To Improving Your Productivity In Your Home Office

I’ve had a number of emails from visitors recently asking me why I haven’t been updating the site. I’ve had a few problems with unwell relatives recently and also had to re-arrange my business, as I’m taking on a new venture with a friend. Since a lot of my work is carried out from home, I thought I’d share some tips and advice on managing your work from your home office.

Working from home can offer a refreshing change to many people and it’s great to be able to get away from offices with their politics and noise, let alone the daily commute. However, it can be difficult to adjust to working in your home office and concentrating your efforts on work rather than the many distractions that you are likely to face.

I’ve been working from home for nearly 3 years now, firstly as a freelance/contracted designer and later in April 2006, I started my own business. When you first start working from home, it can be difficult to get yourself into the right frame of mind. Personally, I found it difficult to focus on the tasks I had to do each day, my levels of productivity decreased and as a result I was working more hours to accomplish the same amount of tasks that I could do in a 9-5 day in an office. Read on for a guide to working from home and some useful hints and tips that can help you to make your home office experience a success.

The single most important tip that I can give you is to make sure you keep a clean divide between your home and your office. If you have a spare room, try and set your computer equipment and anything else that you need in here. If you don’t have the luxury of a spare room in your home, perhaps try and use a dining area or study. The idea being that you want to work somewhere that is quiet and that doesn’t have many people/kids running through it, making noise and mess. Your home office should be an area that motivates you into completing your work.

1) Wake up early/in a routine – I wake up at 7am everyday and start work at 8am. This basically gives me an extra hour of work in the morning, at a quiet time. I am unlikely to be disturbed by clients or members of my family, therefore my productivity levels are very high. Perhaps however, you are not a morning person. Maybe you work better in the evenings? No problem – you can wake up later, but you must ensure that you get into a routine. There is absolutely no point in waking up at 8am one morning and then 1pm the next day. Your body and mind will find it very difficult to adjust and your work will suffer. Routine may be dull at times, but it really does help you to be effective.

2) Create a list of goals – You should create a list of everything that needs to be completed either on a week-by-week or a month-by-month basis. You could even do both if you feel like it. Depending on your job, your list of goals may not be very long when you first start working from home. If you work in the design industry as I used to, then you will often find that your list of goals will have such ‘fun’ subjects as “find more clients”, underlined I bet. Allow your list of goals to help you focus on what needs to be done and when you need to complete it. You could even set up a reward system where you let yourself finish early on Friday if your goals for that week are completed. Keep things fun and keep things focused and you will fly through your work with ease.

3) Schedule your work daily - Along the same lines as creating a list of goals, you should also keep a note of all the work that needs to be completed on a daily basis. Ensure that you give yourself enough time to complete all of your work and don’t be afraid to take a break. It is very important to take a break away from your computer screen for 5-10 minutes, every couple of hours. If at all possible, try and keep your daily schedule fairly consistent by taking your lunch at a similar time each day.

4) Turn off IM/Phone/etc – When you are working from home, a constant interruption such as an Instant Messaging program is no good for your levels of productivity. If you’re going to be distracted by your IM program beeping every couple of minutes, it would be a very good idea to turn it off or at the very least set yourself to busy. The same principle goes with your mobile/home phone. If you have an active social life, you are bound to have people send you messages daily. Whilst you are working, you should try and keep these distractions to a minimum. Why not put your phone on silent and then reply to your messages when you take a break in a few hours? Of course there would be a couple of exceptions to both of the above, where you might expect new work to arrive via IM or Phone. If this is the case, then you should know what level of useage of either is necessary.

5) Don’t put things off – Many people put off jobs/tasks because they are difficult, dull or they take a while. When you are working from home, you can slip into bad habits and start doing your easier tasks first, leaving the dull ones for the end of the day. Of course when it gets to the end of the day, you’re a little more tired and perhaps a bit stressed – and you’re not goind to do those dull jobs then either. It is a good idea to put the dull jobs first on your work schedule for the day. If you can get them out of the way at the start of your day, then you can lift that weight off of your shoulders and enjoy your work for the rest of the day.

6) Keep your home office tidy - I cannot stress enough how important it is to keep your home office tidy. When you are surrouded by paper, invoices, coffee cups etc, you will find work can lower your productivity levels and your quality of work can suffer. Schedule a time, once a week, where you tidy up your paperwork and give yourself a clean desk. Having a clean desk when working from home is almost like having a bright new start. It’s very rewarding! Also, you won’t lose any bills under piles of mess and then have the worry of payment reminders coming through the post.

7) Listen to music - When I was doing a lot of design work, I found music to be a wonderful background sound. Not only did it often relieve any stress that was building up, but it also helped my creativity to flow. Music may not be suitable for everyone, but give it a try. I often listen to Radio1 here in the UK still, although having the presenters talk between music tracks can be distracting at times. Find a happy medium that works for you and embrace it so that you can enhance your work.

8 ) Outsource work that can’t be completed – Again, I’m writing this from a graphic designer’s point of view, so it may not be relevant to everyone. If you are getting a lot of work and are finding that you are unable to complete it all, it would be a very good idea to NOT let it build up over and over until it gets unmanageable. Freelance designers often get work through websites which have rating systems similar to those you would find on eBay. By letting work build up, you are threating your own ratings on these websites and also your integrity and honour as a designer. It is a very good idea to outsource your work to others who can help you complete the task for a percentage of the total. Remember – outsourcing is not a sign that you’ve failed, it’s a sign that you can manage your tasks and you are making the best decisions for the most effective outcome for your client.

9) Talk to family/friends – When you tell family or friends that you are going to be working from home, they will often assume that this means you are now free all day and that you are able to drop everything you are doing to spend time with them. It is very important that you speak to your family and friends and allow them to understand that working from home does not necessarily give you free reign to go out all day and sit in the sunshine. If you can inform them that your home job is similar to a 9-5 office job except you have freedom to complete the work in a more comfortable environment, they will understand and perhaps you might even make them slightly jealous. Ensuring that they won’t call or email you all day asking you to come out at inappropriate times will keep your productivity rates nice and high. Please note that this doesn’t mean that you can never go out with your friends during the day. I try and make a point of going out for lunch with friends at least once a week. It is important to socialise but also to understand that your work needs to be completed too.

10) Close your home office door – If you live with others in your home, it would be a wise move to establish a ‘closed door’ rule. Something along the lines of – if your office door is closed, then you are busy and should not be disturbed unless there is an emergency… i.e. your house is on fire and you need to leave immediately. If the people you share your home with can respect your privacy and need to be left alone with your work sometimes, you will find that you endure less distractions on a daily basis.

11) Exercise/Keep Active – If you don’t already exercise regularly, when you start working from home it would be a very good idea to also start getting into a better exercise routine. Not only will you stay in shape and perhaps lose a few pounds (if needed), but you will also have a lot more energy each day, which will allow you to better focus your mind on your tasks. Exercise is a superb tool for increasing your productivity and motivation. In the first two years that I worked from home, I managed to put on nearly 2st in weight. This was mainly due to no longer parking outside of my local town and walking into work, walking around at lunchtime, moving around the office, playing football after work etc. Working from home can lead to a very sedentary lifestyle, where you aren’t doing a lot of exercise at all – and perhaps eating the wrong food or too much of the right food. Having the fridge within a few paces, isn’t always handy! I now ride my bike daily, before I start work and it really does help me to be awake and ready to kick off my day.

The above tips may seem obvious to some readers but they can often be things that are overlooked by people who work from home. If there is something that you don’t currently do, why not give it a try? If it improves your productivity you’ll be very happy – all of the options are free too!

If any readers have any tips that they would like to share, please comment and add them. I look forward to reading any helpful advice that you can give.

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