Managing Your Time While Working from Home: Productivity Tips
It’s mid-April and many of us are adapting to our ‘new normal’ which includes working from home. While Unit Connect Property Management Software gives you the ability to work from home, there are still a few daily practices you can integrate to set yourself up for success. Self-control and time blocking are two of these very effective tools, they will help you stay focused and meet your deadlines.
Working from home is more difficult than it appears. You wake up, have a leisurely breakfast, grab your coffee and sit down at your dining room table, it’s already 9:30 am. If you were still going to work chances are you’d have been there an hour ago and already answered your emails and taken a few phone calls. Business owners and employees who typically work onsite face some very unique challenges when trying to work from home. It may sound silly but house chores and frequent eating are the biggest culprits alongside daytime TV. It’s difficult to sit at your dining room table and not go through that huge pile of junk mail, wash the dishes in the sink or just throw in that load of laundry ‘real quick.’ But all of those tasks eat up your time and distract you from your work.
Self-control is your new best friend when your home becomes your office. Set boundaries for yourself. Use the time blocking method to lay out your day and use self-control to stick to that schedule. Set your alarm, get showered and dressed daily. Eat a healthy breakfast and enjoy it all from the comfort of your home. Then sit down at your dedicated work area and focus. Use a whiteboard or even a scrap piece of paper tacked to your fridge. Maybe 9:00 – 10:30 is for emails and phone calls then you take a coffee break and walk around the block or sit in your driveway. Get back to it at 11:00 and stop for an hour lunch at 12:30. Spend time with your family laugh, play a game, watch a tv show, take another walk. At 1:30 get back to your workspace and plan your second coffee break for 3:00.
Will you be able to stick to this type of schedule every single day, probably not. But putting it into place and setting it as a goal will definitely help you stay on track. It’s perfectly acceptable to dress down and set your alarm for later since you’ve eliminated your morning commute. During your second coffee break figure out what you’ll eat for dinner so you can defrost it and throw in that load of laundry. If you’re suddenly working from home it is important to take advantage of the conveniences and bonuses working from home provides. The difficult part is sticking to this schedule, especially if it’s not just you and another adult but children as well. With some boundaries, dedication, and persistence, you can implement these practices effectively and navigate your ‘new normal’ successfully.
