Are you just starting out working at home? Well, you're not going to be alone especially right now, and in this video I share with you my top five tips to remain super productive, while working at home.
Now, there's been a lot of changes afoot, in the world of business very recently. Coronavirus has caused full blown panic in some regards. For others, we're getting on with business the best that we can and obviously making sure that we continue to show up for our customers, and for our fans and for the people that we’re serving, just like we usually would.
However, there might be a situation where we've got to change – where we’'ve got to self isolate, social distance a little bit – there's the word of the year, right there!
My five top tips on staying productive while working at home
Now many of you might have actually been doing it on a part time basis in some way, shape or form up to this point, but decided because of the current situation that you're going to go all in on working at home, keeping yourself and your family safe in the process so that you can continue to obviously earn an income for the people that you love, as well as, honestly, stick around in a healthy way to continue to serve the community that no doubt, love you already.
Number One: make sure that you maintain regular work hours
I can't stress this enough. It's really easy to have that flexibility of working at home, almost overtake what you're doing, day to day. Trust me, I've been there. I've done that myself. But the fact of the matter is keeping a really solid regular working schedule while working at home is without a doubt the number one thing that you need to do to stay productive.
If you're going to start at 8 am and finish at 4 pm, like I do, most days, then you've got to make sure that that's on your schedule. Remember, if it doesn't get scheduled, it doesn't get done, plain and simple. So make sure that you keep a very regular working schedule.
Number Two: if the door is shut, you cannot enter
If you're in a house with other people you've got to make sure that you've really set those ground rules in place for the people that are sharing the house with you while you're in work mode. Now, that might be your spouse, it could be your children, maybe it's a nanny if you've got somebody looking after your children during the day, whatever the case may be, if the door is locked, if the door is shut, if you can hear the voices through the door, you cannot enter because that person is working.
If you know that you're going to be going out of business between say 12 noon or one o'clock every day to have lunch with the people that are in your home, please request that they respect your workspace and your work time either side of that window, so that you can stay productive and they can carry on doing what they're doing. Make sure you have a chat with the people around you and have them really respect that when you're at work, you're at work.
Number Three: socialize as much as you possibly can
My third tip is to make sure that even though you're working at home that you socialize as much as you possibly can, particularly right now with everything that's going on with people's social distancing and self-isolation.
The fact is, actually, we will miss our friends and our families and the people that we enjoy chatting up with from time to time. The good news, however, is that we're in the 21st century right now, there's absolutely no reason why you can't stay up to date with your friends and your family, even when you're self-isolating and working at home. So to stay productive in your work at home obviously you've got to try and have that balance of a social life as well, so use video conferencing tools, such as zoom, or Skype or even just good old FaceTime to stay up to date with the people that you enjoy having in your life.
It doesn't really matter how you're doing it just keep that social life going: have a virtual coffee or a virtual glass of wine or scotch with a friend when you're done at the end of the day, or maybe even just to kick off the workday, to give you that added boost that you need to stay motivated.
Number Four: keep a clean workspace
Make sure that you keep a super clean workspace. This is obviously a lot easier if you've got a dedicated office in your home. I'm very lucky to have the facility that I have and I call it the facility because we've got a meeting area, we've got working areas we call the brainstorming area – filming area, the whole kit, and caboodle. We're very, very blessed but not everybody has that luxury. So if you are working somewhere in the house, maybe it's a little coffee table off of the landing or maybe it's in the spare bedroom or whatever it is to try to keep your workspace, as clean, and as productive as possible. It really will make a big difference.
Number 5: keep positive
And finally, tip number five for staying productive when working at home is to keep positive about it. We're very, very blessed to live in a time of civilization, where we can do exactly what we're doing right now – we're communicating with each other via the internet and obviously until the internet decides to completely die on us (which is highly unlikely in today's world) we've got nothing to worry about. We've got everything we need. We've got all the tools and all the apparatus that we need to get our work done not only to serve our customers but also to make sure that we continue to earn a living for those that we love and hold dear to our hearts, so be positive about that. Don't become a Debbie Downer. Don't become negative about the situation. The fact is you've got much more control working at home then you probably think that you do, at this moment in time and a lot of it actually has come down to how we see certain situations and how we rise above them.
Chris founded Youpreneur® in 2015. He is a serial entrepreneur, keynote speaker and author of the bestselling books “Virtual Freedom” and “Rise of the Youpreneur”. He hosts our podcast, live events and coaches our clients inside the Youpreneur Incubator. Chris is based in Cambridge, UK.
