My Top 10 Work From Home Tips To Boost Productivity

After working from home full-time for the past 9 years I wanted to share my best work from home tips to be more productive. 

Let’s face it, it can be a challenge working from home, especially if you’re new to it. So, if you’re struggling to stay focused because of home distractions or if you’re just looking for ways to improve your overall work from home productivity, this post will provide some solid ideas you can try.

1. Start With The Basics (Getting Ready Each Day)

It can feel easy to roll from the bed straight to the laptop, or if you have kids keep your cozy sweat pants on all day even if you have video calls you need to be on. (I recognize you there with the collared top and oversized joggers)!

This used to be me, but once I started to get ready in the morning it really changed how I felt about myself.

I went from feeling a bit all over the place and blah to feeling good about myself, and this impacted my whole day.

There’s no need to do a full makeup and hair routine, but putting on an outfit, doing basic hair and skincare plus a little makeup if you wish can make a big difference.

2. Have a Dedicated Home Workspace

James Clear, author of Atomic Habits talks about a key principle on improving habits and this is your environment.

“Environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behavior.” – James Clear

The theory is that if you define each environment by different behaviours you can drastically improve your productivity and your mindset.

For example – your bedroom is associated with sleeping, so if you decide to work on your laptop from bed this will mess up two things…

1. The work you are trying to complete on your laptop will not be successful as your brain is hardwired to associate your bedroom with sleeping, hence your productivity will be low.
2. If you begin working from your bedroom regularly it will ultimately affect your sleep habits as you will associate your bed with working on your laptop.

This is why having a defined work from home zone will help you be more motivated and productive.

Create a dedicated workspace if possible. If you have an office this is the best, but if you have a smaller house like myself this might be harder to accomplish. Therefore make sure to create a dedicated space to put your work away each night.

Before I had a home office I worked from my dining room table, but I had a shelf to keep my laptop and notebooks for work, which I put away at the end of the day.

Tip: Sometimes it’s nice to switch work environments up. So, if it’s a nice day outside work on your patio, or if you want to work from a coffee shop for the morning do it! (I actually find that working from a cafe works wonders for me. There’s something about that hum of chatting that gets me into deep work.)

3. Set Work Hours

Even when you work from home it’s a good idea to set some regular work hours. This is important so you can:

• Be consistent – preventing you from randomly starting at different times
• Have a better work-life balance as you’re closing down at the official end of your work day.

For myself, I typically stick to a 9 to 5 schedule although I try to end earlier on Friday’s because why not?!

Of course if you are self-employed you don’t have to be 100% stringent 5 days a week. Afterall there are bonuses of working from home like getting to your kids baseball practice without having to sneak out of the office early. 

So do what works best for you to maintain proper work life balance.

4. Be Intentional About Your First Task of the Day

You may have heard the term ‘eat the frog’, which is a concept that was first introduced by Mark Twain. He said, “If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.”

Brian Tracy, productivity expert popularized this term and brought a little more specific meaning to it which is… 

“Eat that frog,” is another way of saying that if you have two important tasks before you, start with the biggest, hardest, and most important task first.”

This advice works as the day can run away from us quickly, so if you procrastinate on starting your most important task of the day, it may not get done, or you may end up having to work late, which no one wants.

Note For My Fellow ADHDers: 

This advice works for most people, however if you have ADHD this is not so straightforward. 

Why? Because getting started on a new task is extremely challenging because the ADHD reward system differs from the neurotypical person.

For a neurotypical person, phasic dopamine is released in anticipation of value on the other side of action. 

However, for people with ADHD they get that dopamine hit after that reward is experienced. And phasic dopamine actually goes higher for ADHD adults than the neurotypical person which triggers hyperfixation.

Us ADHDers need to build up energy to complete the big task, so it’s recommended to:

• Get everything you need to feel comfortable – coffee, water, notebook
• Consider writing a ‘Ta-Da List’ instead of a to-do list (which will be a small win and reward in itself).
• Build up small tasks to start, which provides small wins and a dopamine release. This will help you drive those feelings of hyperfocus.
• Aim to get the small tasks complete in about 20 minutes.
• Then you can start the big, important task.

5. Take Regular Breaks

Just because you work from home doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take a coffee or lunch break, especially if you are self employed.

Also, think about all the interruptions you’d have if you worked in an office or with others. There are always mini breaks happening – time to get a coffee, a chat with a colleague, going out for lunch, etc.

These mini breaks to your work day actually help you reset and recharge, which helps you be more productive when you get back to your desk.

You need the same when you work from home.

6. Talk To Other Humans!

If you work for a company, you will already have a number of meetings on your calendar each week that you need to attend, so you will naturally be talking to people.

However, if you are self-employed, especially if you are a one woman show, I highly recommend finding a few accountability partners.

An accountability partner is other self-employed individuals you check in with frequently and you help one another stay accountable to your goals.

Personally I have two regular accountability calls, one weekly and one 2x a month and truly these calls are everything.

They are with other self-employed women like me, but we are actually in different businesses which makes things interesting.

7. Don’t Get Sidetracked by Home Tasks

This is especially important if you are new to working from home. It can seem so convenient to quickly throw on a load of laundry or do a few dishes, but if you’re not careful you can lose a chunk of time you can’t get back.

In tip #4 above I recommended taking breaks, so if you truly feel the urge to do something home related, do no more than a 5 minute activity as part of your break.

This way you can satisfy your itch to do a chore without it derailing your work tasks.

Taking time at the beginning of your week to write a to-do list for the week can be extremely productive. 

It allows you to look at the big picture for the week…

• Meetings you need to attend
• Personal appointments (doctor’s, dentist, etc)
• Important projects you need to finish
• Nagging small tasks that are weighing you down
• Your weekly social media or content schedule (if you’re self-employed)

Once completed you can decide how you’ll prioritize this for the week, starting with the things that have hard deadlines.

Then you can work on completing your list, checking off items from your master to do list for the week.

9. Set Clear Boundaries with Family & Friends

You know those people in your life that think you can be constantly interrupted because you work from home? Argh!

This can be frustrating and can feel disrespectful.

Well, it’s important to set boundaries with them to tell them your ground rules.

For example:

• Remind them you are not available to chat on the phone during the day.
• Communicate not to call during work hours unless it’s an emergency.
• If you have your own office, tell your family members that when the door is closed you are not available (again, unless it’s an emergency or someone has won the lottery).

Note: There are also no rules that you need to do the same thing every morning. Some mornings you might want to hit the gym, others you might want to listen to music. Do what you want each day, just allocate some time for yourself.

So, Tell Me… Which of these Work From Home tips above have you yet to do?

Or, do you have other work from home tips that make your productivity that much better? Share in the comments below to inspire others.

More Productivity Resources:

• How To Use a ‘Ta-Da List’ Alongside Your To-Do List
• 15 Sunday Routine Ideas for a Productive Week Ahead
• Monthly Reset Checklist + 7 Things To Do Every Month

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