How to be more efficient when working from home
How to be more efficient when working from home
Millions of people, including many of my clients, now work every day from their homes.
There is every indication that this trend is going to continue because more and more people create new jobs as entrepreneurs, consultants and contract workers as major industries attempt to reconstruct themselves to cope with rapidly changing economic realities.
Many people enjoy the freedom of working from home offices and the money it saves in transportation and workplace attire. In fact, a 2017 survey by Global Workplace Analytics showed that, a person can save between $2,000 and $7,000 a year in transportation costs alone. (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/thomas-kuegler/why-the-work-from-home-tr_b_11146344.html)
People working from home are also 13.5 percent more efficient, nine percent more engaged with their work, and they take shorter breaks, fewer sick days, and less time off, according to a study led by Nicholas Bloom, a Stanford University economics professor, and graduate student James Lang. (https://www.inc.com/bill-murphy-jr/people-who-work-from-home-are-happier-more-efficient-according-to-this-fascinating-study-theres-only-1-catch.html)
If you are running your business from home, or working with colleagues by distance in your home office, what can you do to stay focused and smart about your work habits?
Get up and move regularly
Because you are not taking breaks scheduled by someone else, there is a tendency to keep working away until a job is done.
You can impact your health badly if you do not regularly get up from your chair and move. Shake your body, move around, go outside and water the flowers or put in a load of laundry. Just take two to three minutes (up to five) every half hour to ensure that you do not sit for too long a period.
Pay attention to your body clock
Being able to select the hours you want to work doesn’t mean that one hour is the same as another.
Sit down to do your work during the most productive part of your day. For many people, that is the morning or early evening. Late in the afternoon, many of us have biological clocks that start to slow us down.
Do your toughest tasks first and the rest of the day will fall into place.
Avoid flitting from one task to the other
If you are working on multiple jobs for different clients, try to avoid constantly moving from one to another. Block off days or weeks to work on a specific project, and one catch-up day to keep track of your own business matters and prospect for new work.
Every time you switch your attention, you lose valuable time.
Keep track of your time
Working with so many talented clients, I witness one significant issue with working at home. Many of them forget to track their time so they underprice themselves on the market. They aren’t aware that what they think takes them one hour actually takes 1 hour and 20 minutes.
At the end of the day, they have lost a lot of legitimate billable hours that they should have included in their initial quote to the client.
You can do this manually, noting the time as you start and end each project, or electronically using a program like Toggl (http://toggl.com). You can use it free for 30 days and there are various categories after that starting at $9 a month for basic time-keeping.
Adapt to what works for you
Remember that flexibility is the joy of working from home. That means even if you have a home office, if it is a sunny day and you want to work from your porch, go ahead. Establish respect with other family to ensure that your work is not constantly interrupted.
Paula Morand is a leadership building, revenue boosting, strategy expanding keynote speaker, author and visionary. This dreaming big and being bold leadership expert and brand strategist brings her vibrant energy, humor and wisdom to ignite individuals, organizations and communities to lead change, growth and impact in a more bold fashion.
24 years, 27,000 clients, 34 countries, 15 books, former radio personality, 11x award winning entrepreneur and humorous emcee.
Check out Paula’s bestselling books on Amazon: “Bold Courage: How Owning Your Awesome Changes Everything”, “Dreaming BIG and Being BOLD: Inspiring stories from Trailblazers, Visionaries and Change Makers” book series; and her newest release “Bold Vision: A Leader’s Playbook for Managing Growth”.
For speaking inquiries email bookings@paulamorand.com or call toll-free 1-888-502-6317.