Chris Olsen

Not to long ago I worked in my little cubicle just like many of you, but after a while I realized that I wanted to work on my own since I knew that is what I would enjoy the most. Most days at the office were the same, I would come in, grab a cup of coffee then get to work. I was able to clock many solid hours in a day. When I left my job to work on my own I was confident that my work ethics would make the transition a breeze…wow was I wrong. My productivity went down the toilet, mainly due to the fact that I no longer a boss to report to at the end of the day.

So here are 5 things that I found were crucial to getting things done in a day working from home:

Learn one thing at a time

I am the kind of person that always has new things that I want to learn, and with all this extra time I figured I could learn it all, and how wrong I was. I was learning little and spending a lot of time doing it. I was seeing no results as time passed and that was frustrating. Now that I revamped my approach to learning new things, I see dramatic results in a short time. This is not just great for my skill levels, but motivates me throughout the day.

Eliminate distractions

Distractions are all around us and we are so used to them that we don’t immediately see them for what they are, but think of them as necessities. I am referring to email, IM, phone, etc. At my office job all three of the mentioned items were a part of my work day. I had to keep email opened otherwise I could miss something important. IM was there to either ask someone work related questions or whether or not they wanted to go grab a coffee. The phone was right there to make sure that if anyone had a question for me I could answer it right away.

When working from home it didn’t take long to realize that these distractions were wasting a lot of time. I have read that it usually takes about 10-15 minutes for a person to get in the working mode and fully focus on a task, and if interrupted, can take another 10-15 minutes to get back in the game. With these costly transition times it became obvious that the distractions had to be better managed. Even though they are being labeled as distractions they are still required. I do have to keep in contact with clients and friends, but I find it best to schedule a couple of 15 minute blocks in the day where that is all I do, making it my new activity that has my focus. It is amazing at how much extra time in a day that you can get from this alone.

Say adios to multitasking

I remember job interviews where I was asked if I was a multitasker. Knowing they wanted to hear that I was, I would tell them exactly that. In truth I am anything but a multitasker and the same is true for most other people in the world. Sure I can do many things at once, but I will, 9 times out of 10, be more efficient if I am able to concentrate on one thing at a time.

A person has to take advantage of this and one good way of doing it is to work in time segments. Set a start time and for one hour and devote all your attention to it. You will get a lot done in this hour and when complete it is one more notch on your productivity post for the day.

Take advantage of downtime

I always have certain times in the day where I know I will get a lot done, and certain times where the opposite is true. Instead of packing myself full of caffeine to turn the downtimes into uptimes, I found it was best to perform the tasks that don’t require a lot of mental energy. Personally, I take my dog for a walk or run around 3:00 in the afternoon. This way I don’t lose any up-time, but am still able to get something important done.

Don’t set overly high goals for the day

Instead of putting 10 things on your daily to-do list and only getting 3 things done, doesn’t it make more sense to only put 3 things on the to-do list and getting them all done? Not only will this give you the feeling of a productive day, seeing as you are 3 for 3, but it will also require you to screen the items that are to be marked as to-do and eliminate time spend on lower priority tasks.

When writing this article I used everyone of the mentioned points, and the result, something that I hope will add extra time to your day, and at the very least, remind me what to do if I start wasting time again.