How to Make Working From Home More Productive

For many the thought of working from home is an absolute dream. Sitting in your favorite chair in your pajamas after your zer0-minute commute really doesn’t sound so bad. Working in an office is great, but seriously, wouldn’t it be cool to just work from home?

If you answered “yes” to that question, then you should be conscious of some pitfalls that arise through working from home, especially if you have a family. Here are six tips on how to achieve a healthy work-life balance when working from home:

1. Maintain regular office hours – This is extremely important when striving for a healthy balance between your work and personal lives. Establish hours when you will work and stick to them. It’s easy to log onto your work computer after dinner for a few minutes (and get roped in for hours), but if it’s past your work hours, don’t do it.
2. Establish a privacy system – This hint is important for those with families. Establish a “do not disturb” system, like a closed door or a door knob sign, so your family knows that you’re busy. Also, it could be helpful to have your family write questions that they have throughout the day on paper and hand them to you, which can be less disruptive than oral inquiries.
3. Lay some ground rules – Again, this is important for those with families as well. Make a list of activities that aren’t allowed during work hours, like your child’s clarinet practice, or your partner’s vacuuming. Conversely, make another list of activities that disallowed during family hours. For example, checking your work email, or answering your work phone.
4. Get an early start – Sure, it sounds great to wake up at 10 am and have a leisurely breakfast before reading the newspaper. However, you should avoid doing so. Wake up as you normally would and be most productive in the morning. At that point, you will have a lightened work load in the afternoon and you can slow down then.
5. Stay on task – For some, working from home is an exercise in staying on task. When you’re at home it’s easy to get distracted, so focus on two or three core tasks, as opposed to more numerous, smaller tasks, which will keep your productivity high throughout the day. Avoid becoming sidetracked and spending hours on Youtube or Wikipedia (the “random article” button has a mysterious, anti-productivity allure about it).
6. Protect your work with passwords – Another tip for those with families; keep your work password protected, especially if you’re doing work on a shared computer. The last thing you want is your children rearranging your spreadsheets after they have mistaken it for their homework.

Working from home can be a great experience, especially when you enjoy the company of your family. However, guidelines can aid in making your experience both a healthy and productive one, which will allow you to grow personally and professionally.

Tip to Unclutter Your Home Office

It’s great how organized your central supply room or storage closet always seems to be at your workplace. Everything is right where it needs to be, and for the most part you never have a problem finding anything. This, however, is probably not the case with your home office (and if it is, then give yourself  a pat on the back).

Home offices often go on neglected, and always seem to be much less glorified than your prized desk at work. On top of that, there is the clutter. Daunting piles of paperwork and the underutilized office supplies that sometimes go untouched (for what can seem like) for ages. Don’t worry though, all hope is not lost. Today we present you with some tips on how to organize and “unclutter” your home office.

• Know your stuff and know yourself. Assess the office supplies that you already have and organize them. Once you’ve got them organized together ask yourself how often you use certain supplies and continue organizing according to usage.
• Don’t be afraid to let go of anything. Ask yourself if you’re actually going to certain supplies. Do you need four staplers in four different colors? Are you ever going to use that quill pen that you just had to have for some reason? If you can’t see yourself realistically using supplies, get rid of them. Moreover, there are plenty of people who would greatly appreciate your donated office supplies, so you don’t necessarily have to just throw them in the trash.
• It’s OK to have a stock of supplies for the future. You don’t need to get rid of everything that you’re not going to use immediately. It’s OK to store supplies for future use. If you do choose to store supplies, do so according to how often you are going to use them. For example, immediately accessible and long-term storage.
• Organize your desk. Keeping your desk organized and clean will help you stay on task and is overall more visually appealing. Filing folders and drawer organizers will come in very handy.

By following these simple tips your home office will be more work-friendly and you will definitely be able to get more work done in a neat, organized environment.

On average, how many hours do you spend working at home?

Four Tips to Make Your Home Office More Productive

Working from home isn’t for everyone. From a productivity standpoint, it can either be your best friend or your worst nightmare. Working at home requires personal discipline and a strict schedule to keep yourself on task. While working from home may not be for everyone, here are four tips to help you be more productive when working from home:

1. Have a network based printer/scanner/copier/fax machine – These four-in-one devices are great for those who are working from home. Not only do these devices use less physical space, but they allow users print and copy documents, and digitize items for electronic records. For the rare cases when you might actually need a fax machine, you’re in luck too.
2. Invest in an active offsite PC backup tool – A product like Carbonite is great because it automatically backs up your computer, so you don’t have to worry about doing so. Many of such products are cloud-based, meaning you are able to access your files when you are away from your home computer. These programs can even be a lifesaver in the rare event that you actually forget a file while traveling; you can still access it.
3. High speed internet connectivity – This tip is simple: the less time you waste waiting for files to load, the more time you can devote to your work.
4. Make your workspace comfortable – When you feel better, you work better. We cannot emphasize the importance of a well-designed workspace enough; don’t be afraid to design your workspace to your specifications. After all, you are indeed in your home.

Hopefully these tips are useful, and if you can think of some yourself don’t be afraid to pass them along. If they are good enough we will showcase them on our blog as well!