Working from home, it’s everyone’s dream – right? We think it will be so much easier, you can be more productive with work AND get somethings done around the house during the day.
You never think that you’ll be the one that can’t stay focused, you’ll never get distracted when you should be working.
You’ll always meet deadlines – early. Right?
Then reality hits and you’re desperately trying to stay on task for just one hour, you can get so much done if nobody bothers you for an entire hour. But then you end up changing loads in the laundry, answering a call, returning a text and maybe evening helping a kid with their homework.
Every single one of those tasks just got done, partly. You were trying so hard to finish a project that you weren’t really focused on that call with your friend or the text to your Mom and I’m pretty sure I was just nodding when my son asked me if he was doing his homework right. That project I was working on, it’s not done either.
Just one hour.
There has to be a better way. So, this year I’m implementing some new rules and techniques to make it easier for me to work from home. Are you ready?
#1 Create a Work Space – guys, this is so important. It doesn’t have to be a fancy office or anything. Just someplace that you go to work. You might still be at home, but you’re getting your brain into that work mode where you get stuff done. I’m telling you, this is an important rule!
#2 Make Office Hours and Stick to Them – this is huge for me. I could literally work from when I get up until I go to bed. I love what I do and it’s hard to stop. But, I miss out on so much life by doing that. My office hours (I’m trying to stick to these) are 8 am – 3 pm. Sometimes I answer some emails in the evening but I’m trying really hard to stick to the hours. That means I work hard and stay on task during that time so that I can “play” later.
#3 Plan Out Your Day – Have a schedule and a to do list. Keep it next to your desk and work your way through the list. I create a list each morning with the tasks I need to do that day. I mark them off with a highlighter as they’re finished.
#4 Put Away Your Phone – I am terrible with this one too. I would get so much more done if I didn’t check my phone so much. I try. I know this would cut out a lot of wasted time in my day if I actually would follow through.
#5 Have the Right Tools – Work is so much easier when you have the right tools that you need. That doesn’t mean you have to go out and spend a ton of money to get them either.
For me, I use a computer all day long. So, of course I want one that does everything I need it to do! Right now I’m using an Acer Chromebook. Check out how cool this is!
Acer Chromebooks have also been growing in popularity and they are increasingly being rolled out in K-12 schools due to their affordability, popularity of Google apps for education, fast boot times, cloud-based storage, and built-in virus protection.
The Chromebook R11 features an 11.6-inch 360-degree display, so it can be used in 4 different modes including laptop, pad, display or tent. It weighs just 2.76 pounds and includes an Intel Celeron quad-core processor for snappy performance.
Chromebooks are also for online-oriented users, but are still useful when offline – when Google apps are used when wifi isn’t available, the information is automatically synced when they reconnect. The Chromebook R11 is priced at just $279 and available at Amazon.
What tips do you have for people that work from home?
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