5 Critical Elements of Successful Work-At-Home Productivity

You are very excited and full of enthusiasm. It’s your first day working from home after resigning from your day job. You decided to start your own work at home so that you could finally be your own boss: do work whenever you like- without anyone telling you what to do  and without anyone watching over your shoulder.

Fast forward to three weeks after starting working from home: even though you are still happy that you started working on your own, there is something bothering you: your productivity is not good as you wished. In fact, when you worked at the office on your day job, you got more stuff done.

As time moves forward, you begin to feel stress due to your ever-growing task list. Since your family is also at home while you work, occasionally it seems to be impossible to get work done because of the distractions and constant interruptions. You know that you have to make quick changes to your working methods. Otherwise your home business is not going to succeed and you will have to find a day job again.

Did you underestimate the new environment?

When comparing the home office environment to your former work office one, there are some notable differences.

First, there is no-one watching over your shoulder in your home office. You are your own boss and you are accountable towards yourself. It’s your responsibility that things finally get done.

Second, since you are most likely working by yourself, there are no co-workers to ask help from or delegate your tasks to. It also means that the social aspect in your business is missing. Or at least it’s very different from what it used to be.

Third, you are the person who defines the rules. In fact, this is perhaps the biggest thing to remember: the structure at your home office is different from at your day job. By structure I mean the “whole setup.”

When you go to work, there are lots of systems already in place which keep the company’s wheels rolling:human resources, organization structures.

This same structure is missing when you start out as your own and it continues to be like that until you create it. So is it any wonder that you feel overwhelmed, when you finally jump to work on your own and you have to create everything from scratch?

So here are the 5 Critical Elements of Successful Work-At-Home Productivity

1. Your physical home office space

When you set your physical office space, you generally have these options at your disposal:

• Working in a dedicated spot in your apartment (if you don’t have a working room)
• In a dedicated room which you have turned into home office space
• Finding a co-working space in your home town/city
• Renting a dedicated office space
• Working outside in the nature, in a coffee shop or in a library

Each one of these has their pros and cons depending on the situation in your business.

For example, you might have to start out by having a dedicated corner in your living room (separated by folding screen), but later when your business grows, you can rent a dedicated office space.

If your home is a bigger one, you might have the luxury of working in a dedicated room. The good side with this setup is also, that there are no additional costs of finding a physical space – it’s already provided by your home.

Then there is the co-working space option. You are pretty much sharing the working space with other workers/entrepreneurs in your area. This provides good possibilities for collaboration, communication or networking.

Finally, if you are on a budget but you’d really like to work in “isolation,” you should go outside your home: work in a nature, in a coffee shop or in a public library. Although you are most likely dealing with other people in these environments, they are not necessarily distracting you and you can truly focus on your work.

2. E-mail processes

Here’s how I handle email:

• I check my mail two-three times per day
• When I check my mail, I batch process the messages at once.
• I unsubscribe from e-mail lists which don’t bring any value to me
• I create labels and filters (in Gmail). This way I can organize and even hide certain messages that I don’t need to see, thus helping me to keep my inbox clean. At the same time, important messages are easier to find.
• Finally, when I batch process my e-mails, I extract the possible tasks/assignments in those messages to my task list or set and notification about them to my calendar. After this I archive my mail.

I suggest that you define your own processes too, since it systematizes your e-mail handling and frees up your time to other essential things in your business.

3. Setting your optimum working hours

Have you defined your working hours? If you haven’t, now is the time to do so.

Setting the optimum working hours may require some testing and being aware of your energy levels throughout the day, but it’s definitely worth it.

For instance, I like to work in the morning before going to work and that’s when I’m very productive. When I wake up early (06.00 – 06.30 AM), I’m not “stealing” the mutual time with my family. This setup works for me, but you might have to do some testing to see which part of the day you are most productive and what is the optimum amount of hours of work you can do on a daily basis.

4. Boundaries with your family

I already touched on this topic a bit when I explained about setting the optimum working hours.

On the other hand, there are also other kinds of boundaries that you have to set. For instance, you need to communicate clearly what you are working on your computer and why you shouldn’t be interrupted when you work. When you set the expectations right, no-one shouldn’t have difficulties of respecting your working times, since it’s possibly bringing money into your household.

To make things even more transparent, have a family calendar, where you mark for example your travelling days. This is an easy, yet simple way to keep everyone posted on what is going on and when you are away from home.

5. Daily/Weekly planning

I’m planning my coming week on Sundays. I sit down and think a bit what the next week might bring on its way. I then create my weekly goals list which is then extracted to daily tasks lists. This way I’m working on important things on a daily basis and this helps me to achieve my weekly goals.

As you can see, you have to create a structure for your home office so that it supports your productivity. Sure, planning and setting things up takes some time, but it’s definitely worth it.