Are you finding it difficult to stay focused when you are working at home? Are you becoming frustrated with all of the distractions? In this post, you will discover some tips on how to be more productive working at home.
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How to be more Productive Working at Home
Being an artist working from home surely has its benefits but I do have to tell you there are some drawbacks too. If you are not careful you can find yourself becoming easily distracted working at home or you can find yourself working around the clock.
As an artist working at home, you will have to be disciplined during the scheduled working hours while letting go when the work day is done.
Work is time for you to generating an income to support yourself and the family.
Home is a place where you relax and enjoy time with the family.
In order for you to be successful working at home, you will have to discover ways to separate work time from time relaxing at home. Failing to do so will have you becoming frustrated and possibly burning yourself out.
Here are some tips that will help you to more productive at home so you can get more work done in less time.
Schedule Your Day
A great way for you to start getting more done in less time is by being prepared and knowing what needs to get done.
Have a schedule of all the jobs that you will be working on at particular times.
By having a schedule and sticking to it for a few weeks, you will notice that you will not have to think about it anymore. It will become a habit. They say that it takes 21 days for something to become a habit. When scheduling your work days become a habit, you will be more productive working at home.
Let me give you an example of how you can schedule your day.
Keep in mind that everyone has different responsibilities in life so that means that there is no one answer for everyone.
8 Hour Work Day
9 am – 5 pm
9 am – 10 am Emails and social media marketing
10 am – 11 am Write blog posts.
11 am – 2 pm Creating art
2 pm – 2:30 pm Lunch
2:30 pm – 4:30 pm Creating art
4:30 pm – 5 pm Shipping orders
That is just an example of an eight-hour work day might look for an artist working full-time.
Action Steps
Make a list of everything that needs to be done for your art business. Once you have your list of jobs, make a weekly schedule.
During the first week see how well your schedule works and adjust if needed.
You might find that you will require more time in certain areas and less time in other areas.
You might even find that it is better for you to schedule different tasks on different days. For example, you might dedicate Fridays for your shipping all of the items you sold for the week. Or you might want to schedule all of your social media posts on Monday for the upcoming week. This is known as batching. I use batching all of the time and it has helped me to get more done in less time.
During this week make sure that you have not missed anything. At first, you might want to consider using a check-off list.
Rewrite your schedule if needed for the next week. Repeat the process until you have it is perfect.
Another helpful tip is to set a timer for your jobs. If you know you only have a certain amount of time for a particular job, you will work faster to get it done.
Reduce Distractions
In order for you to be more productive working at home, you need to learn how to reduce the number of distractions associated with working at home.
Here are some tips to help you eliminate unnecessary distractions at home
- Stay off the internet unless it is the scheduled time for work. You will have plenty of time for social networks and fun time when the work day is done.
- If you have a door, keep it closed during work time. Everyone will know that it is work time, and you cannot be disturbed unless it is an emergency.
- Keep your phone off or put it in a different room. You would be surprised how much time is wasted checking the phone for texts, emails, and Facebook.
- Have white noise in the background on. If you like music, have it playing softly in the background. Maybe you like talk shows, put on your favorite podcast show. This will help eliminate noise that would distract you from outside or a different room in the house. It has also been shown that music played in a working environment helps work productivity.
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Conclusion:
All of these tips will only help you work more efficiently if you apply them.
The first step is to have a plan and write a schedule.
Creating and executing a schedule will not only help you to accomplish more but it will also give you a sense of accomplishment.
Do you have any tips on how to avoid at home distractions? Thank you for sharing them in the comment section below.
You might also be interested in:
- 4 Reasons Art Blogs Generate Thousands of Views a Month
- How My Blog on Art Marketing Reached 25,000 Monthly Views
- How to Be More Productive Marketing Art Online
- Productive Artist – Stay Away From Time Killers
- Working Artist – Getting Stuff Done
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