Organising Your Work Day Effectively
Working from home is most people’s ideal. This shouldn’t be all too much of a surprise – you get to miss out on the morning and evening commute, you can work from the comfort of your own home, you don’t have to worry about uniform, and you can save on buying coffees and lunches. But working at home isn’t necessarily a breeze. You do still have to put a lot of effort into ensuring you complete your work to the standard that your employer or clients are expecting. You still need to make deadlines, hit targets, and tick all of your key performance indicators. This is why it’s extremely important that you organise your working day effectively. Working from home means that you have to manage your own time and practice a whole lot more self control in surroundings where you aren’t being supervised or pushed by others in authority positions. It can be achieved, though! Here are a few different steps that you can take to help organise your own working day more effectively!
Create Set Working Hours
The first step that you need to take when working from home is to set your own working hours. When you are working in an office, you get used to being in the same place and working productively at set times. This routine is positive and can help you to feel content at the same time as completing the work expected of you. When you work from home, it can become extremely easy to fall out of a routine. You may start sleeping in late. You may start in the afternoon. But this means that you will often end up working later into the evening or even the night in order to meet deadlines and submit work. If this works for you, great! But if not, you’re going to have to get a little more strict on yourself. Figure out when you need to be working for the best results and try to work at these times. If you need a little guidance, you might want to check out the 9/80 Work Schedule: What It Is, Its Benefits And Challenges, And How To Get Started.
Make To-Do Lists
No matter what job you do, or what type of work you engage with, it’s a good idea to make a to-do list. Chances are you’ll find yourself faced with a number of different tasks that need to be completed at any given time. Organise these according to priority and note them down, with the most urgent work featuring at the top of your list. Then you can get to work and check off tasks as you go, without forgetting any projects you need to complete or commitments you need to fulfill.
Break Projects Down
Once you’ve got your main to-do list, you might benefit from breaking projects down into smaller tasks that can help you along the way. This will make huge projects appear more manageable and also helps you to come up with a plan that will ensure you can achieve what you want from every piece of work you approach. Essentially, you will end up with a smaller to-do list for each main point on your overall to-do list. This may sound complex, but it’s pretty easy to keep up with once you get into the swing of things and really does prove effective.
Timetable
Once you know what you need to do, you can create a timetable that will help you to allocate your time effectively. Once you’ve got your timetable, you have something that will help you to monitor how you’re getting on. You’ll be able to see when you’re slipping behind on your work or your plans and you can rectify this. Just make sure you are realistic with your timetabling and that you don’t overestimate your abilities or overwork yourself. This can prove unhealthy and detrimental to your workflow in the long run.
Give Yourself Breaks
Breaks are an extremely important part of the working day. There are endless studies out there that show that people are more productive when they take regular breaks to relax and recuperate. Unfortunately, freelancers and remote workers don’t always take heed of this advice – it tends to be something that is generally picked up by employers and applied to their staff. But be kind to yourself! Sure, you may be working from home. But take time away from your desk every now and then. Sit in another room. Take a call or have a chat with someone. Make sure you have a proper lunch. Implementing breaks into your work day is just an important part of organising your time as ensuring you have time to sit down and knuckle down to your work.
Limit Distractions
Saying that, it’s important to limit distractions. It’s great having a break, but don’t let a ten minute break spread into a four hour trip out of the house. Limit distractions in your workspace as much as possible. Avoid personal use of social media while you’re working, make sure relatives and friends respect your workflow and don’t interrupt you, and generally do your utmost to stay focused on what you’re doing. Procrastination really is the thief of time!
Working from home can be greatly rewarding and it can provide you with a better quality of life than working in a commercial property! You just need to make sure that you’re organising your time effectively throughout the working day. Hopefully, the above tips and tricks will help you to achieve this. Incorporate them into your routine and you’ll find yourself reaping the benefits in next to no time!
Claire x