The working environment has changed massively over the last decade. Flexible working arrangements are commonplace and more people are working from home than ever before, whether for an employer or whilst running their own business. The ability to work from the comfort of your own home is fantastic. It might mean you can do the school drop off, take time our to do some housework or even pop out for coffee. It can also however, increase the risk of procrastination and decrease your productivity.
Here are our top tips for increasing your work productivity:
1. Dress smart. It'll get you into that work mindset and motivate you for the day ahead.
2. Write a manageable to-do list. There is no point in putting 40 things on your daily to-do list. You'll never get it all done and it'll only serve to de-motivate you. Why not try a tool like Trello for your lists. It's free to use and here you can have multiple lists and for long and short term tasks and goals.
3. Tackle that tricky task early on then follow up with some of the easier ones. You'll feel satisfied seeing the progress you make on your to-do list.
4. Plan your breaks. If you want to spend 20 minutes doing some housework pop it into an allocated break time. Take some time in one of your breaks to go for a short walk. Take time away from your laptop to eat a healthy lunch.
5. Keep calls and meetings short and sweet. If there is no real purpose to the meeting except to 'catch up', then don't do it!
6. Limit emails to 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the afternoon. Put your Out of Office on for the remainder of the time and focus on that to-do list.
7. Avoid social media. Nothing exciting happens most of the time, honest!
8. Minimise the number of windows you have open in your browser to avoid the temptation to jump back and forth.
9. Declutter your desk. Mess and clutter can increase feelings of stress to keep it clean and tidy and make it a space you want to work.
10. Find the best productivity tools for your business. Our favourites, alongside Trello are:
* Time Tracking: Toggl
* Social Media Management: Hootsuite
* Business and Industry News: Feedly
* Email Marketing: Mailchimp
* Team Communication: Slack
* Team Calendar: Teamup
* CRM: Insightly
* Spelling and Grammar: Grammarly
* Password Storage: Lastpass
* Video calling: Zoom