Productivity tips for working at home
This is a guest article by Jennifer Moline* outlining some tips & ideas on how to set your self up for success when working at home.
Set Yourself Up to be Successful
You can set yourself up to be successful by knowing where you are weakest. If you are the weakest in being able to self-motivate then create a scenario of work, fun, work, exercise, work, TV. If there is a particular show on TV that you like to watch at 10 AM, then determine a portion of the current graphic design project you want to have complete, then watch your show.
If concentration is your weakness, then purposefully build up your concentration endurance by focusing for 30 minutes only, then get up and walk out in the back yard and pull some weeds then sit back down for 30 minutes again.
Have two or three places when you can do your work. Do you have a back porch on your house? Take your laptop and work a portion of the day on the lounge chair. Do you have a favorite recliner in the den or living room? Do a portion of your work day with your feet up. Do not hold a prison term mentality to your home-based business.
Time-Line Your Day
Lay your entire day out the night before. This includes lunch, your graphic design project(s), picking up the kids from school, your graphic design project, dinner, family time, your graphic design project(s). Design your day!
These are goals that you are working towards and if you go over the hour, that’s OK, just keep working. Forever more, do not punish yourself.
Break the Project Down
If you have a complicated graphic design project that a client needs finished by close of work tomorrow, you break the project up into bite-size pieces.
One idea is to create a pocket chart so each section represents one hour of your day. Slip a card stock bookmark in the pocket with “Bite #1 – sketch the graphic design” written on it for that particular hour and so on. Reward yourself as you finish Bite #1 from 8 am to 9 am, put a star on the bookmark or a magic marker “X” through it. This process also gives you a visual for your day so you do not have to mentally retain the entire day’s work.
Obviously, we all work in different ways, so try find what works best for you! Within a few weeks you may suddenly realize that there are more perks than negatives.
Have you got any unique personal tips to add?
*Jennifer Moline writes about freelancing, small business and design for the PsPrint Blog. Feel free to follow PsPrint on Twitter and Facebook.
Photo Source: Home Office
© This article is copyright of Just Creative Design and should not be found elsewhere.
Related Articles: