Use These 9 Tips to Stay Productive When Working From Home

If you have a hard time staying productive working from home, you can do a few things to be more productive. Working from can be difficult because there are more potential distractions at home. You might look at the weather and want to go out or take a break to get a snack. I’ll share a few tips that can help you stay productive when working from home in this article.

Keep a paper calendar, journal, or planner.

Having a paper calendar, journal or planner gives you a place to write everything you need to do for the day. Some planners even provide stickers you can use to mark essential tasks. You can keep your planner beside you and check off the tasks you complete as you complete them.

Leave your home at least once a day.

Spending time outside gives you more energy and helps you clear your head. Try to take a walk outside, or at least walk to the mailbox or take the garbage out.

Make a routine for starting the day and winding down.

My morning routine includes drinking some tea, reading, and journaling for 5 minutes before taking my medication and working out. After my workout, I shower, get dressed, eat breakfast, brush my teeth and blowdry my hair. After that, I’m ready to start my day.

I work on my latest crochet project in the evening, eat dinner, and watch a little TV before bed.

Make a hot brunch.

If you don’t want to make breakfast, consider making a hot brunch. A hot brunch will keep you satisfied until you eat a snack later or until dinner. Some brunch ideas you could make include avocado toast, a vegetable frittata, hot apple cereal, a paleo collard burrito, or heart-shaped whole-wheat pancakes.

Have a dedicated workspace.

A dedicated workspace allows you to focus, mentally gets you into a work mode, reduces distractions, and helps create a work-life balance. Depending on what kind of house or apartment you live in, you could have an entire room or just part of another room for your workspace. No matter what you do, use that area only for work.

Manage your breaks.

Breaks are essential when you work from home. Too much sitting can be bad for your health, so be sure to get up every so often to take a short walk or at least stretch your legs. Other things you could do during your work from home breaks include:

• Jump on a trampoline for 15 minutes.
• Birdwatch.
• Take a dance class.
• Play with your pet if you have one.
• Turn on the music and dance.
• Take a trip, even if it’s only down the block.
• Play a video game for a few minutes.
• Catch up with your news and stairs.
• Shift your after-work leisure to break time.

Take care of your hair and skin.

Have a skin-care routine. It should include cleansing, toning, and exfoliating, treating your face with serum, moisturizing it, and protecting it with sunscreen.

Also, be sure to take care of your hair. Use hair care products that are suitable for your hair type.

If you want to try cutting your hair, follow these tips:

Ask yourself if you need a haircut. If you’re feeling nervous about cutting your hair, you ask yourself if you can wait and see a professional stylist. In the meantime, you consider spraying it or pinning it back.

If you don’t need to cut it right away, purchase some reparative treatments, such as a protective serum for split ends. Also, reduce how often you heat style or color your hair. You could also think about growing out your hair if it’s doable for you.

If you decide to cut your hair, make sure you have the correct tools on hand. Don’t use kitchen scissors to cut your hair — buy a pair of hair cutting shears — the blades are sharper and more precise. Sharp scissor blades make it easier for you to be more exact and make it easier to get clean lines and edges.

Start with clean, dry, and styled hair. Wet hair allows stylists to be more precise with creating clean lines, but if you don’t have training as a stylist, it’s better to start with clean, dry, and styled hair. Cutting dry hair gives you a clear and realistic vision of the cut so you can avoid any surprises, like how much the hair is going to shrink up after it dries.

Also, shampoo and condition your hair before you cut it. If it’s oily or dirty, it will cling together and create an uneven finish.

Start with small, minor cuts. Work in small sections and cut hair a little at a time. Don’t cut to the length you want on the first cut — start small and work your way up. You can always trim more, but you can’t put hair back once you’ve cut it off.

Pay attention to the direction of your hair and your scissors. Pull the hair straight up with your fingers because it’s the easiest way to ensure your hair length is even. Then place your scissors parallel to the hair peeking through the fingers and snip it vertically rather than straight across.

Point the scissors up and lightly open and close them on the ends of the hair. Vertical snips reduce the possibility of uneven strands, which stand out a lot more when you cut hair bluntly across. If you have a hard time picturing it, check out Youtube tutorials to understand how it looks.

Be careful with bangs. Trying to cut new bangs is a surefire way to regret, but trimming existing ones is much easier. Section your hair in a triangle. When you part your hair this way, use the arch of your eyebrow as a guide to determine the outermost edges of the section. Then take a deep breath and relax your hands.

Place the hair in a comb without using tension. Use it as a guide for a straight line, then cut upwards with the scissors. Whatever you do, keep your cuts small. Otherwise, you could end up cutting off more than you anticipated.

Clock out when you clock out.

One of the nice things about working from home is you don’t have to keep a dedicated schedule. If you need to work a little extra to finish something, go ahead and do it. Just make sure when you’ve finished working for the day that you don’t take any more calls or look at any more emails.

Dream about a long-term goal.

If you have a hard time focusing, dream about a long-term goal to keep yourself motivated and productive while working from home. It could be the day you’ll be able to plan a trip somewhere you’ve always wanted to go or the day you’ll have enough money to quit your full-time job. Figure out what you would need to do to accomplish that goal, and start working towards it.

These are nine tips you can use to stay productive when you work from home. Following these tips will help keep your energy up, stay focused, and feel confident so you can accomplish everything you need to.