Is your productivity working from home low? Do you feel that most of the time no matter what capacity or speed you try to complete tasks or chores, nothing ever gets done? Sometimes improving productivity working from home can be tough when you have to balance work and family time with no intentional planning or schedule in place. When you’re in the messy middle of growing a biz and raising kids and everything is on your plate, tasks seem like they start running together and it can get chaotic.
You might even feel at times like you just sit down to start working on something and the next thing you know it’s bedtime and it’s like, “Where in the world did the time go?!” We start to feel this way when we don’t know what to work on – we feel all over the place so we just pick something and go with it. To improve productivity working from home, you have to be intentional about bringing some balance and structure into that daily routine with some intentional planning.
Intentional planning to boost productivity working from home
As a work-at-home mom with kids that do school online, I was finding it hard to set aside time to help my kids when they needed help with schoolwork. It was also hard to create content along with automating backend tasks in my business and have the time to do the dishes and show up as a wife too. My productivity working from home was unintentional and unplanned. Nothing was getting done!
You know when you have too much on your plate when you start feeling tired all the time, you’re grouchy, and you end up staring at the computer screen because you don’t know what the heck to work on first to actually make progress. Or procrastination decides to roll in for a visit. Procrastination is a dream killer and a time thief. If you have to, break up with procrastination.
Maybe you’re thinking of how to create a sustainable schedule for yourself and have successful productivity working from home is possible. You can create an intentional schedule where you won’t feel so stretched between everything and actually accomplish those sometimes tough tasks.
Here are 6 things that can help you be more productive working from home intentionally:
Decide on how many hours a day you have to work
- How many hours do you have or want to dedicate to your business? The first part of intentional planning is to set a work schedule and business hours for yourself to show up.
- What time of the day can you carve out maximum productivity working from home? The best time of day is when your family is not demanding your time and mostly uninterrupted time to focus and work.
- What time of day do you feel most productive to really focus and be intentional with your work? When it comes to creating content for example, you’re not only showing up for your business, you are also showing up for your audience too, so setting aside the time when you are most productive to focus on the strategy behind content creation is non-negotiable.
Decide what work hours you are available
If you are a business coach offering services who is meeting with potential clients and you have to set aside time to do Zoom or phone calls, you need to know what your work hours are, so your clients know when you are available.
The work hours are also non-negotiable. Work hours are a boundary. This means that you do not extend your work hours because you didn’t complete a task or your client is demanding you “hop on a call now”. Be strict with your time. Setting work hours also helps to know what extra time you can fit into your schedule daily and weekly.
Prioritize recurring tasks – daily/weekly
There are always recurring tasks. These tasks should be the highest priority when it comes to crossing off tasks. An example of recurring tasks are creating posts and scheduling them. Another example would be entering a blog post on your website and going through an editing process. There are tasks after that process, like sharing the blog post on Pinterest or social media.
Usually, you want to show up where your content is getting the most engagement. You want to make this part very simple. Showing up everywhere and creating content like a madman won’t get you ahead quicker. Keep things minimal.
Pre-planning ahead new upcoming/future tasks you need to work into your schedule
Maybe you would like to plan a 3-day live challenge in your private community. Doing a challenge is obviously something you need to plan ahead for. You have to work that upcoming task into your existing schedule. There is no extending your work hours.
You have to learn how to utilize the time you set for yourself. Intentionally Planning things ahead of time to work into your work schedule is the best way to do this because you know what you are expecting out of yourself and won’t feel so all over the place with upcoming tasks & projects.
Use an online task management system to stay organized
I’m one to advocate for a physical planner. I love to be able to open it and look and see what I have to do for the day or week. But trust me when I tell you, you will get tired of re-writing recurring tasks over and over again.
You don’t need anything pricey. Pick something cost-free just so you can copy & paste recurring tasks in your calendar. I recommend Asana. It’s user-friendly and the best task management system with almost unlimited access to all the things you need for an organized workflow. You would think that over time redoing the same tasks you wouldn’t forget steps, but, you will.
It’s just so much easier to cross the task off and copy & paste it to the following week or month.
Ways to make recurring tasks easier and fast
1. Create templates
If you are using Pinterest, create a few different pins to repurpose. When you are creating posts for social media, create a various amount of template posts so all you have to do is maybe change a picture and title. Wherever you can create a template or a variety of templates to repurpose, do it.
2. Batch tasks
Depending on your content schedule, you can batch your recurring tasks in the same day. Doing this will free up so much more time.
3. Automate wherever you can
If you use Pinterest, use a pin scheduler. If you use social media, schedule posts a week out and repurpose the content you have instead of having to create completely from scratch.
Improving your productivity working from home and growing your business doesn’t have to be a time suck. It definitely shouldn’t be something that you avoid showing up to do. When it gets to that point, you’re overworking yourself and your business won’t grow when you’re avoiding it. You obviously always want to prioritize tasks that are going to grow your business.
Usually, those recurring tasks should be first priority. The recurring tasks are what’s going to move the needle in your business. Some days things won’t work according to your schedule and you’ll have to move things around. Be kind to yourself and be open to moving things around inside of your work schedule.
What tips do you think are going to help you be more productive working from home? I’d love for you to share your thoughts with me below!
Hey there skimmer
Wanna listen instead of read? Listen to episode 13 // Why You Can’t Seem to Beat Low Productivity Working From Home and How Intentional Planning Will Turn Things Around as a Sahm.
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