Working from home can take up a lot of your time, and that would be time otherwise spent being with your family or taking care of yourself! Because when you’re in your own space, there’s a lot of responsibilities that will overlap, and you’ll lose yourself to all kinds of distractions.
So that’s why a bit of discipline and forward planning comes in. Working from home can save you a lot of time when you do it right! Let’s go through some tips below for ensuring you have the right tools needed to make a schedule and then follow through on it.
Work Out When You’re Most Productive
If you want to save time in your working day when working from home, you’ll need to work out when you’re most naturally productive. And we don’t mean in the morning just after a coffee – this is about when you feel the need to get up and go, and scheduling your work day to either start or optimize then.
Now, this could be at 9pm at night, and you have a couple hours before you go to bed. But seeing as humans can only be productive for about 30 to 45 minutes at a time, this could work out incredibly well for you.
Use Distractions Effectively
One of the best ways to save some time when working from home is to structure your days around the distractions you can’t ignore. For example, if you need to pick up the kids at 3pm, then you’ll need to have gotten the bulk of your work done before then!
Let this kind of distraction pressure you into working quickly and productively – it might take some time to get used to, but it’ll be worth it. Don’t give up when one day it doesn’t work out, as most days will run like clockwork when you plan for it.
Get Someone Else to Man the Phone!
And finally, one of the simplest yet most important things you can do when working from home is to get someone else to man your communication lines. Even emails pinging through can be a huge distraction, and turning off your notifications is the first step to keep you in the zone.
Of course, the most obvious and obstructive element is the phone ringing, so you’ll definitely want to think about setting up an automatic voicemail system, or even invest in answering services for small businesses. Get someone to sit at a virtual reception desk for you, and then patch someone through when you have the time to speak to them.
Working From Home Can Be Time Efficient with Practice
And remember that! If you want to save time in your working from home schedule, make sure you keep tips like those above in mind. They work with practice, and apply to everyone.
Don’t let yourself just sit down and waste away – make sure you have made allowances for your own behaviours and other responsibilities in your life.