I’ve Worked at Home for 7 Years. Here’s Everything I Know About Getting Stuff Done.
The bad news: you’ll probably have to keep a regular schedule.
A little over seven years ago, I became a full-time freelancer. And while I could say plenty about how to make freelancing work, today I’d like to talk to you a bit about how to get stuff done while you’re working from home. Because other than drumming up new business, making yourself actually sit down and do the thing is the hardest part of freelancing.
Plus, an increasing number of full-time employees work at home these days. Companies have gotten the memo that telecommuting is an attractive benefit. If everything else is equal — salary, benefits, opportunity for advancement — the organization that lets people work remotely is likely to draw candidates.
But no matter what your work situation, if you’re telecommuting full- or part-time, you need to know how to be productive outside the office. Here’s how to do it:
1. Keep a Schedule.
Even if you’re a freelancer — or working for a company that’s adopted a Results-Only Work Environment — you still need to show up on time every day.
What’s “on time”? That’s up to you, but it should be consistent. If you’re a morning person, you might do 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. If you like a break in the middle of the day, you could plan on taking a few hours off around lunch. But generally speaking, you want to be available during most normal business hours, so clients and colleagues know how to get in touch with you.
2. Set a Stopping Point … and Then Put Your Devices Away.
Knowing when to quit work for the day is just as important as showing up. Why? Because otherwise, you’ll be tempted to keep going … and find yourself exhausted and burned out.
When you do log off for the day, consider parking your devices somewhere far away, or at least setting your away messages and turning off email alerts. It’s too easy to wind up answering emails as they come in all evening while you’re supposedly watching Netflix.
3. Have a Dedicated Work Space.
The kitchen table probably isn’t going to do it, unless you live alone. And even then, it’s better for tax purposes to have dedicated office space. Ask your accountant for specific recs, but most will tell you that you don’t even need to have a door. You just need to not share your desk space with three family members, a dog, and a box of Christmas tree ornaments.
Having a work space is also important for your mindset. When you go in to an office every day, you have physical distance to remind you that you’re going to work. But when you work at home, you have to make your own reminders.
4. Get Your Family and Friends on Board.
Even though an increasing number of people work at home, it’s not common enough yet to make sense to everyone. You may find that your people are confused by your new work arrangement, and that they don’t understand that you’re really working.
Three years into freelancing, I was still getting requests from friends to entertain their out-of-town family on a random Wednesday or take their cat to the vet. It’ll happen, no matter how well you communicate your situation. But start by giving people a chance to be supportive. When people ask you to do non-work things during a workday, tell them straight out that you can’t, because you’re working. You can even say that you’ve found that regular hours are essential to your productivity, etc., using the point above.
Just be prepared for some quizzical expressions and head scratching, and don’t give in. You’re working. You’re busy. You’re not available to help out.
5. Go Outside at Least Once a Day.
It’s easy to stay indoors for days at a time when you’re working at home, especially if you don’t have small children or pets that need to leave the house. But it’s not good for your mental health. I once spent three straight days indoors. By the end of the third day, I looked like the hero in a conspiracy thriller. I’d stopped brushing my hair and was thisclose to putting together a giant board full of photos and maps linked with yarn and pins.
Finally, my husband told me that the cracks were showing and insisted that I go outside. And then I felt very silly when I immediately felt better.
So: go outside. Every day. Even if it’s just to walk to the mailbox and back.
6. Listen to What Your Body Is Telling You.
Most career experts will tell you to get some exercise each day, especially if you work at home and don’t get in those steps in other ways. This is excellent advice, but I’m not going to give it to you, because I don’t want to be a hypocrite. I keep saying I’m going to do sun salutations every morning and then go for a walk, and then my baby has a poop explosion and by the time it’s cleaned up, I’ve decided that’s enough exercise for the day.
However, I will say that you should listen to your body. If you’re feeling achy and slouchy and generally covered in cobwebs, it’s time to get moving. Make it less about weight loss or even fitness and more about moving your body so that you can keep it moving. Low expectations are the secret to happiness when it comes to exercise, I’ve found.
7. Know That Some Days Are Bad Work Days … and Call It Early.
Some days, you’ll sit down at your desk, and nothing will happen. You’ll write three paragraphs and somehow wind up deleting four. The phone will ring seven times in an hour, even though you hadn’t had an actual phone call since ’90s. Your sources will be on vacation and your clients busy and your editors in a meeting.
If you can, it’s best to walk away on those days and come back when the universe is less broken. Maybe this is a sign that you need to go for a walk or eat some ice cream instead.
8. Change Your Mindset.
Sports psychologists advise a simple mindset tweak to improve productivity: instead of telling yourself that you have to do something, tell yourself that you get to do it.
It’s a small change that makes a big difference. You don’t have to write that report — you get to put your findings together. You don’t have to clean out that file — you get to have a more organized system. Etc.
9. Don’t Multitask.
People who are about to start working at home often talk about how happy they are that they’ll finally have time to throw some laundry in or do this or that home improvement project. While it’s totally OK to use your breaks to make life easier, don’t fall into the trap of overscheduling your work time.
You’re not home to tidy up. You’re home to work. Don’t trade your commute for a list of chores. You won’t feel any more productive and you’ll wind up resenting other members of your household who don’t have to juggle housework and work-work.
10. Take Breaks. Lots of Breaks. More Breaks Than You’re Thinking.
Sitting, as we know, is not great for your health. But even if you’re committed to the standing desk lifestyle, you still need breaks. Why? Because they’ll improve your productivity and focus — and because you’re likely to get distracted and wind up wasting time if you don’t take them.
One study found that the ideal work rhythm is 52 minutes of work followed by a 17-minute break. If that sounds like a lot of break time to you, try tracking your work-time and see how much time you actually spend working each day. The results will probably surprise you.
Take breaks consciously, and you can use your time off to rest and restore your energy for the next work sprint.
