Are you struggling to remain productive at home? This can be a problem whether you are trying to run a home business or you are just working on your passions in your spare time. To improve home productivity levels, you need to focus on the common key issues that are distracting you. Here are some of the biggest ones to keep in mind.
Technology
First, you should think about issues that technology can cause you. Technology can keep you up at night and this is always going to make you less productive because you won’t have the energy to concentrate. To deal with this, you should think about limiting the amount of tech in your bedroom, particularly after a certain time in the evening.
Instead of using your phone as an alarm clock, get an actual alarm clock. Get the television out of the bedroom as well. Make an effort to read only paper-based books in the bedroom. Making these small changes can make a big difference.
Clutter
Next, you should think about the clutter in your home. Research shows that issues with clutter can actually stop you from focusing. This piece from The New York Times breaks down the weight that clutter can have and how it can lead to procrastination. Believe it or not, this can be a massive distraction.
The good news is that it’s easy to clean up the clutter in your home. You can start by simply investing in some storage containers. These will ensure that accessories and other items are out of sight and – as a result – out of mind. You should also think about embracing an aura of minimal design. You can do this by focusing on limiting items, furniture, and accessories in each room of your home.
Chores
Chores can definitely stop you being productive throughout the day. There are a lot of chores that will eat up your time. For instance, you may spend a lot of your day trying to keep your home clean and tidy. If you think that this is the problem, then you should consider making some changes to your home that will make chores a lot easier. These changes can be large and small.
For instance, you might want to think about changing the flooring of your home. Wood flooring will be the best choice if you want to ensure that you don’t have to spend hours vacuuming and cleaning your floors. It’s also great if there are any marks or stains. Instead of needing intense cleaning methods, you can just wipe away any marks that appear. Once our household went with flooring throughout our home, the time to upkeep our home dropped. It’s a really good place to start.
Kids
Finally, you might find that it’s the little ones running around that are stopping you from achieving better home productivity. Kids constantly want to play and if you don’t keep them entertained then they’ll likely continue distracting you until you do. And if you are working from home, then kids won’t usually understand that you are actually busy. (I speak from personal experience on that front.) So, how do you deal with this?
Well, first, you need to ensure that you work towards a balanced approach to time management. It’s important that you allocate time for work and time to spend with your kids throughout the day. That way, you can make sure that you don’t get distracted by one when you’re trying to do the other. And you definitely don’t want to forsake your kids for work… that’s not the way to go as a parent.
Technology can also be your friend when it comes to kids. There are plenty of apps that will keep your kids entertained for hours when you’re trying to work. But – and here’s the thing – be sure to turn off microtransactions so that you don’t get a ridiculous credit card bill and set a time for how long they can use screens. You can easily set a screen time benchmark with both Apple and Microsoft products and then adjust accordingly. We’ve done that with our kids and it allows everyone to have a balance between time on screens and time off of them.
I’ve been working from home for over a decade and there are always challenges that come with that convenience. Take the time to not only recognize what presents these challenges but how to reduce their effects. That’s going to help you make forward progress instead of dealing with stalled home productivity.
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