To be productive working from home you need to set yourself up for success, meaning that there are a few important but simple things that you need to work on to start with:

• Your mindset is the #1 secret to great productivity working from home

• Getting your basics right: get your working space sorted

• The ‘Please do not disturb’ Code is a simple way to reduce interruptions and distractions

I have also a bonus tip for you at the end to reduce the overwhelm.

These are the foundations for great productivity working from home. You can grab your FREE Take Action Checklist here right now.

In following blogs I will share with you how to ensure you focus on what really matters, how to trigger your creativity, how to build a framework to maximise your outcomes and achieve wellbeing through a balanced work-life.

Through this series you will get my system to gain a whole 1 day of your time back… to spend as you wish when your are productive working from home. Let’s get started!

Not enough hours, so much to do ... How to organise time?

Do you feel overwhelmed from working from home? You haven’t got enough hours in the day.

You don’t find the way to create the difference between working hours and off-time. Your whole day feels like work. You can’t switch off.

You feel the pressure to be constantly working to prove to others that you can be great working from home.  

Working from home is new to you and your are really lost to get into a productive rhythm. You get constantly interrupted at home.

Your to do list does not reduce. It seems to get longer and longer. You are anxious that you are not making enough progress. You are not sure you are doing the right things, or enough of them. You fell overwhelmed.

You feel that others are judging you because you work from home, they do not judge you on your merits.

And you know you need to manage your time better. Be more productive.

You want (and need) to get to a balanced life, where you achieve your goals, are recognised for your successes and have downtime for your family and friends.

Productivity when working from home: A simple system to improve your time management… without overwhelm

You dream of being productive to achieve your goals stress-free.  

You want have more time… you know you need to be better at time management.

I have been a home worker for 17 years, solo working and with teams across different continents. I have experienced many highs and lows in my working from home journey. I have worked from home for large corporates and for my own business. I have helped many people to be super efficient and explode their productivity through major transformation programmes in the corporate world.

Let me share with you what really works for great home working in this series!

Because it is a dream to get the maximum from working from home in a balanced way.

Don’t miss any of the blogs in the series where I share my time management system for home workers.

At the end of the series, I will give you a super useful checklist to help your day-to-day.

Simply subscribe to my email list by getting my free visuals … they are a jump start from me to help you with your content marketing creation!

I have been there… so much stress and time wasted!

I have been there too, oh yes! Working like mad, with endless to do lists, people chasing... So overwhelmed that I was even forgetting important things to do.

My ‘oh my God’ moment happened when I worked through the night while being by my son hospital bed after he had a major surgery. Some days after, when he recovered, I promised to myself that way of working (and living) had to finish!

Since then I have made a commitment to myself (and those around me), to approach home working and time management differently. 

By working in multimillion productivity & efficiency programmes with small and large teams, I have built deep understanding of the key things that make a real difference for time management. I also understand how difficult it can be to change habits and stick to new ways of working. It can feel like a huge mountain to climb… Believe me, you will get there… faster and more easily than you think!

I will share with you in this series my framework to manage your time more effectively to achieve a balanced life while working from home and being successful.

Gain a whole 1 day of your time back… to spend as you wish when your are productive working from home

Work smarter to work less and achieve more.

At least 20% of you time can be better spent... Think about it, that is a whole 1 day saved for you to decide what to spend it on! How many key opportunities could you go after with a whole one day? Do you know how less stressed that feels?

A whole day??????????? You must be thinking I am joking. That is the average efficiency that one can gain by following the system. Like with anything, you get what you put on.

And less stress unleashes your mind to feel better and be more creative, productive, successful and happy! 

What you do with the time gained is up to you! Spend more time with those around you, launch a new business idea, develop a new product, enhance the services you provide, create more content, help others… The choices are limitless.

Ok, here we go! Let’s cover the 3 key foundation changes to make you super productive and happier while working from home. Remember, this is just the start of the journey. These are 3 important elements to start making changes to how you approach homeworking and time management. More to come in the rest of the series.

What is the number one secret to homeworking??? You! Your mindset. Your commitment to stick to a few important ground rules… And I am going to share them with you in this series.

Remember a fundamental key principle: change only sticks if you make a real commitment to it! Ah... how do you achieve that? You need to believe in it to start with. That simple?… Well, it is not as simple as it sounds. However, I have a few tricks that will help you with this.

So to believe in change and maintain your motivation, you need to have a handful of quick wins: things you do that make a difference rapidly! They will be the basis for changing those bad habits we all have.

So to maintain your commitment, you need to maintain your belief… and to maintain your belief, you need to see results (even if they are not big) quickly enough.

Is that all? Is it that simple?

There is another important technique to help you stick to the changes.

The second key point to maintain your commitment and achieve sustainable change (meaning that your habits and behaviours change), is to keep the changes your are following simple. What do I mean?

My commitment to you in this series is to give you actionable, simple quick wins that you can make happen that same week! 

In return, you will promise yourself that you will give them a go.

Get here your Take Action Checklist:

And remember, this home working series is NOT to work more.

It is to work smarter and feel a sense of self achievement.

So what next?

I can hear you saying... getting your working area sorted... this sound quite basic! Yes, it is and, still, it is important to do.

Notice I did not say quite purposely your office.

The place you work from may be quite fluid, especially if you are an online entrepreneur or a content creator, or have not work from home before.

You may have an office in your home or not. You may work from a desk in your bedroom. You may be on the go, travelling, and that means your desk is in a new hotel every day... Maybe you are in a shared working space.  Or you may be working on the sofa…

No dedicated office, no panic! You don’t necessarily need a dedicated office to be productive.

Independently of where you work from, some basics will help with your concentration and productivity.

Your working environment puts your brain into gear unconsciously. So the basics below can feel obvious… but wait, before you skip them. Just think how many times you don’t follow them!

Certain people work better with music. I am one of them! Although it does not work for everyone, I suggest you test it. Music helps me isolate from the surroundings and my brain is far more focused.

It is important that you feel comfy, both physically and mentally. While it is great you work in a good chair most of the time, it certainly can help with mood and concentration to change from time to time during the day, to break the routine. A change of the working environment can help with your creativity (more about this in a coming post of this series).

Enjoy the freedom of deciding where to set your working space! Brainstorming in the garden, terrace or living room are great opportunities when home working. Try them, it feels good!

Avoid interruptions as much as possible: a huge important principle to improve your home working productivity. I really don’t need to tell you this. You know it. Even before considering other time management techniques, let’s combat distractions & interruptions.

I say “combat distractions” because you will see great improvement in your home working by just applying some simple techniques. And yes, interruptions are somehow unavoidable from time to time. The objective is to minimise them.

There are 2 types of interruptions:

• when others interrupt you (either at home or online)

• when you get distracted

When others interrupt you (either at home or online)

The key is to create a set of simple rules so the people around you know you do not wish to be interrupted… and ensure that you feedback to them when they respect the rules. It is all about changing behaviours in others.

Seems theoretical? The easier comparison possible is the one with children.

The above is a simple change management approach that reinforces positive behavioural change. Many times is easy to forget the positive feedback loop but the feedback is actually more important than setting rules. This applies both for physical interruptions in your work space, as well as phone calls or online disruptions (mail, messages, WhatsApp, social media...).

Now, let’s look at some easy ways to signal to others that you don’t want to be interrupted: “The Do-Not-Disturb Code”. These can be many things. Whatever works better for you and those around you depending on your environment and circumstances. Here are a few examples of how to signal to other “Please do not disturb”:

For online interactions, this is more challenging as people these days have an expectation to get replies almost instantly. 

It is in your hands to change those expectations!

In a nutshell, to minimise interruptions, communicate with those around you to establish simple signs that show you are available (door open, no headphones, mobile on…) or not (door closed, headphones on, phone on airplane…).

When you let people around you (physically or online) know your ways of working, they will start working around your availability. Setting their expectations is the starting point to reducing interruptions.

When you get distracted

Finally on interruptions, sometimes we are the worst offenders! Haha! What do I mean?

When we are trying to work on something either hard or that we really don’t want to do... we have an easy escape these days... our phones! Yeap! This is where we grab it and start looking at social media, emails, DMs... anything that help us escape from that thing we are doing we really do not fancy doing.

Productivity working from home: let’s recap

When you feel there are not enough hour, smile! Now you have the foundation to build from and be super productive without overwhelm.

Remember:

• HOLD YOURSELF ACCOUNTABLE: 10min a day to check on your commitment to change.

  • PUT in your phone the "Take Action" list (click here to get the list).

  • AT THE BEGINNING OF THE DAY, promise yourself that you will do 1 of the actions in the day.

  • AT THE END OF THE DAY, check whether you have done 1 of actions.

  • WELL DONE! Even the fact of looking at the list is helping your brain get reprogrammed for change.

• SET YOUR WORK SPACE at home to work for you:

  • TOOLS: Have your tools handy.

  • LIGHT: Ensure your room light is good to work.

  • CHAIR: Sit in a chair that is comfy for your back.

  • SITTING POSITION: Be mindful of your sitting position.

  • SCREEN SET UP: Set your screen at eye-level if possible.

• PUT IN PLACE A SIMPLE "Please do not interrupt" CODE for those who are likely to do so. For example:

  • Close the door

  • Put headphones on

  • Change your status to 'Away' on your computer / phone Messenger

• PUT YOUR PHONE AWAY and on silent. Minimise your email app.

• DO EMAILS & MESSAGES TWICE A DAY: Allocate slots in the day to do emails and tell people about it.

• TAKE MINI-BREAKS every 90min to 2 hours where you relax for 5min and can look at the phone.

Let me share this bonus tip as part of your foundation to your working from home success.

When people start working from home, they work more hours than when doing the same job from an office. Home workers tend to overcompensate and work longer hours. Many times there is an unconscious feeling of guilt and a desire to constantly demonstrate (to yourself or others) that you can do a great job from home.

This is even more true for you online entrepreneurs, who, as you know well, have so many different functions to do by themselves in a day.

The good news are that it is also a fact that you, as homeworker, can be far more productive and you can be far more in control of your own time.

So if you are at the phase of home working when you feel overwhelm, not necessarily productive…

• first, remember than you are in fact more productive working from home

• secondly, in addition to what we have covered in the blog, let’s put in place a simple action: set yourself an end of the day time and stick to it!

It is very easy to delay when to stop working when you are home… there is no train to catch, no time you are expected to be back home, no best time to leave because of traffic… sounds familiar? So you keep on going far beyond the time you would have stayed in an office. The same is true between week and weekend, or even holidays… How many times have you worked over the weekend or when on holidays?

Home workers often experience great difficulties to separate the work time from the personal time. You can feel you are constantly “on”.

Don’t forget to get your FREE Take Action Checklist:

Well done! You have your foundation. What next?

Now into action. Remember to look at your Take Action List to become super productive when home working at the beginning and the end of the day.

Have you at least implemented one of them? If so: well done!!!!!!! If not, do not despair, keep on trying. Changing habits requires perseverance, and nothing better than to keep on trying again and again. Remember, it easy and simple, so just give it a go.

And remember to get my free visuals and subscribe to my email list so that you don’t miss the next blogs in this series.

Above all, don’t get anxious about time management and productivity! Disregard those who do not recognise your value just because you work from home. Prove them wrong with your successes!

And enjoy the journey to gain a whole 1 day of your time back… to spend as you wish! This is just the beginning! More to come in my next blog. Thank you so much for your time. It is a privilege to know you are reading my content. Don’t forget to comment on what is your biggest time waister and grab my FREE Visuals Collection.

Hi! I’m Isabel!

For years and years I have created and produced content, in particular visual content. You can find me very often with my cameras and tripod out and about! 

My passion: to help you with your online presence and drive business growth through my blog and visuals collections (marketing templates, styled photos & video).

Ah, I have also worked for 24+ in the corporate world, leading quite a mix: transformation, marketing, coaching, sales, productivity, programme management, investments and product management. 

I love sharing all these skills with you in my blog.

I am also founder of Agavea Properties, our family holiday rental business.  My husband and I lead it with the passion with one goal in mind: serving our customers to create a memorable holiday experience for them.

So there you have it, that’s me! Ah... I almost forgot, my happy place is by the sea. 

Thanks for being here with me!