With increasing freelancers ,small business entrepreneurs and individuals working from home, being productive most of the time is very important. In this article we discuss about the productivity hacks,tips and techniques that will improve your overall work day and increase productivity.
When it comes to entrepreneurship/freelancing productivity is directly proportional to the income that you are going to derive out at the end of the month/day/week. So it is very important to stay focused to get the business growing.
Unlike 9 to 5 workplace schedules many of the work from home individuals lack some scheduling which eventually affects productivity.
With freedom to be your own boss comes more responsibilities than you ever know or expected.
Tackling things in which the work life is not affected by personal issues or problems is daunting.
So we have listed out here the best practices to be done to achieve the productivity for successful career.
- Goal Setting
- Scheduling
- Networking
- Environment
- Software Hacks
- Rewarding
- Staying Healthy
Goal Setting:
This is an important part that you should never under estimate and you should always set your goals ahead and keep achieving/accomplishing them.
Short term goals:
To prioritize your goals you can actually chunk them into pieces/modules and complete them one by one.
You can bring the modules from your long term goal and do it in short time.
You can set the term goals in the list to be done which takes less than 2 weeks.
Mid term goals:
These goals are actually accomplished in the way of short term goals, mid term goals are part of long term goals that actually done in modules.
Mid term goals include a set of short term goals that need to be completed in less than 2 months.
Long terms goals:
The final business goals or career or monetary goals that you are going to accomplish in a year or less time.
It is very difficult to know the plan that works for your business, bit you should keep on working and try to achieve the targets.
Do not set new goals or targets without achieving the previously scheduled goals.
Staying focused on the goals is very much important and you should employ action plans and strategies to stay in focus with your goals.
Understanding you business plans and market research will also help you in reaching your short term goals.
Scheduling:
As important as goal setting is scheduling, as the proper scheduled goals task will always gets completed in less time and with accuracy. Scheduling starts with your daily work and to do list.
It is always recommended to schedule your day ahead of time and only add extra tasks or anything less important after the to do list scheduled by you before.
Schedule a particular time for everything like
- checking email/social notifications
- checking clients emails/ messages
- checking the magazines/news/other less important stuff
- invoicing/billing/phone conversations with clients
- hanging out with friends and family
Be sure to avoid unnecessary journeys/hangouts/events no matter what ever may happen with your friends as it will only kill the precious time of your work day.
Remember being your own boss means more responsibilities, your today’s work and productivity implies how your future prospects will change.
It is important to schedule some time for your personal life and health life. So please dedicate the time for important things in your life without interrupting the work life.
Occasional breaks from work schedule when you are seriously ill will give you time to get back with more productivity,so utilize every minute of your off day.
There are tons of productivity stuff out there on web but not everything works out for everyone,so try different productivity hacks and stick to the one best works for you.
No matter which productivity schedule works for your business/career the ultimate goals should should be improved productivity.
You should read about productivity myths and facts that actually clear the confusion if you have anything.
For some
- Fixing a 5 to do lists works
- Doing the most difficult work first (beginning of the day ) followed by easy work later worked.
- Taking 30 minutes break after 2 hour work ( concentrated work) worked.
- Listening to light music when working makes good for some people.
You must keep the schedule with yourself and keep them striking off when done, prioritizing what is important and what is not is very important when it comes to scheduling the work.
Networking:
When you are doing the work alone or working from home, you usually lack some atmosphere that you find in the work place, so it is very important to keep a good network of your niche based colleagues and friends.
Social interaction helps you meet potential clients and also give opportunity to speak in the public in turn positively affects your confidence.
When it comes to own business keeping up with contacts and leads is utmost priority. automating email responses can help in great way if you are away from workplace.
When it is online business we do not know when the lead can contact, so automated emails comes in handy, you can easily set-up email responses based on your needs. If your website is built on word press, you can use gravity forms to automate the response after form submission.
It is a good habit to keep a form with you for taking down the details on the go or when you are away from desktop. There are lot of apps available for this task but I would recommend the plain old way of using pen and paper as you cannot handle the call and take contact details at the same time on same device. The other way of this is to use call recording apps which makes life easier, when you are not even able to write down on paper.
Participating in the industry events/seminars and workshops is a great way to get yourself updated with latest knowledge and get interact with some important people there.
Keep learning from successful people, following the known path is very good point when you do not want to lose anything just because of some crazy ideas.
Have your linkedin profile updated and actively participate in small business and freelancer forums and groups only when you get some time, you will find some important business tips and tricks from experienced people.
Use separate email accounts for work and personal conversations.staying tuned to social updates kills your attention. You can overcome attention killers and improve productivity.
Never ever sign up to social media networks using your work mail, as the notifications and buzz from them will distract you all the way.
Spending less time on email is very good way to improve productivity.
Environment:
Your workplace and the environment around you plays a lot of role when it comes to productivity.
It may not be always possible for you to have a separate room for your home office, but you could always make some arrangements to make the workplace yours, make sure you could be free from noise from surroundings and house hold chores.
A peaceful environment boosts productivity by improving your concentration on work.
If you have kids at home make sure to speak to them about the work and ask them to play around some other time or outside. If everything else fails, just hangout in parks/coffee shops/restaurants where you could find free wifi and good atmosphere.
A positive atmosphere is also known to boost your productivity, so be positive and make people who are positive and encourage what you are doing as your friends, this will help you in several ways apart from productivity it gives you some emotional support for accomplishing your targets and goals.
Paste a poster with your most inspirational person and a famous quote, now with the help of online printing making your custom poster is very easy,try this to boost your motivation all the time you sit in your room or cubicle.
A clean and tidy workplace which is uncluttered makes you to find things easier and also makes your workplace professional. This will also improve your productivity a lot.
Try changing your lighting and switch to natural lights when they are sufficient,fresh breeze and natural light will improve your brain functioning and makes you to work more focused on projects.
Software Hacks:
This is very important if you are freelancer working in IT or ITES based projects, automation is the key to be more productive, there are lot of apps, addons and extensions to save you from the repeated tasks like checking emails,responses,forms filling and note taking. You just have to grab the right applications and softwares to make your life better.
Remember all the softwares and applications claim to increase your productivity by automation but it is you who have to decide what features you need and what are not required. Spend your money wisely, do not invest on things that you do not need.
Open source softwares and application will do help you in many ways, with little or no investment you can get things done,all you need to do is to get with little learning curve.
Use cloud services and storage services like drop box, Google Cloud storage, sky drive etc.. to get connected and in sync with the home computer.
There are project management and invoice applications bundled together to manage projects in better,playing around and grabbing a best application will save your time and you can focus on business goals.
Templates are also a some of the way to get the repeated tasks done with ease, make sure you use them. Your browser can do lot of productivity stuff for you using applications like pocket can save your valuable time.
You can opt out of annoying and distracting ads with ad blocking applications when you are in web research about the project.
Block you social addiction if you cannot self control,with these apps
Rewarding:
With all the productivity hacks and techniques you will lose some fun time from your daily schedule, so you should reward yourself some time for fun and entertainment this is vey important.
Also reward your self if you have made some achievement,post it on Facebook or your favourite social media and get some applause and appreciations from everyone.
We humans beings love being pampered and being great, it mentally helps and motivates us to get more productive, so rewarding yourself occasionally is also going to boost up your productivity a lot.
Occasional drinks and hanging out with friends is also important to staying connected with them as they are also needed in your life.
Keep yourself charged with your favourite food or dining at your favourite restaurant on achieving your goals.
This will help you stay more motivated and focused on achieving you short term goals which in turn help in mid term goals and finally to reach your long term goals. Be honest and don not cheat on celebrating for little achievements.
Rewarding your clients and business partners will also help you bring the positive atmosphere in them and will bring more relationship. The positive impact will help them in recommending you to their colleagues for the next assignment/project. So rewarding works in both ways.
Staying Healthy:
This is very important whether you are a freelancer/small business owner/individual working from home. After all whatever you earn by the end of the day is to live better and happy. This implies healthy living. So living healthy and happy is the primary goal for anyone.
Your business/project should never interrupt your healthy habits and mental peace. It is very important as the healthy mind can work better than normal mind.
So be focused on health. Take a walk every day or do physical activity for at least 45 minutes of the day.
Eat healthy, occasional drinking may not make health impacts but do not get drunk limit your drinking.
Quit smoking, ideas can also get into your brain with a cup of green tea or fresh shower.
Exercise regularly and eat healthy food avoid processed and fast food.
Eat lot of fruits and greens these will make your brain healthy.
Stop spending the bucks on aerated drinks and use them for buying healthy foods.
Meditation and yoga can help you keep your blood pressure under control and also makes you happy if you could not exercise for any reason.
If you opt for gym focus on fitness and do a mix of strength training and cardio.
Sleep is the most important thing to consider in health segment, getting 6-8 hours of sleep everyday will improve your mental health and concentration.
Scheduling the timings for sleep is very important make sure you never miss the golden hours where you brain recovers from days stress and gets ready for another day.
Never skip breakfast eat it in king size, A good breakfast should include cereals,milk,eggs and fruits.
Eating almonds,walnuts will help your brain work better. Eat fish at least once a week.
Do not worry if you could not afford to spend more on food, staying healthy is also cheap if you could find the right food to eat.
I hope these productivity hacks will improve your lifestyle and improve your productivity.Thank you for reading. Whats your take on productivity, get interactive, comment now.
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