How to Stay Productive When You’re Working at Home

by Carolyn Knight

If you’ve successfully made the switch from employee to entrepreneur, you probably spend a lot of time working at home. Working at home can be a major adjustment. It requires you to be incredibly self-motivated, driven, and focused. Many people who work from home find it difficult to stay as motivated and productive as they would in a rigidly controlled office setting. If you’re having trouble getting as much done as you would like from your couch, here are some tips to help you work better:

1. Change out of your pajamas

When the bulk of the work you’re doing doesn’t require you to change out of your pajamas, you’re probably tempted to stay in them all day. In fact, you may even be tempted to stay in bed all day and work from there. You do have the freedom to work wherever and however you like at your home. However, getting out of bed, taking a shower, and getting dressed each morning will invigorate you and make it easier for you to switch to “work mode,” as opposed to staying in the “weekend mode” you probably associate with staying in your pajamas and lounging around.

2. Create a daily agenda

Figure out what you want to accomplish at the beginning of each day. Throughout the day, make sure you’re managing your time well in order to meet all of the goals you’ve set for yourself. If you don’t plan things out, you’re more likely to mismanage your time and not accomplish everything you need to accomplish to be a successful at-home entrepreneur.

3. Pace yourself

You probably got a short break in the morning, a break for lunch, and a short break in the afternoon at work. Similarly, you should take scheduled breaks throughout the day. Trying to work non-stop from the moment you get up to the moment you go to sleep is just going to leave you feeling mentally exhausted, stressed, and unbalanced. So, make sure you start and end work at the same time every day, take breaks, and spend time doing things you enjoy over the weekend. If you try to do too much too fast, you’re a lot more likely to feel as though you can’t handle the demanding duties of an entrepreneur.

So, start your day off right, draft a daily plan for yourself, and don’t spread yourself too thin. Staying motivated and productive at home isn’t always easy, but it’s totally doable!

Carolyn Knight studied business at the University of Texas’ McComb’s School of Business. She currently works for Ordoro, which makes business easier with order management software that integrates Shopify, 3dcart and BigCommerce.