The ability to work from the comfort of your own home as an entrepreneur definitely has its perks… some would even call it a dream job, and for the most part, it really is. You have the ability to start your day when you want to start your day, you can work in your pajamas, and you can do as little or as much work as you want…
Having all of that freedom is what people love the most about working from home but out of those three perks, can you guess where the biggest downfall of entrepreneurs comes from? It comes from the ability to do as little or as much work as you want; that is called productivity.
Productivity is what distinguishes great businesses from mediocre businesses, and as a home-based entrepreneur, your level of productivity is what’s going to determine your business’ level of success. This type of challenge isn’t anything new in the workforce… people have productivity challenges all the time, whether they go to an office and clock-in or work from home.
The biggest difference between clocking-in and working as a home-based entrepreneur is the type of productivity challenges you face.
Home-based entrepreneurs have unique challenges like the temptation of taking a quick nap for an hour or two or catching their favorite TV show… all challenges that people who go into an office don’t face. Although working from home as a home-based entrepreneur has its perks, it also has a unique set of challenges.
Now there’s no need to worry too much about these challenges because they aren’t challenges you can’t overcome. There are actually tips and tricks that will help you achieve high productivity and meet the goals of your home-based business all while working in the comforts of your own home.
Productivity Tip 1: Create a
To-Do List
There’s really no way of knowing exactly how
to achieve your work goals when you don’t know what they are or what you need
to do first. Creating a to-do list will help you organize, structure, and
prioritize your work goals. In order to do this, the best way to go about
creating your list, jot down your short, medium, and long-term strategic goals.
Once you’ve done that, you’ll then want to
break those goals down into tasks that you can designate as daily, weekly, and
monthly tasks (these daily, weekly, and monthly tasks will fall into your
short, medium, and long-term goals). Now, to keep track of your goals and
tasks, you’ll want to place them in a visible area on your desk or in a planner
or calendar. Some people keep track better by placing their list in their
phone’s calendar or in a productivity app. You pick whichever one suits you
best.
Productivity Tip 2: Avoid
Distractions at All Costs
One of the biggest killers of productivity is
distractions. As a home-based entrepreneur, there is always going to be
something that demands your attention… in knowing that, you have to make
special efforts to put mechanisms in place that will not pull you away from
your work. It might feel like you’re going out of your way to do some of these
things but you have to look at it like this… if you were in an office building,
you wouldn’t have these types of distractions but the fact that you’re not in
an office building, you have to take necessary measures.
- Designate your home office in a specific room away from the high-traffic areas of your home. Your home office definitely needs to be away from areas of your home that will distract you. You need to be in an area that’s quiet and away from distracting sounds. Not only that but you need to design your home office space for productivity.
- Invest in childcare services. A lot of home-based entrepreneurs work from home specifically so that they can be closer to their children but once they actually start working from home, they realize just how much their children’s needs can pull them away from their work.
Once entrepreneurs
realize this, they look into childcare options. This might not necessarily be
what you had in mind but once you figure the costs of hiring a nanny, you’ll see
how much more affordable it is versus daycare.
- Don’t have people at your house during your business hours. You have to treat your home-based business as if were located in an office building and in doing that, you have to tell your friends and others to treat it that way as well. People tend to think that just because you’re working at home that you don’t have “real” work-related responsibilities and that you have all the time in the world to socialize.
For those that
think that, you’re going to have to let them know that your business is just as
real and legitimate as any other business and that they need to respect your
business and your business hours. If they can’t respect that, then it might be
time for you to reevaluate who really supports your business and who doesn’t.
Productivity Tip 3: Take Breaks
A lot of people think that just because you’re
working from home that you don’t need breaks… they think that because you’re at
home, you’re entire job is a break, compared to jobs outside the home. That’s
where people go terribly wrong. Even when working from home, entrepreneurs
still need to give their brains a break just like any other working person.
According to Psychology Today, taking breaks
away from your job actually improves your brain in various ways… can you guess
what one of those ways is? If you guessed productivity, you guessed right!
Taking breaks have been known to increase productivity as well as creativity!
The Takeaway
The main focus is to understand that working
from home as a home-based entrepreneur has its perks but it also comes with its
challenges. To beat those challenges you have to give your business the same
amount of respect in productivity as you would give a business that you
physically go in and clock-in at. The moral of the story is that, you get out
what you put into your business.
