Productivity and Motivation Improvement Techniques: Working at Home

It is becoming more popular to work at home than to work at the office. This trend is common for those that are making a living out of the internet, example for the following careers below:

a.) independent musician promoting websites
b.) e-commerce website owner
c.) writers/authors
d.) bloggers
e.) web developers
f.) internet marketers

This list will grow in the future, but currently these are the most common professions that make a living out of the online business world. But the main issues of working at home are pertaining to low productivity and lack of motivation.

If you are working at home, you will be easily distracted by any means (example, tempting to check for Facebook updates, talk with other persons at home, playing games or even watch YouTube) because there is NO boss looking at you. You might take this advantage and a privilege but too much of this habit can seriously affect your productivity.

So how you might be able to deal with this issue other than implementing “strict discipline” in behalf of yourself?

The following are my most effective techniques and habits that can substantially improve home office productivity and working motivation in the long run:

1.) Spend at least one day in each month to draft the entire monthly working schedule.

If you are a blogger, you might list down all your blogs and write how many posts you need to write each day. Then put it in MS Excel to list it down from Day 1 to Day 30 (at the end of the month). The same thing you will do, if you are a web developer, internet marketer, etc.

Plan this in advance (for example if you are drafting the June 2010 schedule, do that in the last days of May 2010). Be realistic with your schedules and goals. Remember the S.M.A.R.T goal setting techniques when it comes to effective planning.

Note: In the planning of schedules, do not include Facebook profile updates and Youtube schedules.

Why should you do this? It is because “failing to plan is planning to fail”.

2.) Monitor those goals in a daily basis.

Before you will start to work in each of the day, make sure to review what work has been done on those previous days and marked them “completed”! This will motivate you to work harder in case something has been lagged behind.

You can add new set of tasks provided these are the ones that will make you money and relevant to your work.

Why should you do this? It is because “failing to monitor your work is planning to fail your plan”

3.) Work straight and stop for breaks around 15 minutes depending on your endurance.

So if I have this long list of tasks for the day, what I will do is eat first, drink coffee and then start WORKING! Do not look at those lists of tasks, just start working. Work straight! You will notice how many sets of tasks you will accomplish in just a period of 5 to 8 hours working straight.

I usually work at the earliest hours of the day (early morning). This will provide me longer hours to work on difficult while enjoying the rest day.

Why you need to this? A journey of million miles must begin with a single step.

4.) If your work has been completed, “CONGRATULATE” yourself by taking long breaks for the rest of the day. You can now do anything you want (watch Youtube, update Facebook), go out and take your bike, etc.

The lesson is: DO ANYTHING IMPORTANT FIRST, and enjoy the rest.