Q&A: How Do You Stay Productive?
I can honestly say as someone who attended most college classes virtually by choice and then transitioned to mostly working from home, I feel pretty lucky given the state of work these days. Due to the ever-changing and frightening virus ravaging the world right now, more people are working from home or just have to spend more time at home. Some of whom probably aren’t adjusting…well. I’ve been sitting on this question submission for a bit and I feel like it could be pretty useful now.
Where do I begin? I think it’s fairly well known I fall a bit farther towards introvert on the scale than an extrovert. I do like socializing and some days I even love office life. And when working from home it’s incredibly important to me to have social interactions and I actively make time for them even though that is a bit harder right now (Hi, Google Hangouts!) I personally find I’m more productive when I’m working from home despite the influx of distractions. It’s not always a walk in the park.
Truth be told, it doesn’t matter how much one loves their job. There will always be moments where everything feels difficult like it’s not going right, or we just don’t feel like we are very good at our job at all. That makes staying motivated really hard. In today’s world, we juggle a lot and, as a result, there will be some days where I am able to knock out projects after projects and other days it can be a complete chore to even write a blog post I have been really looking forward to writing. So here are my 3 tips for being productive at times like this.
Set Weekly and Daily Goals
If you only take on one thing from this blog post, make it this one. I live and breathe by my day planner. I’m pretty sure I’ve written about it before. Every Monday morning I sit with the blank week in my day planner and do the same thing. First, I write out a Post-It that has 6 things I MUST accomplish this week. I learned this recently and it’s been said it helps highly successful people find more free time in their workweek by prioritizing. Whether it’s a really important work task or updating my personal budget, if it makes the list, by Sunday it should be done. Then I sit and write in other work tasks, bill due dates, and things come through in my morning emails. I highlight tasks off the planner as I go and it feels so gratifying looking at all those yellow highlights at the very end of the day. Didn’t get to one? We are only human. It becomes a task for the next day. This is also really helpful for scheduling really important things and you’ll find you accomplish way more during the day.
Talk Things Out
Working from home can mean being isolated a lot. It’s really good to have someone who you can talk ideas through. Whether it’s a friend or a co-worker, you can help each other work through challenges and even hold each other accountable for getting things done. It’s helpful to have someone to work through ideas with. I feel like my brain moves really fast and ideas get jumbled or even lost. I like having someone to hear my thoughts and give me their input even if they aren’t a part of the project. When there isn’t someone to bounce off of, writing a list can be beneficial. It makes getting in the right mind frame to finish or tackle a task much easier. Plus, the right person is able to look objectively and give valuable feedback because you trust their opinions.
Use the Pomodoro Technique
I’ll be honest, if you think you’re good at multi-tasking (most people are not), this may take getting used to. Basically, the technique breaks everything down into 25-minute time blocks. For those specified 25 minutes you focus on one task and only that task. Not scrolling Instagram or Twitter. No distractions. After 25 minutes, you get a 5-minute break to whatever it is you want to do. Grab coffee..text...have a snack..scroll Instagram. Then after 5 minutes, start again and repeat. I find this helps with creativity. If I can’t get something going that I like, I know I have a 5-minute break to regroup or another 25-minute block to try something else or start a different task I might have better luck with.