My Top Productivity Tip as a work from home entrepreneur

In light of the recent global coronavirus pandemic, you may find yourself working from home a lot more than usual. I’ve been working from home for a few years now as an online boutique owner and an over-the-phone business coach.

Let me share with you my number one productivity tip. Staying productive in this crazy time where everything seems up in the air, will help you feel as normal as possible. I’m not here to give you the impression that I achieve every task on my to do list. While I’m not perfect, I have learned what works for me. 

There’s a lot of little time saving tricks I’ve learned over the years, but I have found one simple productivity tip to rise above all the others in my entrepreneurial arsenal. 

I wait to turn on my phone. ​

​As soon as I turn on my phone my mind is already in a thousand directions. As soon as those notifications start streaming in, and stream in they do, I’m being told what my day should look like and what I should do next. Each little beep, buzz, and flash vies for my attention and desires immediate action. They all loudly scream “Me! Me! Me! Pick me!”

Here’s the thing, while those notifications seem urgent, they aren’t necessarily important. Especially now, working through a global pandemic, it seems that every day there is something new and urgent to address RIGHT NOW. 

You have got to prioritize, or you’ll go absolutely crazy. Waiting to turn on your phone allows you to breath and prioritize your day before getting all those notifications in.  I’ll say it again: just because something seems urgent, it isn’t necessarily important. 

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Instead of allowing my phone to dictate my day, I’ll make my day dictate how I use my phone. It’s a small mental shift, but I think it’s huge in the results. 
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What do I do before I turn on my phone? Sometimes my mornings differ and the routine varies, but there’s three important things I try to do before I turn on my phone. 

1. I get dressed and make my bed. This signals to my brain that it’s time to “go to work” even though I work from home. If I don’t do this before I turn on my phone, I’ll get distracted and before I know it 3 pm rolls around and I’m still rocking my PJs from the night before. This is important on every work from home day, but especially now during the pandemic. Routine reminds you of normalcy, which is really important when the world seems like it’s falling apart. 

 

1. I make my to do list. I look at my planner and review my weekly and monthly goals and see what needs to be accomplished today. Then I designate the top three (realistically sized) things that have to get done today.  This allows me to stay focused the rest of the day, knowing what exactly I’m striving for and trying to accomplish. Then if anything else comes up, I’ll know if it needs to be addressed today or if it can wait till tomorrow. 

 

1. I complete one of my three tasks. Diving in and getting straight to the tasks at hand helps me start my day with a work attitude. I try to accomplish at least one of my top three tasks before turning on my phone.

That’s it! If I wait to turn on my phone until I’ve done these three things, I have a much more productive day. When the beeps, buzzes, and flashes come in on my phone, they’re almost insignificant. I can look at them with a good dose of perspective. I can then tell those little criers “I see you need my attention, but this is more important. I’ll get to you later.”

How has your productivity been since you started working from home? 
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