Nicholas Beugg says to doing these five things will boost your productivity

Finding a way to be productive isn’t easy when you’re working in an office, but when you’re working from home, it’s even more challenging. With more and more people working from home, it’s important to find ways to remain focused and productive. Whether you are running your own online business, working as a freelancer, or working remotely for an employer, you need to find a way to transform your home into a professional environment.

One of the main reasons that working from home is so popular is that people are happier, healthier, and usually more productive when they are able to work from home. Unfortunately, working from home does have one major drawback, it can be hard to remain focused. Without a boss around to keep people in line, there’s nothing to stop people from taking a nap, playing on their phone, or binge-watching a new tv show. Actually, there is something that can keep you from slacking off when you work from home, that something is your own self-discipline. Nicholas Beugg, creator of multiple remote companies, says the following five steps can help increase your productivity while working from home.

Dress the Part

While laying on the couch in your pajamas all day is comfortable, and there’s nothing stopping you from doing it, it’s probably not the best practice to get accustomed to when you want to remain as productive as possible while working from home. People are creatures of habit, and if you get in the habit of wearing your pajamas all day, you’ll probably start doing it all the time. The problem arises when the habits that you get used to become triggers for negative behaviors. If you’re wearing pajamas, you’re probably going to be more likely to take a quick nap, which can turn into a long nap, which can have a huge impact on how productive you are.

On the other end of the spectrum, if you dress productively, you’ll probably remain more aware and focused. The clothes that you wear can impact your mindset. For example, people that get dressed in their workout clothes after the end of a long day are going to be more likely to hit the gym than people who don’t change their clothes. The point is that if you want to be productive, and you want to act and perform at a professional level, then you need to dress like it.

Set Up a Part of Your Home To Function As An Office

If you have a separate room in your home that you can set up as a work office that’s great because it will give you a dedicated workspace. But even if you don’t have an extra room that doesn’t mean that you can’t set up an effective home office. What you need is an isolated area where you can sit down, focus, and most importantly, separate your work life from what’s going on at home. Even if you are fortunate enough to be home alone when you’re working, there are still plenty of things around the house that can distract you. If you can set up a small office in a closet, for example, you’d have an isolated workspace that will help you to remain focused on the task at hand.

Hold Yourself Accountable

When you’re at a regular job what do you usually do when your cell phone rings? Or, what happens if your coworkers are trying to gossip and you see the boss coming? Well, you probably don’t answer the phone, and when you see the boss coming you better be getting back to work. Working in an office has its distractions for sure, but those distractions pale in comparison to what you’ll encounter when you work from home. You could have friends calling you, neighbors stopping by, deliveries showing up, and all manner of other types of distractions. Of course, you’ll also have the allure of your bed calling you for a nap, or the new show you’ve just been dying to binge. What you need to do is have personal accountability. When you’re working from home treat it like a real job because it is a real job. Make it clear to everyone that might stop by that you’re working and are not to be disturbed unless it’s an emergency. Put your phone on silent, resist the draw of a nap, and decide that the new show you’ve been dying to watch can wait until after work.

Spend A Fair Amount of Time Designing Your At-Home Workspace

If you spend 5 minutes designing your home office and it consists of a kitchen chair and a small table in the corner of your living room, you’d better temper your expectations if you think that you’re going to be highly productive. The point here is that if you want to be productive when working from home, you’d better spend some time designing a proper home office. You can design an office that is warm and inviting or one that’s more spartan, but no matter what, you need to make sure that it’s a functioning office. Pick out an office chair that’s comfortable, make sure that you have some type of desk, and make sure that you have the right supplies on hand. By preparing a little today, you can help to ensure that you’re more productive moving forward.

Stick To A Schedule

Did you know that if you can get yourself on a set schedule you’ll sleep better, have more energy, and as a result will be more productive? Once your body gets used to going to be around the same time and getting up around the same time, you probably won’t even need an alarm to wake you up anymore. When your body is trained to go to bed around the same time it will release hormones to help you to fall asleep, then it will release other hormones when it’s time to wake up. Your body’s hormone cycle loves a set schedule, and once you get used to it you should notice a difference in your energy levels and alertness. It shouldn’t surprise you to learn that when you are energetic and alert you are going to be more productive than if you’re tired. “Just because you’re working from home, you can’t to stay up late and sleep in, it’s going to throw your cycle off, and it’s going to make you less productive,” said internet entrepreneur Nicholas Beugg.

Conclusion

It’s hard to be productive working in any office, and it’s even harder when that office is in your home. If you want to be productive there’s one thing that you’ll need above all else, discipline. Working from home offers you a lot more freedom, what you have to do is have the discipline to stay focused so all of that freedom doesn’t derail your productivity.