How to Be productive working from home series - The #1 thing you need to be productive
Maintaining focus is challenging in our hyperactive world with so many competing activities. The reality is that to focus and be productive working from home you need a few simple things. In this blog you will discover them:
These are the elements to be focused and achieve great productivity working from home. I am going to share with you examples and techniques to bring this framework into action. This blog gives you the framework to have the maintain focus to reach your ambition in a balanced way.
You haven’t got the time to read the blog! I get it. Just grab your free Take Action Checklist for this blog and get ready to see results fast!
In the next blogs of this series, I will share with you how to focus on what matters, how to trigger your creativity, how to build a framework to maximise your results and achieve wellbeing through a balanced work-life. Through this series you will get my system to be productive working from home.
Let’s go for it!
Hustle versus healthy, balanced, productive work
Does success only come with working endless hours?
Do you believe that productivity working at home is a race to work more?
Do you wonder why all this hustle is for?
Do you struggle to prioritise your to do list?
Have you reached some moments where you physically feel sick from working too much?
Do you wish you could focus on what matters but you are in so many fronts that you can’t?
Do you feel that the days go by but you are no closer to success?
Do you look for a magic recipe to tick everything in your to do list as done?
And importantly, do you still think that being successful can only happen by working endless hours?
It is very likely that some (or all) of these questions sound very familiar. I have certainly experienced these thoughts in the past myself.
Many of us have been brought up with the concept that the measure of our success in life is our work. We have been wired from our childhood to work hard to secure our future. So our brain keeps on silently repeating to us, the more you work, the better it is…
But is it? If you have experienced burnout, you know it isn’t.
Take action today: stop the hustle
But how to avoid reaching that point of health breakdown? How to get the right balance to be fulfilled by reaching our ambitions without overworking ourselves to seriously unhealthy levels? This series is all about this, how to be productive working from home: working smarter, not working more.
I have worked in the corporate world for 24+ years. I have led quite a bunch of things: transformation, productivity, programme management, coaching & mentoring, leadership roles, marketing and sales, commercial management, finance & investments, product & business management... I know, quite a long list!
I have delivered change in large, geographically distanced teams, working at CoX level. It was many times all about efficiency and productivity. Importantly, every time it involved defining new ways of working and landing sustainable change by changing people habits. I have helped many people to become super productive through major transformation programmes.
I have worked from home through most of my career in the corporate world. Yes… even back in times when not many corporates had embraced the concept.
I am truly passionate about sharing with you my experience of how to be productive working from home, in a balanced way, to be successful and achieve your goals.
The #1 mistake about being productive working from home
Does being productive working from home mean working more?
Ok, let’s really be clear about this.
Being productive does NOT mean working more hours! No, no! Let’s look at the example of an online entrepreneur trying to grow her business by growing her traffic with a blog.
By the way, if you have not read it yet, don't miss my previous blog on 'Setting Yourself Up For Success', packed with simple actions, your foundation to be productive working from home.
So being productive is working smarter, not working more.
This is an important to clear out before you keep on reading. One can find a number of publications and articles about home working concluding that the home workers productivity is great because… they work longer hours! What?!
That simply isn’t productivity. It reflects the fact that home workers tend to over compensate by working longer to demonstrate that they can be successful while working from home. On the long run, their overwork can negatively impact your work-life balance and easily translate into stress and affect their work output.
That’s why it is key to understand that productivity working from home is all about generating more output, the right output, to reach your goals without working more.
In the meantime, let me help you reduce your overwhelm with a jump start for your content marketing creation! Get my free visuals collection and enjoy free Canva templates, curated video & photos for online entrepreneurs, animations and graphics!
Why you absolutely need to have this to be productive
Goals cannot be an afterthought in your work.
Why are goals so important to be productive working from home?
Sooo many times we set ourselves goals at the start… and somehow we forget them along the way. The craziness of activities after activities kicks in and goals become secondary to what we are doing.
We drift into the believe that because we are super busy we must be doing the right things!
Even worse, at times we put ourselves into gear without the underlying reasons of why we are doing what we are doing, what we are really trying to achieve. We seem convinced that action is better than planning, and we become super busy… but not doing what truly matters.
Let’s start with an everyday comparison to get to importance of goals in order to be productive.
Doing “stuff” day in day out without goals makes you unproductive. Why to crazy busy if you don’t really know what you want to achieve?
The knowledge of knowing what you want to achieve is what will help you make decisions along the way. Your goals keep you true. Your goals are the light that brighten your road to see where you are going.
You don’t need to want to be a millionaire to have goals. But having goals is an important basis to be productive.
When you are clear on your goals, it becomes easier to see what is important versus what is not. And that, if anything else, can be a simple basis to make sure you are spending your time on things that will move the needle in the right direction, getting you closer to achieving your goals.
Because you might be concentrating on the wrong things, not taking the right decisions or not making enough progress.
You need to be clear on your destination. Your goals will help you decide what is more important to get done….
Don’t be paralysed by the fear of not reaching your goals! You have it in you to go after them. Your belief will get you far. Your drive to better yourself will get you every day closer to your goals.
Goals versus to do lists, are they the same?
Before getting crazy busy and anxious about your endless to-do-list, let’s stop and think whether you are clear on why you are doing what you are doing…
This is the right time to just take a few minutes to go through a few simple questions to help you relook at your goals.
Having clear goals defines what you want to achieve with your activity. Goals give you the reasons and the drive for all the tasks you are doing and all the challenges you face.
Watch out, goals are not just actions that you need to get done! Remember the car example, your goals set your destination. They frame your aspirations.
Here are a few examples of goals closer to the Earth (haha!):
You see, a goal is your personal & business destination. They need to be part of your personal dreams. Make your goals aspirational and full of personal meaning so that you find the energy on the long run to remain focused to achieve them.
This word can stop you being productive, watch out!
Can you think of what word is it?
“Yes”!
It is “yes” that gets to an endless to do list. It is “yes” that makes you commit to deliverables that you had not planned. It is “yes” that you say when opportunities come along and you think… “Can I let this go? I have to take it on!”
Train yourself to think before saying "yes"
To be productive, this is a really useful trick. Something that, when you train yourself to do every time, will get you doing the things that move the needle, not the things that you just took on too quickly.
Psychologically, we feel that saying “no” is negative. It also puts us in potential awkward situations, where we feel we need to justify ourselves.
It is easier to say “yes”.
Saying “no” does not seem a very entrepreneurial attitude to business. Learning to say “no” in the right circumstances in order to focus on what matters to reach your goals is the one technique successful entrepreneurs use daily. To be productive working from home, you need to embrace this.
Refer to your goals to decide whether to say "yes"
So now that you see how important is to have goals and to think before saying “yes”, let’s have a look at how to use them to maximise productivity working from home. Goals will help you prioritise. Goals guide to decide when to say “yes”.
Every day you are bombarded with too many things you think you have to do… plus all the unexpected ones that appear from nowhere that add to your to do list. And… then there are the opportunities that come along, that you are so tempted to jump into. Let’s look at an example:
You now have your first tool to make this type of decision. You can now easily assess what matters most versus what can wait or should not even be done. Why? Because the first building block to make these type of prioritisation decisions is to understand your goals and you have those clear. Fab!!!!!
In the example above, there are a number of potential ways forward.
So, goals are NOT just this thing you define once to feel good about your ambitions.
There is something that makes having goals even better… This is the piece that many don’t do. How many times people define goals at the very beginning of a project and kind of put them in a drawer… forgotten, not used? Almost as if once defined, that’s it, no need to refer to your goals anymore. That’s where the value of goals is totally lost.
The golden nugget of goals come when you make them consciously part of your DNA and your decision making. They are the light that let you see with clarity the road ahead.
To make it easy for you, I have included the actions in this blog in a simple checklist. Get here your Productivity Take Action Checklist (blog 2):
If you only have 5 min... read this & downlod your free Take Action Checklist
You started this journey overwhelmed. Not clear on what to do or not to be successful, specially how be productive, how to stop having an ever expanding to do list.
Now:
You have a framework to define your goals simply.
You now see how referring to your goals daily is key to be productive working from home.
You have a set simple questions to change the habit of taking on too many things by constantly saying “yes” too quickly.
That’s a result! Well done for wanting to change. And you can do and want to do these things right now! Why wait? the more you wait, the more time you wait being unproductive.
Let’s recap on the key concepts and take action points.
Keep on reading until the end, as I am giving you a bonus tip at the end.
The #1 mistake about being productive working from home
Being productive working from home does not mean working more hours.
Productivity working from home is all about generating more output, the right output, to reach your goals without working more.
Being productive is working smarter, not more.
Why you absolutely need to have goals to be productive
Goals cannot be an afterthought.
To be productive, to be successful, you need to be clear on your goals, what you want to achieve.
Any ambitious enterprise starts with clear, ambitious and achievable goals. Otherwise you will get lost without a destination.
Goals will guide your decisions and your prioritisation, key to be productive working from home.
Goals versus to do lists, are they the same?
Goals are not just actions that you need to get done.
Having clear goals defines what you want to achieve with your activity.
Goals give you the reasons and the drive for all the tasks you are doing and all the challenges you face.
DEFINE YOUR GOALS: Answer the following questions:
Where do I want/need to get?
What do I ultimately want to achieve?
What drives me? What is my purpose?
Why is this my goal? Why am I doing this?
This word can stop you being productive, watch out!
It is “yes” that gets to an endless to do list. It is “yes” that makes you commit to deliverables that you had not planned.
Train yourself to think before saying “yes”
STEP 1: When something pops up that could add to all the things you are already doing:
Wait... don't say "yes" yet!
Listen to your brain already whispering to you.. "but you have to...", "it sounds great if I did this too...", "too good an opportunity to let go...", "I will find somehow the time, I have to say "yes" to this"...
Take a deep breath, pause and think first before you commit to doing it
Refer to your goals & learn to say "no"
STEP 2: REFER TO YOUR GOALS ON A DAILY BASIS when deciding your activities. Goals are a great framework to ask yourself:
Why am I doing this now in relation to my goals?
If this truly getting me closer to achieving my goals?
Would this activity move the needle?
Am I drifting into 'stuff' that actually keeps me busy but doesn't truly help me get closer to what I want to achieve?
Could I be doing something else that gets me closer to my goals?
Get now the checklist with all this in a free downloadable printable:
BONUS TIP: You have the most important… but are you struggling with this?
You are a star! You have it in you to be successful
First of all, congratulations!
The fact that you are reading this blog means that you are conscious you want to make a change to the way you work. That’s such an important step!
Motivation.
There is nothing better to transform the way you work than wanting to do so! Remember my previous blog, “Setting yourself up for Success”, it all starts with your mindset.
Your commitment to give a go at different ways of working so essential. And the great news is that you clearly are up for it.
Half of the struggles when delivering change is the resistance when people are against change. It is a very natural reaction. We are creatures of habits and change comes with unknowns.
You are open minded! And that gets you a great start! You are turbo charged because you are prepared to try new things!
You are a true star!
You are prepared to try new things.
Have you struggled with this to become productive working from home?
You might have tried already a few things to be productive… Starting a fancy bullet journal? Or going for a zero-email inbox? Or starting your day suuuuuuper early?
However, it seems like nothing really works….
The fact is that humans are geared to default to our habits. So, we all can soooooo easily get back to our old ways of working. This is our comfort zone. we convince ourselves that we are going to be fine. We try new things for a while and, without noticing, go back to our old habits. Dismantling habits takes perseverance.
However, …
… you want and need to see results and see them quickly.
So let’s keep this simple so that you can literally see the results of changing your habits quickly.
Give it a go TODAY! Why wait???
You will feel so good! Nothing like seeing a positive outcome from a change of habits. Your Accountability Jar creates the mechanism. It keeps you accountable to yourself.
You can even take one step further and establish an accountability buddy.
Put it all into action today
Now into action.
Don’t forget to get your free Take Action Checklist for this blog:
Set your jar on your desk and off you go! Put your goals at the core of your activities. You will be less overwhelmed and super focused.
Please comment below!
And remember to get my free visuals so that you don’t miss the next blogs in this series:
Enjoy the journey to gain a whole 1 day of your time back… to spend as you wish!
Being productive from home is not about working more is about working smarter.
Thank you so much for your time. It feels fab to know you are reading these blogs.
Don’t forget to comment on whether you set yourself deadlines and how easy or not is to define your priorities… and grab your FREE Take Action List.
Hi! I’m Isabel!
Visual content creation is my passion
The sea is my happy place!
For years and years I have created and produced content, in particular visual content. You can find me very often with my cameras and tripod out and about!
My passion: to help you with your online presence and drive business growth through my blog and visuals collections (marketing templates, styled photos & video).
Ah, I have also worked for 24+ in the corporate world, leading quite a mix: transformation, marketing, coaching, sales, productivity, programme management, investments and product management.
I love sharing all these skills with you in my blog.
I am also founder of Agavea Properties, our family holiday rental business. My husband and I lead it with the passion with one goal in mind: serving our customers to create a memorable holiday experience for them.
So there you have it, that’s me! Ah... I almost forgot, my happy place is by the sea.
Thanks for being here with me!
