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So according to a study by Airtasker, employees who work from home, work 16.8 days more per year then their office based counterparts. That being said one of the things that I know I struggled with and still sometimes find myself getting frustrated at is just how to manage my time when working from home.
I mean with literally hundreds of distractions around you how do you stay focused and manage your time effectively? Luckily I found the following steps to be most useful in me staying in charge of my time and not the other way round.
(Now it’s worth mentioning that this post has a lot of information and so if you’re curious about the best equipment needed to work remotely simply go to my resource page here)
Schedule your day to manage your time
Unlike being at work where you can pretty much just work from a task list or pick up where you left off, working from home has its own unique issues and so the need for scheduling your day is going to be incredibly important.
Doing something like using a calendar (either physical or digital) and breaking your day into hour blocks in which you can accomplish your tasks is amongst the easiest way to manage your time when working from home
For myself this helps significantly where you can see your day in front of you and are alerted quite nicely to what you have to do next.
If you want to take this one step further, consider investing in a smartwatch or sync up your calendar to your mobile keeping you alert and in charge of your time.
Use the Pomodoro technique to split your time
Any long term readers of this blog know just how much I enjoy the Pomodoro technique.
The Pomodoro technique is a time management schedule system that allows you to break your day into smaller segments whilst also staying productive while you do so.
A study by Vouchercloud found that human beings can only focus for around twoand a half hours per day and that shorter, more frequent breaks are best then to stay productive throughout the day.
The Pomodoro technique basically works as follow:
- Start your task for 25 minutes
- Take a 5 minute break
- Restart your task for 25 minutes
- Take a 5 minute break
- Reestart you task for 25 minutes
- Take a 30 minute break
You would then repeat these hour and half cycles and find that you would get a lot more work done then if you just tried to do the task in one go.
This is ideal for those of you in roles that are very project heavy, so anyone who works in sales, graphic design or anything that requires you to stay focused in short bursts.
Heck it’s what I used to finish off my dissertations when I was in university.
Have a designated workspace that makes the most of your time
Single handedly the best piece of advice I give to people who are interested in working from home is to set up their own home offices.
Having a home office, clearly sets the boundaries between your work and personal lives when working from home and gives you a designated space to complete your tasks from.
Studies have actually shown that people who work from a home office complete tasks much faster than those that don’t (I even did my own study, you can find out more about here: is working from home more productive)
Having a place to focus and work from reduces the amount of time you waste getting comfortable or finding a place to work.
So what should your home office consist of?
Whilst every office will be different and should be based on your personality and role there are some rules you should follow such as painting it a neutral color of blue (you can find out why in my post here: what is the best color for a home office )
Now in terms of items, I recommend every home offices use the following items – simply click on the link to find my recommendations
Get up early to free up your time
Often when working from home we feel overwhelmed simply because the day has already gotten in front of us.
We wake up a few minutes before our work day starts and so still have a bunch of life admin to catch up on – it’s one of the reasons why remote workers have been known to have proper hygiene ( gross but an interesting read)
Waking up early allows you to get in front of the day and gives you the ability to do any busy work that you need to do.
Everyone knows just how long small chores can add up to huge tasks into your day.
Why not get up an hour earlier to do your laundry, clean your apartments/house or do your meal prep for the day?
Personally, I am to get up an hour early to write every blog post you’re reading today which doesn’t interfere with my day job.
You’ll be amazed at how at the end of the day you have a lot more free time then you’re used to simply by getting up an hour earlier – just make sure you get enough sleep to compensate for the early starts.
Remote workers work 16.8 days more per year then there office based counterparts
Get out of the house
One thing those of us who work from home don’t do enough of is getting out of the house during our work day.
I mean let’s face it, we don’t want to be seen as taking advantage of working from home and so if we tell our colleagues we’re popping out, perception might make them think we don’t do anything when we work.
The truth is that taking a short break and getting some fresh air gives you time away from your screen and a chance to reflect on tasks that you’ve accomplished that morning.
This will help when you get back to work to help continue your tasks in a more time efficient manner.
To really make the most of this when you’re out getting some fresh air, I try to multitask by reading an audiobook or doing some training on the go.
You can check out my recommendations for audiobooks here.
Use breaks effectively
A lot of what we have covered in this blog post so far around managing time effectively has been around breaks, and with good reason.
A lot of us, myself included, tend to look down on breaks as something you should only do when you’re exhausted, and that if you can hold in there for eight hours straight without taking a break will make you more productive.
The truth is that human beings in general are only productive for about two and half hours per day so even if you think you’re being productive by working without a break you won’t be.
Instead utilise shorter more frequent breaks throughout the day which has been shown to be optimal when working.
If your work from home role is mainly focused on computer work make sure you are taking enough time away so you don’t strain your eyes or consider investing in eye equipment – you can find my recommendations here.
Using breaks effectively can be a lot of remote workers’ secret weapons when it comes to making sure you don’t feel overwhelmed and use your time effectively.
Meal prep your food to save time
One of the most effective things people working from home can do to save time and help with their time management is to meal prep their foods in advance.
On average people spend 61 minutes per day prepping their food for 3 meals per day. If you were to do this in advance you could save 5 extra hours per week to stay productive when you work from home.
If you were to pair up food prepping with a healthy heating not only will you find yourself making the most of your time, you’ll also find yourself being healthier too.
Most employees only stay focused for 2 hours and 53 minutes per day
Take a lunch break
Most employees are very bad at taking breaks, in fact it’s estimated that 29% of employees who work from home work through their lunch breaks.
Not taking a lunch break will not only hinder you from staying focused or making the most of your time but not having a lunch break will also make you irritable with people feeling more restless, frustrated and suffer from mindfog when they don’t eat.
Aim to eat foods that help to keep you focused such as slow releasing carbs or meal prep in advance to ensure that itching lunch when working from home doesn’t feel like a chore or take up too much of your time.
Have a to-do list
I know what you’re thinking, a to-do list, how old fashioned can you get.
The truth of that matter is having a set to do list that you tick off as you go along is one of the most effective things people working from home can do to stay focused. In fact Russian Psychologist Bulma Zeigarniik attributed this to the “Zeigarnik Effect” in which people who write topics down are more likely to remember and thus complete their tasks.
In a more recent study by E. J. Masicampo and Roy F. Baumeister found that writing tasks down massively helped with reducing anxiety amongst people and once again allowed them to complete tasks more quickly.
It’s important to note though that simply writing down one word to do lists isn’t ideal, instead be specific, so if you work in sales and you are targeted on making 50 calls per day write this down.
It’s also important to list your tasks by order of importance doing your most difficult tasks on your to do list first.
Opt to do this on pen and paper and feel the satisfaction of ticking them off!
Invest in headphones
With working from home comes the added distraction of external noises.
You may live with others or have noisy neighbours which can force you to stop getting stuff done and so investing in soundproofing or noise cancelling headphones can be a great option to help manage your time when working from home.
Aim to listen to music through them for a set period of time when you need to focus to help achieve your task.
My choice for noise reducing headphones has to be the industry leading Sony WH1000XM3 which is the market leader when it comes to all things headphones related – you can read up more about why I recommend them here.
Distractions are the biggest things that remote workers prevent them from managing there time effectively
Act like you’re going into the office
Another fantastic option to help manage your time when working from home is to act like you are going into the office.
Usually when we work from home we set softer rules then we would if we were in the office, I mean let’s face it, I think all remote workers can attest to working from home in their sweat clothes at least a few times.
Having structure as though you were in the office will massively help keep you focused and help give you a sense of purpose.
Start and finish when you would normally work and be sure to set expectations to your boss on what you expect to achieve that day.
Get plenty of exercise in the morning
In my experience, no matter how old you get or how hard you try, getting up in the morning is always tough, even if you work from home.
As such, one of the easiest things I’ve done to help me start my day off right and help manage my time better, is getting exercise in the morning.
This could be as simple as doing some beginner yoga or going for a work first thing in the morning to get the blood pumping or by doing something more active such as weight training or a HIIT workout.
Working out in the forming not only helps you free up your day from working out later on, but also adds back in the exercise and time it takes to wake up on your commute to work.
As soon as you get back in you will feel more energized for the day ahead and proud that you have accomplished something right off the back.
Meditate
One of the biggest problems poor time management has on remote workers is a lack of control.
Lack of control of our schedules, of our time and lack most important lack of control of our ability to get stuff done.
Meditation then can be an easy way to help you self reflect on your jobs when you are feeling overwhelmed working from home, leaving you feel energised and more relaxed about addressing the problems then when you first started.
Meditation has a huge number of benefits including:
- Lengthening attention spans
- Reducing stress and anxiety
- Enhances self awareness
All of which can massively help those of us who work from home on a regular basis.
Get plenty of sleep
Sleep is one of those things that all of us think we can go without.
I mean let’s face it, I know if I had the chance to do more work over getting a good night’s rest I know which one I would do.
Working from home has led to sleep patterns to become poorer and so it’s more important now than ever to ensure that you get a solid eight hours of sleep.
The best way to do this would be by using the following tips:
- Reduce your exposure to blue light at least an hour before you sleep
- Aim to read a book before you go to sleep
- Try to go to sleep at the same time every day (yes even weekends)
- Use essential oils like lavender to help you sleep ( to read up more about essential oils when working from home check out my blog post here)
Getting plenty of sleep when working from home will allow you to better manage your time by feeling more rested for the day ahead and less tired when it gets into the late hours of the work day.
Communicate with your friends and family
One of the reasons why remote workers have a hard time managing their time is because of the amount of isolation they feel.
Working from home can be a lonely experience especially if you live by yourself and so setting up some time to have a conversation with those close to you for even a few minutes can help get you through the rest of the day.
To help best manage your time doing this try to schedule this for a regular period every week and you will come out feeling a lot more refreshed.
You will also feel a lot less guilty about not being able to spend your time to see your family members.
If you are in fact feeling isolated when you work from home check out my post here –
Make a list of all your tasks
Whilst making a to-do list is a great option to help manage your time you can further help build on this by making a list of all of your tasks and then add how long they take to complete each.
This will give you the exact amount of time you need in the day to accomplish your tasks and, now that you have the data it will allow you to format your day properly.
To give you an idea, I work in sales and my current roles require me to do the following; prospecting calls ,drafting emails and finding new businesses to go after. Of the three cold calling takes up the most amount of time and so I would break my down down in the following way:
- Cold calling – 4 hours
- Finding new businesses – 2 hours
- Emailing new prospects – 1 hour
- General time
As you can see then my first main area of focus for the day should be on calling which takes up the most amount of time.
It’s also important to schedule some dead time in the day as you will likely have other meetings come up or have some of these tasks overrun occasionally.
Set a deadline outside of work
Deadlines are a lot easier to set in an office with most of us being able to watch the clock countdown to five and so plan our day accordingly.
Working from home is completely different with most of us remote workers merging our work and personal lives together.
As such, one of the most important things you can do from a time management standpoint is to set a hard deadline at the end of your work day.
Aim to finish at the same time you would finish work normally and set yourself an activity or make plans for just after you finish work.
I would recommend investing money in a new hobby and to do said hobby just after you finish work as it is more likely that you will continue on the hobby and stick to finish at a set time.
Getting dressed in the morning sets your mindset in the right place to carry on with your work and is a fantastic method to help manage your time
Do the most difficult task in the first few hours
Doing the most difficult task first is one of the fastest ways to have an impact on your time when working from home. Doing so gives you a win earlier on in the day and can help you to stay productive as the day goes on.
If you find you have a difficult task near the end of the day it’s more likely that you will want to push it on for the rest of the day and you will find that this task can end up getting pushed for weeks on end.
A great book to read on this topic is “Eat That Frog” by Brian Tracey which talks all about how he managed to build up a six figure business using this theory – you can check it out on my recommended books page here.
Consider productivity apps
Working from home has been made possible for the masses though the internet.
So why not use technology to help manage your time when working from home, I found the following apps to be the most useful:
- Trello – a great productivity app that can be used for tasks lists nd to manage how productive your team is getting on – great for a collaborative workplace of employees who are working from home
- Forest – A great app that uses the Pomodoro technique to help keep you focused whilst a little plant grows,
- Offtime – a brilliant app that allows you to block certain apps that eat a lot of your time such as Facebook or Netflix for certain amounts of time.
- Alarmy – sometimes a normal alarm won’t get you up in time, enter Alarmy – which will definitely help get you up or alert you to when you need to move on to your next task
- Streaks – Streaks is a fantastic app that helps you build up the habits of working from home, set yourself the tasks for the day and hit gamify if you have completed it or not.
Aim to do a little more every day
Getting better at managing your time when you work from home is as much about trying to improve each day as it is about managing your time better.
It’s very easy to beat yourself up everyday thinking that you’re not doing a very good job but aiming to know something as simple as one minute from your tasks every day adds up.
For example, if you have to send out 20 emails and it takes you one hour to do that and then aim to knock off one minute each day and before you know it your tasks will be getting done quicker.
Add them into an Excel or Google Sheets doc everyday so you can see how well you are performing.
Make a note of when your the most productive
Another quick tip to help you manage your time when working from home is to make a note of when you get the most amount of work done.
For me, I’m usually the most productive between 9.30 and 11.30 in the morning and so aim to get all of my important work done in between those times.
For others, they work best in the middle of the night.
So how do you figure out when you are the most productive?
Well it takes a few weeks but look at your schedule and focus on the important tasks that you do on a regular basis.
Schedule them in for different times during the days and at the end of the month have a look back to see which period was the most productive for said tasks.
You can then use this data going forward to organise your tasks in the time when they are the most effective for you.
Move unnecessary meetings to the afternoon
One of the most unnecessary wastes of time are unnecessary meetings that could be avoided through a simple message or email.
Throw in working from home into the mix and you’ll often find that the amount of meetings you have will increase with managers wanting to check in on how your day is getting on.
To help manage your time better, avoid unnecessary meetings. Make a list of the meetings over the past month that you felt ate into your time too much and then present these back to management with solutions on how said meetings could be avoided.
Do one task at a time
With hustle culture on the internet, the past few years have tricked a lot of us remote workers into thinking that we can take on more, work harder and work 100+ hour weeks with no real issue.
The truth is that most people are bad at multitasking and often doing two things at once will eat into your time more than help you be productive.
Start one task and take your time to complete it. It might sound contradictory but you will get the task completed even faster and the quality of the work will be even better.
Journal your tasks the night before
Another fantastic way of managing your time is by preparing yourself the night before.
Using a journal to make a note of all the important tasks you have to do the day ahead will help focus your mind and help you allocate specific timings to said tasks.
Use the to-do list method we talked about earlier on to do this and you will find that you will find yourself wasting a lot less time.
Aim to keep one hour free to help save on time
No matter how hard you try to prepare, life has a habit of throwing wrenches your way. Have an important meeting? Your tyre might get a puncture the night before, have to get up early? Your alarm will go off.
Having a spare hour free everyday when working from home will reduce any surprises or emergency meetings that might go in and can also help if any of your tasks run over there allocated time. This will also give you peace of mind as you have already accounted for bonus time wastage.
Listen to binaural music
Listening to certain types of music such as classical on binaural music can help focus your mind and help you accomplish your tasks faster.
It’s important that the music you listen to isn’t a familiar song that you know as you will likely get distracted and listen to the song as opposed to focusing on the task at hand.
Use some headphones to help keep any unwanted sounds out.
My recommendation that I listen to everyday can be found below:
Dress like your getting dressed into the office
Starting the day in the right way is one of the best things you can do to help manage your time more effectively as the day goes on.
One of the easiest wins then that you can do for this is to get dressed in the morning in the clothes that you would wear for an office.
This will help get your mindset to the frame of work and will avoid you from procrastinating on any tasks, saving you valuable time.
To help ready up more about this I’ve written a post you can check out here.
Reduce social media usage to regain your time
Whilst social media definitely has some advantages in connecting you with people all over the globe, for those of us working from home it can be an unwanted distraction, eating into our time and on occasion our work day too.
It’s estimated that people spend around 3 hours a day on social media, so it’s easy to see how without managing this it can stop you from accomplishing your tasks.
The best thing to do to avoid this then would be to use apps like Offtime to stop you from logging into your social media during work hours.
Figure out where you waste the most amount of time
Without data, us remote workers won’t know where we waste the most amount of time so understanding where your day gets wasted the most is valuable data you can’t afford to miss when working from home.
To do this, simply keep a log of your day and the tasks you’ve accomplished. Aim to update this every hour during work (so typically eight hours for most of us). Doing this every hour means the data will be fresh and you can have the most accurate data possible.
In these individual hours make a note of what it is you did that hour, send emails, watch TV, do the dishes and write down how long these tasks took to accomplish.
After a few weeks of doing this, you will know which hours and on what tasks you tend to waste the most amount of time on and can then plan ahead accordingly.
Doing something as simple as buying a watch can go a long way to to help you keep track of time insted of relying on your phone
Start a side hustle
This is the most counterintuitive step on the last.
I mean doesn’t starting a side hustle mean you will be eating into more of your day?
Well yes and no, whilst side hustles will extend the amount of time you spend working during the week, it will help to focus your mind when you are at work to accomplish the work for your employer before you move onto your side hustle.
So which side hustle is best for you?
It really depends on what it is that you are passionate about, for me it was blogging and so if you want to learn a little more about how to start a blog as a side hustle you can check out more about Income school here.
Communicate with your manager
If the move to remote working is proving difficult to you and you are unable to manage your time effectively then be sure to speak to your manager.
As bad as it is to say, it’s not their responsibility to check in with you, you need to speak to them about how you are getting on – it might seem embarrassing at first, but your manager will understand where you are coming from and will help you come up with solutions.
Be patient
Finally, managing your time when working from home is a marathon not a sprint so it’s important that you take each day at a time, aim to do a little better each day and you will find your time getting managed a lot better each day.
FAQs
So now that you know how to manage your time when working from home more effectively let’s answer some frequently asked questions when it comes to this topic
What is time management?
Time management is the process of managing and organizing your time more effectively to accomplish your tasks in a faster manner. Good time management enables you to work smarter not harder and can potentially save both employees and employers hundreds of hours of lost time.
Why do you need to be careful monitoring your time working from home?
People who work from home need to be careful in managing and monitoring their time when working from home due to the sheer number of distractions. Televisions, social media and mobile phones are a lot more pregnant at home and with no management working alongside you, it is a lot easier to become complacent.
Where do most remote workers waste the most amount of time?
The most amount of time wasted by people who work from home comes from having loose schedules, on chores, browsing the interest on sites that are relevant to work and on social media.
That being said, as mentioned earlier, remote workers on average work 16.8 days more per year then there remote working counterparts.
What are the effects of wasting time when working from home?
Wasting too much time or having poor time management when working from home can cause people to be less productive, causing them to take longer to complete their tasks, reduce their communication with their colleagues and generally lead to a poorer work life balance. This can lead to feelings of stress and anxiety and in severe cases lead to disciplinary action by their employers and burnout.
How long can people stay focused on one task for?
People can stay focused on tasks for about 20 minutes before taking a break. In total employees are only productive for around 2 hours and 53 minutes per day, usually consisting of these 20 minute bursts of activity.
Is working from home more productive?
Employees who work from home work 16.8 days more per year then their offices based counterparts. This averages out to 1.6 days per month more of work for employees.
Studies on time management
So to summarize some of the results let’s turn to the science and see what some of the studies say around both working from home and time management:
|
Study |
Finsidings |
| Airtasker | Employees who work from home work 16.8 days more per year then their office based counterparts |
| Osgood, J. M., McNally, O., & Talerico | People who are more effective at managing their time are less likely to have better self control – meaning better time management means that employees who work from home are less likely to get distracted. |
| Maccan | Time management can be a learned skill that anyone can do to feel more in control of their time |
| Harvard Business Review | People can only focus on one task for about 20 minutes at a time |
| Vouchercloud | Most employees are only productive for 2 hours and 53 minutes per day. |
How to manage your time working from home
So hopefully this post today has helped you figure out some technique to help manage your time when working from home.
A lot of people reading my blog want to know what products I recommend for a home office/remote working. You can find out my recommendations here and learn how I make money whilst working remotely on the side here.
The content on this on this site has been written by Fehed Nicass who has over a decades worth of experience in sales and has worked remotely for the past 2 years.