25 Tips for Increasing Work From Home Productivity
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π 8 Minute Read
Being a creative professional in the twenty-first century is somewhat of a marvel β I mean, we can make, share, and collaborate on projects with people on the other side of the planet, in real-time, using relatively inexpensive technology, with emojis for every emotion we could possibly need to express.
But, miracle as it is, there are certainly some down-sides to creating in such a digital world, primarily regarding our productivity β everything that can be used to create, can also be used to distract, leading to varying levels of output and quality in creative business.
Nobody every prepared us for how wildly distracting Instagram would be, or how insanely stressful dealing with a full inbox can be on a daily basis. As the world continues to adopt working from home as the norm, we're faced with the reality that our productivity is a delicate art, and requires intention to be maintained.
This is by no means and end-all guide to digital productivity, rather a few best practices that I've found in my personal journey of becoming a more productive creative professional.
Phone
The supercomputer in your pocket isn't so super when it's legitimately sucking your life away, robbing your attention and keeping you unproductive. As with a lot of these concepts, feel free to take what you'd like with a grain of salt β everyone has their own natural inclinations, strengths, and weaknesses that can be managed through varying levels of discipline.
1. Turn off ALL notifications except for messages and calls. Candy Crush can wait.
2. Don't put your phone anywhere in your eyesight while working β either keep it in your pocket or put it elsewhere. Your brain will desperately want to pick it up, even if it's face down.
3. Turn on "Do Not Disturb" while you're in work sprints of 1 hour or more β if you're worried about emergencies, set up your important contacts to be able to push through when they call but not text (setting in contacts).
4. Keep your apps on one, MAYBE two pages β anything that you haven't used in over a month, either hide it, delete it, or tuck it neatly into a folder with other semi-useless apps.
5. For the love of everything good, turn on dark mode and stop burning your retinas while reading emails at max-brightness. It also saves battery since pixels use lots more power to display white than black.
Social
If you were to simply quit social media altogether, I'd be willing to bet your productivity would increase by about 500% just by default. But for the rest of us who are still semi-happily ensnared by the attention-trap of social media, here are a few tips on making your experience a bit more enjoyable and productive. Note: Instagram is my long-time vice, so while these ideas are specific to that platform, they generally apply to any social account.
6. If you're going to be on a platform, actually be there β comment, like, and follow accounts that inspire and uplift you!
7. Go through the people you're following and unfollow: any names you don't recognize, people you never engage with, people whose content makes you mad or emotional, and any accounts that are no longer active.
8. iPhones have this dandy feature called "Screen Time" where you can see how much time you spend on each app. If you're brave (pun intended), take a look at your metrics β it's probably a jaw-dropping amount of time that youβve invested, if you're anything like me. So, let that number sink in and start to make changes to slowly wean yourself off β and if you're really intense, you can actually set limits via the Screen Time app menu, disabled by a password (best set by someone that's not you).
9. Only follow people whose content you actually enjoy consuming. Forget about social pressures for a moment β even if you're related to someone, but their posts either annoy or stress you out, there's no obligation for you to follow them! It may sound heartless, but frankly, we've all had social media long enough that we shouldn't have to justify making decisions like this that are good for our mental health.
10. Last resort: If you never share anything, are constantly getting annoyed, mad, or stressed from using it, and aren't really seeing any meaningful benefit from using social media, just remove the app from your phone! You don't have to flat-out delete your account to at least see how you respond to not having social media for a short time.
There's a methodology that I subscribe to that perhaps you've heard of called "Inbox Zero". One might think that the goal is to get to zero emails (which would be nice), but more or less, this actually translates to the amount of emotional energy that you ideally spend in your inbox β meaning that it's optimized to be the tool that it is, and not a constantly stimulating distraction that keeps you from doing work.
A few rules that I stick to in keeping my inbox in check:
11. If something can be responded to and dealt with in under two minutes, do it right away and get it over with.
12. If you'll never need to see it again, delete β if there's even a chance you'll need to reference it later, archive.
13. If you're subscribed to something, but never actually read it, unsubscribe and never think about it again.
14. Turn off all notifications on your devices regarding email, but have your email client auto-push for new messages, and check it manually every couple of hours to ensure prompt responses.
15. Do not β I repeat, DO NOT check email while laying in bed in the morning or at night. There's no worse way to start or end your day than to get stressed from an unexpected message. It can wait until you're back at the desk.
Files
While there are likely "normal" people who have terrible file storage etiquette, creatives certainly take the cake in terms of how horrendous their file management systems can be. Just start with this simple litmus test: Do you have a file currently called something like "MASTER Definitely Final LAST 12.pdf" on your desktop? If so, your folders could probably use some love. The first step is to admit you have a problem... and then set up some structure.
Depending on the kind of work that you do, you'll have different folder structure β but for me, a designer, these are the main folders that everything business-related goes into (with rough sub-folders in parentheses):
16. Branding (Logos β Banners β Photos β Web Assets)
17. Social (Templates β Images β Finals)
18. Clients ("Client Name" > Branding β Website β Social β Legal β Photos)
19. Legal (Taxes β Receipts β Government)
20. Templates (Mockups β Fonts β Stock Images β Notes)
Desk
Working from home has made everyone blindingly aware of how much they love or despise their desk setup. Heck, I only made it one week into being stuck at home before ordering half of Ikea's office supply section. However, no matter what your desk or office setup looks like, there are a few simple ways of making your workspace more productive.
21. Go ahead and take everything off your desk, get a wet-wipe or your cleaning solution of choice, and give your desk a good wipe-down β if you're anything like me, you probably don't do this nearly enough.
22. While you've got everything off the desk, toss out or put away anything that doesn't contribute directly to the work you're doing for the day. Plants and beverages are exempt, of course.
23. Ergonomics. If you're able to, make sure your chair, desk, and monitor (or screen) are adjusted to keep your posture in check.
24. Eating at your desk is fine, but don't fool yourself into thinking you're going to actually get anything done while doing it.
25. Get yourself the biggest water bottle you're willing to buy, fill it up, and keep it at your desk at all times β just because you're not exercising doesn't mean your body doesn't need water to survive.
