5 Ways to Be More Efficient While Working From Home
Working From Home
A large portion of the United States has suddenly found itself working from home and adapting to a new way of life. How can you remain productive while working from your couch or kitchen table? These five strategies can help optimize your time away from the office.
1. Establish a routine
A stable routine is always helpful, which is why having a habit machine — or system to help you build positive habits — is essential for those who are new to working remotely. Your habit machine will help you add more value to your daily routine.
The first step is a little counterintuitive to some: Lower the bar. Tell yourself, “I’m going to do this a minimum of one minute today, two minutes a day tomorrow.” Set the bar low, but continually raise it to build momentum.
One of the things the habit machine will allow you to do is to save time. Every day, I set a goal or an objective to figure out how I can save four minutes. Four minutes a day is a magical number for me because I know it represents three full days of productivity each year. I know any positive habit I create or any system I implement that saves me just four minutes a day has a compounding effect on my results.
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2. Be a student of your calendar.
By far, the biggest change in productivity came for me when I started studying my calendar. This isn’t taking a look at your schedule, there are three things to focus on:
Study the things you have planned for the day. Look to create efficiencies with your habit machine, as I mentioned above. For example, I have a 5/20 Rule, where I try to schedule five-minute phone calls and keep my in-person meetings to 20 minutes, making it so the people I interact with are ready for our interaction and focused. With a predominance of virtual meetings today, making even a small change like using a 4/19 Rule could allow for more production.
Study the white space of your calendar. How can you schedule more of those four-minute calls or 19-minute meetings? How can you be more accessible to those who might need you? And don’t forget to ensure you schedule downtime or fun activities, too.
Study your sleep. It not only is the restorative process, but it enhances your immune system, which is of the utmost importance. You need to build a consistent sleep routine that helps restore not only your physical being but your mental health, as well.
3. Master prioritization.
As you’re studying your calendar, you must institute the “Do It Now” rule. There’s an old saying: “Ask a busy person to do something for you and you’ll be much more likely to get it done.” It goes beyond that, though.
You have to evaluate your tasks by urgency and importance in order to determine priority. You do this by analyzing the actuality of the situation or event in light of your own personal values, not the urgency perceived by others.
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If something is important but not urgent: Plan it, schedule it in your calendar. Give yourself a deadline!
Something that’s urgent but not important: Delegate it. Trust your team to take care of it.
Finally, if something is not urgent and not important, figure out a way to eliminate it. It’s obviously not worth your time.
4. Eliminate distractions.
What you focus on, or what you pay attention to and give intention to, will create coincidences in your life, whether you want them or not.
I’ve got a story that’s extremely applicable to this that stems from the last time I was in a race car. I was given the opportunity to drive around at a real track, in a real race car, with a real professional driver. They had cones set up for us to maneuver around and I kept hitting the cones. My driving instructor told me to stop looking at the cones, to which I replied, “Well, I don’t want to hit the cones.” He told me to look at the road in front of me, focus on where I wanted to go instead of where I didn’t want to go. After that, I didn’t hit a cone.
If you’re focused on the distractions you face, you’re going to put attention and intention on them, eventually receiving the coincidence of the distraction. Pay attention to what you want for yourself and your business. Stay focused and realize that you will hit the cones if you keep staring at them.
5. Use the telephone.
Finally, the last piece of advice for working at home efficiently is that you’ve got to be tough and learn to use the telephone. Your telephone is one of the best ways to prove to those who you work for or with that you are productive, accessible and gracious. Effective communication is more essential than ever, which makes the telephone one of the easiest and best forms of communication, with minimal technological know-how required.
You have an opportunity to send your frequency, intonation and connotation in context via voice on the telephone. Data can flow on the telephone using text or social media or email, but the telephone is meant for calling people and making emotional connections, something difficult to do over text. If you want to make sure that you’re productive, accessible and gracious, show you can be of service or of value by the way that you connect with others.
18 Jobs You Can Do Without Leaving the House
Work-from-home positions hold appeal to older workers during the pandemic and beyond
1. Teacher
2. Telehealth Nurse
3. Transcriptionist
4. Consultant
5. Bookkeeper
6. Virtual Assistant
7. Focus Group Participant
8. Translator
9. Mock Juror
10. Writer
11. Customer Service Representative
12. SEO Specialist
13. Claims Investigator
14. Speech Language Pathologist
15. Fundraising Coordinator
16. School Psychologist
17. Sales Agent
18. Software Engineer
Why working from home is bad?
There is a darker side to working from home and there’s a lot you’ll miss—and you may limit or damage your career growth. For one thing, you may be struggling with social isolation. A global study by Columbia University looked at the experiences of 226,638 people across North America, Europe and Asia.
How do I work for Amazon from home?
You can access the job site by going to www.amazon.jobs and clicking on “Remote Career Opportunities” — or just go straight here. From there, you can search for the role you want (like “customer service”) or you can apply some filters using the checkboxes on the left, and take a look at what’s available.
Is working from home a real job?
If you are interested in working from home, there are some real, legit jobs available. Some companies actively hire work-from-home employees, and you can find work-at-home job listings online. But they are not nearly as plentiful as you would think considering the amount of interest there is in working from home.
How much does Amazon pay to work from home?
The typical Amazon Work From Home Customer Service Representative salary is $13 per hour. Work From Home Customer Service Representative salaries at Amazon can range from $11 – $35 per hour.
10 Flexible Ways for Stay At Home Moms and Dads to Earn Real Money
Being a stay-at-home mom or dad is a full-time job, but it doesn’t pay a full-time paycheck. This makes it difficult for some one-income families to earn enough money to pay for things they need, let alone grow their savings. Good news is, there are ways to earn money without leaving the house or sacrificing your time with the kids. These opportunities enable you to make some cash while your children are at school, asleep, or even while they’re home and wide awake!
So without further ado, I present to you the big list of flexible ways for stay at home moms and dads to earn extra cash on the side… or if you’re really motivated, earn a full time income!
1. Make Money With Your Blog
2. Affiliate Marketing
3. Sell Custom T-Shirts
4. Listen to Music for Cash
5. Set Up an Online Store
6. Get Paid for Freelance Writing Work
7. Sell Articles for Cash
8. Have a Garage/Yard Sale
9. Find and Post Odd Jobs on Craigslist
10. Sell Your Old Books