How To Stay Productive While Working From Home

Today we are going to talk about how to stay productive while working from home.

First, I’m going to share with you why time management sucks when working from home. So throw that idea away. Next I’m going to share some critical components of a daily routine that you may not have thought of yet. Lastly, I’m going to share why you should actually stop seeking balance (which is what everyone is talking about) and I’m going to share with you what to seek instead.

Before we get started.

I should probably share that I’ve actually been working from home ever since I left my last job which was 17 years ago. I’m very accustomed to working from home.
I know that some people started working from home due to the pandemic but I’ve been doing it for quite a while. We have actually built a INC 5000 company from home, we have a lot of virtual assistants, we have different people from all over the world that work for our company but we essentially work from home. So I’m very familiar with that concept. We have young kids at home so I know what you’re going through, I know what you’re dealing with and I really want to help you.

Why should you throw away the idea of time management?

So I said a lot of crazy things in the beginning there. Time management sucks and balance sucks….let me help you out with this. First of all instead of time management which I think is just not the greatest thing if you’re trying to build a business or you’re trying to be productive or should I should say from home. Instead of time management, focus on activity management. Activity management means that you establish a a set of things or a number of things that if done would make that a successful day. For example we coach and train a lot of network marketers. For network marketers, instead of taking, hey I’m going to take the next hour and connect with people on social media, instead have a number. I’m going to connect with 20 people, I’m going to connect with 30. I’m going to connect with 10, I’m going to connect with five.

Instead of time management, because here’s my concern especially when working from home is you have all kinds of distractions. First you have the distraction of social media, period. If you’re doing any kind of work on social media, the chances of you just being laser focused and robotic and getting everything done without distraction is highly unlikely. You’re going to see that funny cat video, you’re going to see the kid falling off the bike, you’re going to see something that distracts you that’s eating into your time management approach instead activity management.

How many people am I reaching out to, connecting with or are you creating videos, how many videos should I create? So don’t say I’m going to take the next hour of doing videos because you’re very likely to get distracted. Instead say, today I’m going to do seven videos or three videos, two videos, you get the point. Activity management, much more powerful than time management.

What are the critical components of a daily routine?

Okay, what are some things that you may want to consider adding to your daily routine? If you are reading this and you may be building a business from home, you may just be working from home for your job, so whatever. If you are reading this, I’m willing to bet that you’re wanting to in some way shape or form improve your life. There are three things that I would highly suggest you add to your existing daily routine.

Number one, exercise, these aren’t necessarily in order, but some kind of exercise and this helps with circulation, it helps keep you healthier. It also helps you to become a master of your schedule. I know that the excuses that people use is “oh, I just don’t have the time” and that means they are a slave to their schedule. I want you to be the master. I want you to decide that I’m going to work out.

Here’s what I have figured out over these last few years. I look at the things that are important to me and I’m going to lay down three very important things to my daily routine that I do every single day. I have now figured out that I do these things and the rest of my day fills in the spaces, not the other way around. If you allow your schedule to fill up all the spaces and then you try to fit things in then you are going to constantly fall down. You are going to constantly fail at trying to master your space, trying to master your body, yourself, everything. Instead I do these things and the rest of the day fills in and boy does it. It always will. Your daily demands are going to fill any space that you have even if you’re not working that hard, you’re still going to have your spaces filled up so you need to prioritize and become the master of your schedule. Become the master of you. Say these are the things I’m going to do and the rest of the day is just going to be there.

Number one is exercise and that can look like anything you want. Maybe it’s a 20-minute listen to an audiobook walking around your neighborhood, maybe it is hardcore gym, whatever, that’s up to you. One thing that I incorporated, this has been maybe two months, something like that or maybe a month is for all of my life if I work out, I get sore. I have a sore shoulder and back and lower back, calves and about 30, 60 days ago I incorporated that every day I’m going to do 10 minutes of stretching and I follow a 10 minute program. It’s actually from the Peloton app (just giving them a shout out). It’s a 10 minute full body stretch on the peloton app, I’m sure you could find things on YouTube as well but I do this 10 minutes every single day and guess what? I hardly ever get sore now. It’s like why didn’t I start this earlier, why did I go through 40 years of pain and aching and bio-freeze and all this stuff. I just stretch and I’m not sore anymore. It’s awesome and so that’s one thing that I do and I also lift weights. That’s number one.

Number two, meditation. Omg I’m such a big fan of meditation. If I had to pick one thing that I would do differently starting birth, I don’t know, starting as early as possible, it would be I would meditate daily. Now some people are doing a good job at attempting meditation and they do…I don’t know what they’re called headspace or there’s other things where it’s like a five minute you know kind of thing. I go a little bit more intense. I do 90 minutes a day minimum and that’s where I am clearing my thoughts. That’s where I’m setting an intention for the day. I even set an intention for the actual meditation. Usually my intention is upgrade. I’m looking to actually upgrade my cells in my body, I’m looking to upgrade my brain, I’m looking to upgrade my wisdom. That is something that has just totally, totally chilled me out as far as how I react to the world and how I react to bad news. How I react to the things that I used to very, very easily triggered by. I just don’t have that stuff anymore and that is such a better place to be. Meditation has brought me great ideas, I’ve had wild (if you go that deep) I’ve had wild visualization so I’ve had a great time, that’s something I would highly, highly suggest that you get into the practice of doing. Don’t worry. You can’t start at 90 minutes, no one can. I started with 20 minutes, couldn’t hack that and I just had to do it. I did it for months and months and months and months before I could even do 20 minutes. Then I worked my way up and I’ve since done four hour meditations.

Number three….The last thing, the third thing is a nightly visualization. Before you go to bed is prime time, it’s the prime time for you to set intentions and create visualizations for your subconscious. Now your subconscious is that thing that is constantly going to be proving what you want and what you’re focused on to be true. Your subconscious is called by many philosophers, many from different religions call it your co-creator. It’s you instructing, what do you actually want in your life. Here’s the trick before you go to bed, see yourself in your imagination, in your mind, see what you actually want in your life. Do you want to be in better shape? Do you want your wife to be nicer to you or your husband? Do you want more money? Do you want….whatever? See that in your mind.

The two questions you should ask is, “how would I feel if I had that, if it were true?”

And, “how would I know it’s true? What conversations would I be having if I was that person?”

Then go off to bed and you will be absolutely amazed at some of the things that come up. I’ve had wild things. We discussed this a lot on this blog and our YouTube channel, so be sure to check out some of our other videos on that topic. Those are the three things that I would highly suggest that you add to your daily routine.

Let’s hear from you.

Before we get to my last point I would love to hear from you. Have you tried meditation? Believe me, I was the worst. When I first started I was doing this and I’m trying to focus and I just want to lay down…then I would fall asleep. I would wake up. Oh, I meditated. I didn’t meditate. So I would love to hear your experience. I would love to give you some feedback because maybe I can help you.

Stop seeking balance!

All right so now I’m bashing balance that sounds crazy…like who bashes balance of life and career and family? Well here’s the reality. I think it’s unrealistic to use the word balance when it comes to career, family etc. because there’s always going to be one that has a little bit higher priority depending on the person. A lot of times…maybe mom was running a business, had kids, that’s going to really vary. Some women want to go right back to work, some women don’t want to do that. They want to hang with the kiddos. Well guess what? They’re not going to be balanced and so balance isn’t the right word. Blend is the right word. You want to have a blend. Here’s the number one key to a good blend is being present. If you’re at the dinner table, put the damn phone away. Don’t be talking about business when the kids are around, don’t be talking about all your struggles and different things if the kids are present and you’re trying to…you want that better thing.

It’s more important for you to be present. I work pretty hard. I work pretty hard from home. When the kids come home, we are on the trampoline, I don’t have my phone out. We are on the trampoline ,we are in the playroom, we are riding bikes, we are doing something fun that shows that I am focused on them. This is something that especially if you’re a guy, especially if you’re a guy, you may need to practice because I used to be that dad that had my phone. I would play for two minutes and then think, “oh I should be doing something, man” and so I would be checking my.. whatever. It took some time. I think meditation helped too, to be honest. Now I’ll just spend time with the kids and I won’t even know where my phone is until an hour later.

Being present and thinking about blend. What is the season of your life? Do you need to focus on your business? Well if you need to focus on your business then you may be 70-30. You may be 70% business, 30% kids and family, that may be the appropriate blend for you right now but it is never going to be 50-50. It’s never going to be a “oh, oop clocking out. Okay all right kids“, that’s just not the deal. A lot of times people that even attempt that, they’re not present then either. They’re working their business feeling guilty about their kids, they’re playing with the kids checking their phone, they’re zero percent present but in their head they’re 50-50. It’s just not realistic. Blend and be present is the absolute key.

Would you like more tips?

I hope you got value from reading this post. Hope it was helpful. If you would like more tips like this, you may want to check out our best-selling book Time, Money, Freedom. It’s put out by Hay House, we love Hay House. Here is the link, Higdongroup.com/time-money-freedom, if you would like to check it out. We have it on audible and kindle as well, but check it out. A lot of people have really gotten help from reading it and I think it’ll help you.