Home-based businesses often come with a huge amount of freedom. That means you have the chance to plan like George Clooney, setting up an Ocean’s Eleven style heist. It also means that you can end up like Curious George, with cake batter in your hair and a bicycle in the bathtub.
No matter what sort of system you use, I can guarantee going in with a plan will make you more productive.
If you do nothing else after reading this article, you should at least devise a weekly or daily plan for time management. Once the basics are in place, though, you can start carving out extra time to get more done with these five productivity hacks for the home office worker.
Also, please don’t use your newfound time to break into a Las Vegas casino. Unless you’re George Clooney – the man can do no wrong.
Take better notes
If you spend all day talking to clients, working on existing projects, and chasing down new customers, you need a way to keep track of everything.
I’ve always been partial to the classic notebook, as I love the scratch of pencil on paper. As Roald Dahl wrote in Lucky Break, the story of his career, “Without my little notebook, I would be quite helpless.”
These days, I’m partial to the Bullet Journaling, but you just need to find whatever works for you. The key is to use a system that allows you to index or quickly search out details. If this means you put things in Evernote, OneNote, or Keep, so be it.
Being able to easily capture and reference notes can save you minutes every day and hours every week. Overlooking the basics will never result in success.
Get it done, Pomodoro style
Systems, systems, systems. Everything should have a system, even if the system is effectively chaos embodied.
Compare the way you walk to the way a baby toddles. You step out there, pothole be darned, and make the world yours. A toddler doesn’t have a system in place for walking. They have to calculate every single step.
Your business should have a process in place for every repeatable event, including the daily tasks of communicating, working, and even taking breaks.
My coworkers are currently split between Getting Things Done (GTD) and Pomodoro. I find the time constraints of Pomodoro anxiety-inducing, but some people have to have the clock on them to really produce.
Find a time management system that works for you and then layer in all the other activities. The less you have to think about your daily tasks, the easier they’ll become.
Pull a Hemingway
My friend and yours, Ernest Hemingway, used a counterintuitive little trick to get more done. He never got everything out of his system in a day. He never went to bed having left it all on the page.
Instead, stop yourself in the middle of a thought or a process. This gives you a simple place to pick up the next day. Instead of spending those first hours getting settled and figuring the day out, you can jump right in where you left off.
This is an easy one for me, but for the home office, you’ll have to put a bit of planning into it.
Write most of an email or do some SEO research. Finish everything in the PowerPoint presentation except for the conclusion. Get most of the way through a task but leave yourself that little mental snack for the morning – it should perk your day right up.
Stretch yourself thin
Jack Welch hated the idea of having excess time. If he had time lying around, he was sure to dive into the minutiae instead of spending more on the big stuff. As a result, he recommended taking on extra direct reports and more work than normally planned.
By stretching yourself a little thin, you force yourself to focus on the big things. Get five clients lined up instead of three. Promise that deliverable next week instead of the week after. Get over the little stuff and get caught up in the whirlwind of big issues.
Being overworked is tiring, but it will help you refine your daily system, prioritize your work, and get more done, even if you don’t think more is possible.
Automate your world
I don’t know what kind of business you run, but I’m going to guess that you didn’t get into it because you love paperwork. You probably love giving financial advice or consulting on human resources or making dresses for kids.
Instead of spending your time on paperwork, start automating it.
Every major accounting software (many of which are free, by the way) now supports some sort of tie-in with automation tools. Take pictures of receipts and have them automagically put in the right account. Get alerts when your cash flow is in danger. Have employees use self-service portals to update info instead of sending all their requests through you.
Business software is getting cheaper and better. There is no good reason not to use it, especially since there’s a free option for just about every task, these days. Get that time back by making a computer do the heavy lifting.
Final thoughts
Getting more out of your day doesn’t mean that you have to work 15 hours. You can keep working your usual 14 and just make some minor changes in the way you plan. The beauty of home-based work is usually that it allows you to set up your schedule in the manner that best works for you.
Take advantage of your freedom and make more out of every day.
