Most of us wish we could get more done in a day. We might look at others who appear to be constantly motivated, and wish for that ourselves. The thing is, very few people are always motivated. There are very few people in the world who don’t struggle with motivation and discipline just like you! The good news is that discipline isn’t something you either are or aren’t born with. Discipline is a skill that you can develop! These tips will help you get more done working from home!
WAKE UP AROUND THE SAME TIME
Wake up around the same time everyday. No, I’m not one of those people telling you to wake up at 5am and have a crazy productive morning. Because that’s not for everyone, and it’s definitely not for me! But it is helpful to have a set wakeup time that you stick to most days!
Be honest with yourself and decide what is a good time for you to wake up. Then stick to that schedule!
GET READY FOR THE DAY
Get ready for the day. I’m the type of person who needs to change into real clothes (leggings count as real clothes), and do my hair and makeup. This helps me feel ready for the day!
2020 update: I rarely do my hair and makeup anymore! Haha! But I still get dressed, and brush my teeth!
DON’T FORGET TO EAT
Eat a real meal! This is more of a perk of working from home, as opposed to a tip. But I love having a home cooked meal at some point during my work day.
Try not to skip meals during the day which will cause a blood sugar + energy crash in the afternoon! Making sure you eat a carb, fat and protein every 2-3 hours is so important for your physical + mental health!
FOCUS ON YOUR MOST IMPORTANT TASKS FIRST
Focus on the most imporant priorities first! Resist the urge to procrastinate with small tasks that don’t NEED to get done. Do the big things first, and then you’ll have time for less critical tasks!
While working from home a lot of us get carried away with cleaning our home instead of focusing on work! I know I got sucked into this when I started working from home, so now I try to stick to just a 20-30 minutes clean up at some point in the afternoon, and I save the rest of my cleaning for evenings and weekends. This helps me utilize the most valuable hours of the day for important work!
I created a weekly / monthly planner for myself when I couldn’t find one that I loved. I’d love to share it with you!
BRAIN DUMP
Do a brain dump! This is something I just started doing recently and was blown away by how effective it is! I don’t do this every day, but on days I’m feeling especially stressed or overwhelmed this helps me see everything that’s floating around inside my head, and start to organize and prioritize it!
RECOGNIZE YOUR WEAKNESSES
First, you need to recognize the areas where you struggle and where you want to see growth! Do you want to go to the gym before work, but instead spend an hour scrolling on Instagram? Are you trying to lose weight but always end up too tired to cook a healthy dinner after work? In order to get more done working from home, you need to recognize your weaknesses!
ELIMINATE DISTRACTIONS
Ok, so you’ve figured out where the problem is…. Now you need to eliminate the distractions so that it stops happening! Maybe you spend too much time scrolling on your phone while you’re supposed to be working – turn your phone off, or put it in another room! If that’s not an option, maybe you need to delete social media apps from your phone!
Maybe your goal is to get out of bed earlier to workout, do a devotional, or just have more time to get ready but instead you press snooze for 45 minutes. Maybe move your alarm clock/phone to the other side of the room so that you have to actually get out of bed to turn it off!
Figure out a way to eliminate the distraction that is hindering you from achieving your goals.
Click here for my favourite productivity tips when you work from home!
SET SMALL, TANGIBLE GOALS
Setting goals is important, but I think as humans we are inclined to set HUGE, unrealistic goals from ourselves. If you’re trying to lose weight, instead of setting a goal to lose 25 pounds in one month by working out for 1 hour a day and eating no junk food…set a smaller goal that you can achieve! Maybe that goal is to work out for 30 minutes/3x a week.
I know, it sounds like it will take so much longer to actually achieve your goal of losing 25 pounds with the smaller goal. But the opposite is actually true! When we set huge goals, we rarely succeed. We either fail within a few days because it was unrealistic, or we give up when we don’t see any success.
When we set small, tangible goals that we know we can achieve, we build motivation! When we’re able to follow through with the goals we set for ourselves, it tells our brains “I CAN DO THIS”.
TAKE NOTE OF WHAT HELPS
Once you’ve been following the above tips for a few days or weeks…reflect on what is helping you get more done working from home! Does having your alarm clock on the opposite side of your bedroom help? Great, keep doing it! If it’s not working, switch it up and try something else.
GIVE YOURSELF GRACE
It’s not easy to build discipline, so make sure you’re giving yourself grace! You might see progress for a while, and then have a setback, that’s normal! Try not to get discouraged with yourself, it takes time to develop any new skill.
I hope these tips will help you to build discipline in 2020! Be sure to pin this post for later!
