working from home Archives

1. PLAN YOUR DAY IN ADVANCE

Each evening before I go to bed I fill a piece of paper with everything that is on mind and everything I have to do. This means that I won’t struggle to sleep because of worries running through my mind all night long. Once I have emptied my brain onto a piece of paper, I write down everything that I have to do and have to achieve the next day. Being freelance means that everyday is different, you may have meetings in town, for me I often have to pop into town for an audition and rush back home to write a blog post, then shoot some content for Instagram before the sun goes down. This post is all about those days when I am working from home all day long. Plan your appointments, meetings and conference calls in advance and block in times for different tasks. If you need to book in a parcel pick up, a conference call or even a doctors appointment. Make sure you block out time for this. I actually often skip going to a doctors because I simply don’t have time to leave the house or spend a long time on the phone trying to get an appointment. Livi allows you to book a doctor’s appointment and see an NHS GP by video, all for free. You can get a video call with a doctor within 10-15 minutes enabling you to schedule the time you want, saving you loads of time on the phone trying to book an appointment and sitting in doctor’s waiting rooms.

2. EXERCISE IN THE MORNING

I love to wake up a little bit earlier each working day and do some exercise. After walking and feeding my dog I either go for a run or go to a bootcamp class. If I go for a run I will pop on a podcast about the world of social media. I find this gives me a great sense of motivation and also inspires a lot of new work ideas. If there are no new podcast episodes to catch up on I will put on some up-tempo music. My current fave, over a year after it was released is The Greatest Showman soundtrack. There’s something about that album that really gees me up for my run. Exercising in the morning allows you to get some fresh air and increase your flow of endorphins making you a generally happier morning person. Go on, give it a try. once you have done it I bet you you will feel nothing but happiness.

3. GET DRESSED

This may seem obvious and simple but it really is necessary to get out of your PJs and into real clothes. I am often guilty of coming back from bootcamp in my dirty clothes and sitting at my desk to “quickly” respond to my emails. Come 3pm I am still sat there typing away as a dirty mess. I have found that I am far more productive if I have a wash as soon as I get back from working out. I wear nice but comfy clothes, I do my make up, my hair and I pop in my contact lenses (glasses make me sleepy).

4. CONQUER THE EMAILS

I personally like to spend my first hour of the working day doing my emails. Along with my diary I reply to every email in my inbox. I read and sign contracts. I RSVP to events and schedule in meetings. The reason I like to do my emails in the morning is that you will hopefully get a response on the same day. I also like to make any phone calls or conference calls in the morning. There’s nothing worse than having an amazing phone meeting in the evening to then be hyped up and excited about a project but not be able to work on it right away with a fresh and excited mind.

5. SCHEDULE IN SOCIAL DISTRACTIONS

Whether you work in the world of social media or not you can fall into a rather unproductive worm hole. If you don’t work in social media but love the social networking platforms then you need to schedule these into your day. If you are an influencer then you may want to schedule in more time. I like to say to myself, empty my email inbox then have 15 minutes on social media, or take photos for a blog post and then have a social media moment. Even though using social media is good for my work I do need to schedule it and limit myself a little bit to make sure I am completing other potentially more important work, like this blog post 🙂

I hope these top tips can help you have a more productive day and help you achieve your dreams quicker. Let me know if you try any of them out. Have you got any more productive working tips you can share with us all?

5 TOP TIPS TO BEING PRODUCTIVE WHEN WORKING FROM HOME | Megan Taylor

I am assuming that you are here because you currently work from home or possibly have dreams to do so, or maybe you are younger and just aspire to having a lovely sanctuary to do your homework. Whatever your stage in life is, working from home can be tricky. There can be many distractions, you don’t have anyone to bounce ideas off, you can’t always get out of the office for lunch and you don’t have a boss above you to keep you on track. I have been freelance for my whole working career but since becoming a blogger and having to graft for myself and occasionally have very important deadlines I have had to work out the best way to work from home. I personally prefer working from home than in my local cafe because I need my self made environment around me…that being said, I do write some of my best work in a notepad on the train whilst commuting. I have been a long time lover of all things stationary and have always had a desk in my room from a very young age, wether that was to do colouring in, my homework, my dissertation or later on in life my tax return. I have fond memories of new term time and buying new pencil cases, pens, pencils and covering my exercise books in stickers of the coolest pop stars in Smash Hits. Flash forward a few years and I am still obsessed but would rather spray everything white and gold a la Pinterest 🙂 .

My 5 top tips to successfully working from home below will hopefully help prepare you for working from home and inspire you to add a little beauty to your working environment. If you don’t have a home office, then why not buy a cute small desk from your local charity shop and paint it with a fresh lick of white paint, or even simpler you can buy fold away desks which you attach to a wall and fold up to keep any mess out of site. Whatever your situation, try your hardest to find a spot to work from that isn’t the sofa or your kitchen table, both for your sanity and the comfort of your back and neck muscles.

Read my interview with Paperchase here.
This post is in collaboration with Paperchase [AD].

1.BEAUTIFY YOUR ENVIRONMENT

You have to like where you are working from to produce good work. You need to feel inspired and excited to work and you will then thrive and be the best you can possibly be. My top tip is to make a mood board on Pinterest, much like mine here and head off to the shops to replicate it. Try and make every moment a Pinterest worthy photo and you will be proud of where you are working and most likely want to show it off 😉

2.ORGANISATION IS KEY

Keep all of your documents, papers and notepads in obvious places. Clearly label your files for admin and each aspect of your working life. Keep on top of your filing regularly so you don’t have an ever increasing to do list piling up besides you. I love having a To-Do list by me at all times which I will either write the night before or first thing in the morning. Make these jobs small and bitesized so you can tick them off regularly. It is the mini accomplishments which build up and make you feel as if you can accomplish anything.

5 TOP TIPS TO SUCCESSFULLY WORKING FROM HOME | Megan Taylor

(Gorgeous gold scissors, ruler and envelope paperclips are part of a set from Paperchase)

3.MINIMISE DISTRACTION

Distractions when working from home are ten times worse than in a standard office and you need to be prepared for these distractions and either know you are going to allow them or prevent them from actually happening. If you find often find yourself getting distracted and lacklustre, pop out of the house for 10-20 minutes, take the dog for a walk, water the plants in the garden or go and get a takeaway coffee from your nearest shop.
If it is your phone which is constantly getting in your way…anyone else click on social media apps every few minutes without even realising they are doing it? Turn off your phone or even stick it on ‘do not disturb’ mode where only those in your favourites list can actually contact you incase of an emergency. I have even heard about a tree app of some sort which grows trees as you work, to only stop growing as soon as you touch your phone…I’m pretty sure I would end up with a forest of dead trees, but I am intrigued and need to seek this app out.
Why not find some music which suits you and your way of working? Spotify has a playlist for every mood. I personally need music without words when I am composing an email, blog post, article etc. Yet when I am tidying or being hands on creative I love listening to the top 50 pop songs to sing along to.

4.TIDY DESK, TIDY MIND

Each night when you finish working, tidy up your working area. Don’t go to bed leaving your house messy and dirty. If you leave mess over night you are likely going to wake up in the morning and have to wash the dishes and put on a load of laundry further delaying the start to your productive day ahead. Keep your desk nicely filed away and be excited to get back to your desk the following morning.

5.KEEP THE BOOKS UP TO DATE

I am assuming that at least 75% of you that work from home are freelance. If you are, a huge point I must add is to keep your accounts in order. I actually have a few side note, extra points to add. Actually, I could probably do a whole extra post on this though, so here are my absolute must have tips for this. Get a ring binder, put in 12 plastic sheets and separate them into months. These months will signify a full tax year. In front of each of your plastic wallet, pop in your bank statement. The plastic wallets are for you to store the months receipts in. If you have different receipts then add in a couple more plastic wallets (I personally split mine in two, expenses and travel receipts). The benefit to having your bank statements printed out means that you can go through it and highlight in different colours all of the different incoming and outgoing payments to help make your tax run smoothly. You have probably just submitted your tax so why not get ahead of the game and set this up for the following tax year.

(I use the gold letter rack and gold book stand to store my most used note books)

I hope my tips can help you as you work from home. Is there anything you do that keeps your home the perfect working environment.