I’ve been self-employed and working from home for a good 3 years now. I started my own online book touring business up from scratch, gained a client base and continue to grow and grow and get evermore busy. I also make a small income from my blog, which also requires more working from home, on my laptop. I’m not complaining though. I absolutely love what I do and hope to grow even more over the coming years to make a solid monthly income which I’ve created all by myself. But it hasn’t always been easy and it still isn’t sometimes. Working from home takes a lot of discipline and there are an awful lot of distractions to interrupt with your work too. Today I wanted to chat about how to stay productive when you’re working from home something that I’ve certainly had to learn, work on and continue to work on over the past 3 years.

Take care of your “space”

If you’re lucky enough to have a home office, making it your space and somewhere you want to spend time in can have a huge boost on your productivity. Companies like Penketh Group can give you tips, advice and help on how to create your perfect working environment. If you don’t have a home office, you can apply the same concepts to wherever you do work. Even adding small things like scented candles, comfy cushions and fairy-lights to your working environment will make it feel that little bit more special.

Keep things tidy

I start the beginning of every single day tidying up. I cannot begin to get things done when I see there’s a mess around, washing to do and things to tidy up. I’ve always found a tidy working environment equates to a tidier mind. But maybe that’s just me? It doesn’t have to be a deep clean, just get rid of any old tea cups and chocolate wrappers lying around from your Netflix binge the night before.

Stay organised

It can be so easy to slip when it comes to organisation. Leaving papers around, not keeping things in order and even letting your document folders on your laptop / computer get a bit of a state. As boring as it can be sometimes, I always, always, always stay organised and I know where everything is that I need and you’ll never find me scrambling around looking for that notebook with that important thing written down in. Also, this is a great opportunity to invest in some new, pretty stationery and notebooks!

Remember to eat, eat well and move!

Again, very easy to forget to do when you have your entire fridge full of food right at your disposal! But keeping a normal, balanced diet whilst working from home can certainly keep the energy up and stop you feeling that mid-afternoon slump. Which can be dangerous when working from home because your bed is right there to take a nap on if you feel tired – which you can’t do in an office! Breakfast, lunch and dinner and stock up on the energy inducing food! As well as eating well and regularly, it’s also important to move it! If you’re working from home then chances are you’ll be sitting down a lot (like me). Make time to get up, stretch, go for a walk at lunch time or do some Yoga and slot it into your daily routine. Nobody wants to stay still and get stiff, achey muscles and joints.

Keep a routine

When working from home, it can be incredibly easy to have that lay in or just catch up on that show you missed the night before or just stop for a million tea breaks and not actually make any proper progress. As if you were getting up and going out to work, set yourself a schedule. It doesn’t have to be strict but just “wake up between 8 and 8:30”, set a time for lunch and a time to do something “non work-related” and set an end time for your day. When work is t your disposal, it can e easy to get caught up and not allow yourself any time to switch off.

Remember to switch off

Which brings me to my next point, remember to switch off. Chances are, if you worked in an office in London, you would finish at 5 or 5:30, get home and not think about work for the rest of the evening, enjoy a meal with your partner, go to the cinema, go out with friends- whatever. When you work from home I’ve found it incredibly difficult to witch off sometimes and find myself doing odd bits of work well into the evening and straight before I go to bed. Which isn’t healthy. It’s good to enjoy your work but it’s also good to enjoy some down time! If you find safe gambling a relaxing way to switch off, check out online casino iDEAL.

Do you have any tips to add to this post? Do you work from home or would you like to?

* This is a sponsored post. All thoughts and opinions here are my own.