Steven John/Business Insider
- Working from home can be hard if you don't know how to keep yourself organized and on task.
- I've been working at home for nine years, and I've discovered several hacks that keep me productive throughout my day.
- They include getting dressed like I would for an office job and learning to master online organizational tools.
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I have been working from home since early 2011, when I was let go from a Hollywood agency after the summary firing of my boss. It's a long story, but in the end, it led to the start of my full-time writing career.
At first, working at home as a freelance writer was a challenge, and a bit terrifying. Not only was I without a guaranteed paycheck and a set of expected daily duties, but I was also suddenly in charge of my own schedule, obliged to create my own workspace, and left without any human resources team to support me.
In the first year or so I spent working from home, I often found myself bouncing between projects without making much progress on any of them, leaving my desk at random times in the absence of an established schedule, and often returning to work late in the evening well after I should have been relaxing or even asleep.
Through a slow, organic process, I began to identify what habits led to the most productive work from home experience, and what hacks I could use to keep myself on task, managing my time, meeting deadlines, and also enjoying a good work/life balance - no easy task when your home life and workplace are one in the same.
With that in mind, here are nine of my best productivity hacks that keep me on task while I work from home.