I work from home 5 days a week, and I use these 8 products keep me focused and productive

While gel pens might seem like an odd productivity-increasing product for a professional working woman to endorse, hear me out.

I find that when I can fill out my deadlines and meetings for the week ahead with fun-colored pens (color-coordinated according to type of task, of course), I have way more fun using my planner. Consequently, I'm much more thoughtful in how I schedule out my time and assignments for the week ahead.

I try to stay off of my phone as much as possible during working hours. This helps me minimize distractions from social media, news alerts, and text messages.

However, when I first started working from home, I realized that this posed one big problem: I couldn't use the built-in timer on my phone to time out my tasks.

Enter the good, old fashioned kitchen timer: I bought this timer from Williams Sonoma so that I can set small, timed writing goals without compromising my limited phone time.

As a writer, I sit a lot.

Moving my body before, during, and after writing sessions is crucial to not only preserving good posture, but also for brain function. When I find myself getting antsy and unfocused on my current writing task, I simply pop on a 15-minute yoga video on YouTube and roll out my Manduka Pro yoga mat. I always leave my mat feeling refreshed, grounded, and ready to dive back into my writing again.

I live right off of one of the busiest streets running West to East in Los Angeles, and most of my neighbors in my small, poorly soundproofed building also work from home during the day.

This results in car honks, television noises, music, and other people’s conversations filtering into my apartment all day long and threatening to break my concentration. These Bose noise-cancelling headphones have been a life-saver in drowning out external sounds for when I really need to buckle down and finish my work.

Studies have shown that incorporating indoor plants into office spaces can increase productivity up to 15%.

In light of this, I chose to add snake plants to my home work space. Not only are they beautiful to look at, but they have bonus health benefits — they create fresh oxygen (another helper of productivity) at night, helping to purify the area around my workspace.

Plus, snake plants are also one of the easiest plants to take care of — they can exist in both low and high sunlight and require minimal water to survive. Win-win!

As I mentioned before, I sit for the majority of my work day. Since I don't have the space or funds for a standing desk or a treadmill desk, I decided to do the next best thing: buy this highly rated desk chair from AmazonBasics.

It's extremely comfortable and supportive for my lower back. Plus, with no cumbersome arm rests, the chair is lightweight and easy to tuck under my desk at the end of the day.

Scientists have documented a clear connection between smell and productivity. Several studies have shown that certain essential oils can improve a person’s mental clarity and help them feel more alert, in turn increasing the quality of their work.

I've tried many different brands of diffusers, and found this one from Muji to be the most potent and long-lasting. I mix in either peppermint or rosemary oil (or sometimes a blend of both) from Now Foods, and take a sniff break whenever I feel like I'm hitting a wall in my work.