How Do I Make A Work From Home Schedule?

Remote workers often find themselves struggling to stick to a regular schedule. If you are one of those homeworkers, do not worry, it is a rather common thing out there. Keeping regular hours can be a tough thing for most freelancers and remote workers. Knowing this, you should do your best to learn and stick to a work schedule and routine that works for you. To become successful, you need to keep to a routine and the discipline to stick with it.

How do I make work from home schedule? Start your workday at the same time each day, pick the hours you wish to focus on your most important tasks and use a reliable time-tracking application. Focusing on these three things will help you prioritize your tasks, maintain workflow and increase your productivity.

The self-imposed work schedule is important for everyone who works from home, especially those who struggle with productivity and isolation as they work on their tasks from home. Making the most effective use of your schedule should be your daily goal, a goal that will eventually lead you to better productivity levels, better work quality and possibly better-paying potential.

There are many studies out there that try to find a perfect way for homeworkers to create a schedule. Sadly, no one can truly teach you how to schedule your day. We are all different and each one of us has different responsibilities in life, we have different families and different ways of dealing with life as it is. This means only you, yourself, can create a perfect work from home schedule for yourself. Your friend might find it great to wake up early and focus on their important tasks right away, but you might want to have it different as you have a very different workflow and habits.

How Often Do You Want To Work?

You want to create a balanced schedule, but you must be the one who is in control of it. If you let your schedule control you, your work and well-being will suffer. When crafting good work from home schedule, make sure you answer the following most important questions. Take a pad and write the answer to each of these questions:

How often do I wish to work?
How much work can I take on?
What are my daily family commitments?
Do I want to work four days a week or seven days of the week?
How many hours do I want to work per week?

Having a flexible routine is great, but knowing the answers to these questions will allow you to set your own expectations and boundaries. Many remote workers often take on more or fewer projects than they plan to, while others, who answer these simple questions find the right balance for their situation. Be honest with yourself – know your priorities and know how much you really want to work.

Knowing these answers will also help in identifying the opportunities you want to pursue and the clients you want to work with. Obviously, if you want to make more money, often you will need to work more. Set a schedule beforehand. Sticking to your plan will lead to better personal and business results.

Your Flow States

Before anything, learn what is your flow state. Flow is when you’re in the zone. This is when your deep in what you’re doing and time disappears. Answer these questions to assess your “flow” time.

When is the best time for you to work?
When do you feel you’re most productive?
Do you like to get started with your work after a workout?
Are you a morning or night person?
When is your home quiet?

Knowing when is the best time for you to work is key to better workflow and better results. Prioritize your most important projects at that time.

If you are still unsure about which times are the best for you to get your work done, next time you feel like your work is going smoothly and you are not struggling at all, those are the times you should focus on your biggest projects/tasks. Those are the times when you will be most likely to get the best out of your effort and the quality of your work will be at its maximum.

Getting Things Done

Once you have your schedule ready, you can get to work and get all of the things done during your work hours. If your schedule works well today, it will probably work well tomorrow as well, once you get a hang of it, it will become a routine.

If you have a lot of work, do not procrastinate, do not put things away because once you stop procrastinating, you will be overloaded with work and your schedule will no longer be able to keep up with it all.

Your income and your workflow depend on your initiative to always look for more work. Even when you are free and have no work to do, always look for more work to do if you want to be successful. According to various studies, up to 45% homeworkers have at least 1-3 clients/projects to work on all the time aside from their regular work.

Getting things done as a homeworker is not an easy thing. With so many distractions and all of the comforts your home provides, working can become a struggle. If your home is full of distractions and you hardly ever get enough peace to work, try creating a working space area where you will be able to do your best and focus on all of your tasks without any distractions at all – or visit a local coworking location.

Reliable Time-Tracking Applications, Working Out, Eating And Breaks

When you get to work from home as you have always wanted, you will want to start using a reliable time-tracking application. This type of application can help you figure out whether you are being efficient and whether you properly bill your clients for the hours you spent on a certain project/task.

Here are a few reliable time-tracking applications you will want to check out:

Time Doctor

Time Doctor is an application designed for remote teams and businesses mainly. There are better time-tracking applications for individuals, but Time Doctor certainly deserves to be mentioned if you are a homeworker working for a remote business company.

Time Doctor allows you to take screenshots of everyone who works on tasks in order to see whether they are actually working and how. It automatically calculates the payrolls based on salaries and time tracked via Time Doctor.

Toggl

Toggl is an amazing and fully free time tracking application that will help you keep yourself organized and scheduled as you should be. Featuring a simple interface, this lovely application will allow you to create new projects, save a lot of your time and track all of your activities as well as be your reminder when needed.

Hours

Hours is another very simple-to-use application featuring a great interface. If you are looking for an application that will give you a timeline of your work and time you spent on your work, Hours might be the best one for you. Just like most time-tracking applications, Hours also lets you check your reports and will remind you of important tasks/projects when needed.

Harvest

Harvest is a time-tracking application, but it is also more than just that. With Harvest, you can also track your billable hours as well as your expenses.