How do you stay on task?
Interview with Chanell, a freelance writer and social media manager
This one may sound a little offbeat, but finding a good music live stream on YouTube always helps me keep productivity high.
I have noticed that I write a lot faster and sharper when I am listening to music. It helps me to focus and concentrate more on the content rather than working quietly or with the television on.
I also like to keep a real agenda to keep track of my work for the week. I have noticed that I do a lot better when I can write down my to-do list and check things off. Not only does it give me a sense of accomplishment, but I immediately know what needs to be done first.
I also make a point not to check email until I complete the assignment. If I do not do this, it is easy for me to become side-tracked and handle something else before I am done with the job I initially started on.
Chanell is a freelance writer working from Atlanta that writes about business management tips and video game entertainment threads.
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Interview with Lily, an entrepreneur building VR conferencing for remote teams
The best productivity tip I can recommend is to set aside dedicated work time and build it into a routine.
For example, one of my routines was wake up at 7 AM, take my dog for a walk, make breakfast and get to work. At noon I took my dog for another walk and then finish my work and shut down my computer at 5.
For me, having core work ours was the key to my productivity because I knew I wouldn't have time later in the night to get work done.
Lily has almost a decade of remote work experience, now she's building the team collaboration tool of the future with Virtual Reality
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Interview with Alexandra Cote, a remote digital marketer and freelancer
Again, it's all on a mental level for me. Lots of years of studying for school and college helped me develop this habit of never leaving work for later. Later is for fun, duh!
So when I know I have something to do, I just do it until it's done. If I have multiple things to take care of, I just choose one based on priority, interest, or I just begin with the task I have more ideas for.
I do have one trick, though. And it's good. No matter how productive you are, you'll come across distractions. Let's say I'm writing an article and need to check Twitter for what other people are saying on the topic.
Twitter is full of distractions, but instead of getting caught up with them, I simply bookmark everything. When I get a bit more free time, I just check all of my bookmarks. I've been doing the bookmark trick for 10+ years now. Always works. Surprisingly, for many of them, I have no interest left, so I'm literally getting hours out of this.
Alexandra juggles freelancing, a full-time remote job, YouTube, and Skillshare instructing. How does she manage it all? Find out in her interview.
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Interview with Kristi, a CEO and remote team leader
I live according to my calendar and my very low-tech to-do list.
But yes, I still get pulled away from things; not every item is crossed off by the end of a day, much to my chagrin.
Kristi is a CEO, remote work author, and speaker. In this interview, she shares the impact of new motherhood and remote team leadership on her work.
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Interview with Gino, a founder skilled in building remote teams
I am, overall, a pretty big fan of kanban boards. What I do is I use Trello, and I design my lists and cards in a way that resembles a kanban board.
It might seem minimal, but the number one thing that I have to do to stay on task is to only move ONE card at a time to my “In-Progress” list.
What I find is that if I don’t explicitly tell myself to only work on one thing at a time (by using Trello), I will end up working on all things at once and doing nothing correctly.
My brain just goes on this “jump around” mode which means I end up working 10 minutes on something and then jumping to something else.
When I get to the end of the day, I can see that most of my day has been wasted. I haven’t gotten anything accomplished because I ended up jumping around between marketing materials, writing a blog post, checking and replying to emails, taking work calls, etc.
By using Trello, and making sure that I only work on one thing at a time, I’m able to get to the end of the day feeling pretty happy about the quality of the work I got done.
Gino realized how important remote work could be to finding the best talent—see his strategies for building remote teams.
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Interview with Dani and Luca, digital nomads who have mastered work and travel
Well, we love our jobs, and we love to travel. We couldn't travel if we didn't have these kinds of jobs and we couldn't work in this cool way if we didn't travel.
Lucky for us, we don't feel the stress: our tasks are the first things we think about when we wake up, and we are happy to see them get done.
Dani and Luca have mastered the art of traveling while working—see their hacks & tips for thriving as digital nomads.
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Interview with Andrew, co-founder and CEO of Insured Nomads
Working from lists, a plan, and a focus help me stay on task.
Always remember, your focus determines your reality." - George Lucas, filmmaker
Andrew, co-founder, and CEO of Insured Nomads talks traveling while working, productivity tools, and the best advice he has received.
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Interview with Ayush, a CEO and avid remote team builder
Personally, I am one of those who likes to concentrate hard on tasks. Hence, no headphones, and no multitasking. At the start of the day and during checking my emails, I keep on creating a to-do list with a pen and paper. At the end of the day, I like to see all the things struck off that list.
Ayush is a CEO that is committed to helping companies build successful remote teams—see his process and tips for developing location independent teams that thrive.
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Interview with Gregory, a Senior Software Developer
Strict scheduling, being ready to work the moment I sit down, and having a dedicated workspace are key.
I have ADD, so I've learned over the years how important a strict schedule is to me. I need to schedule chunks of time dedicated to a specific task, and I need to stick to it.
Interestingly enough to those who don't know, ADD can have an aspect called "hyperfocus" where you generally become so engrossed in a specific task that literally hours can go by without you even realizing.
Hyperfocus might sound like a blessing, but very rarely is it a good thing for me. Most of the time if I get hyperfocused on something, the result is not ideal.
It's often missing big parts (like documentation or testing), it's sometimes deviated from solving the actual problem (instead I almost create my own problem to solve and then solve it), and the code is often more complicated than it should be.
Making sure I follow my schedule on both when to start and when to stop a task are very important in avoiding both the lack of focus and the hyperfocus caused by my ADD.
Being ready to work when I sit down is another. Before I start working in the mornings, I'm fully dressed, done eating, well rested, and overall just ready to work. Distractions are a lot easier to indulge when you have to get up anyway to go get breakfast, or you have to go get dressed before that video call at noon so you can just slack off for the next 15 minutes since you won't get anything done in that time anyway.
I treat walking into my office like a commute: I shouldn't have any other obligations that have to be done for a while before I sit down to work.
And finally, that dedicated workspace is very important. My family is home during the day, so to be able to close the door and not get distracted by others, or to be able to keep the rest of the house out of sight and out of mind means, there is less to be tempted by in the first place.
Gregory is a senior software developer working from home - learn how he finds the balance between lack of focus and hyperfocus.
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Interview with Digital Nomad Sage, an entrepreneur and UX consultant
For intensive work that requires my utmost attention, I won’t listen to music at all. I’ll also close all my social media tabs so that I won’t get distracted.
A lifestyle hack that I implemented was removing my desktop speakers to remove the temptation of just listening to music.
From e-books to blogging, Digital Nomad Sage has become an expert on making money online—see his advice for developing an online business.
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