How do you stay on task?
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 Michael about being an entrepreneur and freelancer
I used to struggle with productivity a lot but now I have so many projects with my business and clients that I have to be efficient.
The biggest productivity hack for me is planning the next day the night before, in order of what I will complete.
Each morning starts with a digital detox — 1 hour with my morning routine. This includes journaling, meditating, and reading. This helps start my day fresh and creative.
From there I workout and then I start my work. I always do the hardest tasks first thing when I am most creative and efficient.
If I'm really feeling lazy, usually toward the end of the week, I'll do tasks that don't require much energy — tax stuff, social media posting, etc. For the most part, I try to do the most important work from 7am-1pm.
I set a monthly income goal and work backward by thinking of how much I have guaranteed and what I can do to earn more. I try to maximize efficiency by planning out the month, week, and day in detail. Without specific goals, it's easy to slack off and not be as motivated. As I work at home I also have a no TV rule. I never watch TV before 7 pm to make sure I don't try to sit in front of the TV with my laptop multi-tasking (which rarely works).
Michael is an online entrepreneur, author, and freelance writer who specializes in self-improvement and personal finance.
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Interview with Betsy, a head of content and remote work routine expert
First, I think that getting enough sleep and taking care of yourself is essential. If you're sleep deprived, not eating well, never exercising, then it will be really difficult to do good work.
Next, I am adamant about tracking my time. It might sound crazy but I track my time seven days a week in 15-minute intervals using a Google spreadsheet. By doing this, I can end the day or week knowing exactly how I spent my time. This also prevents me from wasting too much time watching YouTube videos and participating in other online activities. because no one wants to have to write that in a time log.
I've also found that listening to classical music or soundtracks is helpful. This activity is great for staying on task and inflow for longer periods of time.
Lastly, I think a big part of it goes back to keeping a schedule or routine. If you tend to do the same functions each day at a particular time, it's much easier to stay on task and know what to do because it's already an ingrained habit.
Betsy Ramser is a content manager, blogger, and teacher who helps other remote workers thrive while creating a daily routine that works.
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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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