10 Daily Habits to Boost Your Productivity at Home

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Everyone has their own routines and rituals to get themselves up, motivated and ready for the day. This, in turn, boosts their productivity and ability to get through the list of tasks they need to complete. Here is a compiled list of all the best tips and habits to work into your daily routine to boost your productivity and positive mindset towards your own work. If you’re looking for an answer to how to be more productive at home, these healthy and productive habits will set you on the path to being the most productive you can be! 

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Overview: How to be more productive at home

• Plan your day the day before
• Create a Night Routine 
• Start Early
• Have a breakfast worth waking up for
• Set obtainable goals
• Track your progress
• Take regular breaks
• Plan your down-time
• Step away from your phone
• Review your day

Plan your day the day before

A successful next day, starts the night before. Before you log off and finish for the day and start to wind down for the evening, make sure you’ve left your work in a way that is easy to pick up the next day. I try to think of it as, if someone was coming to take over my job tomorrow, what will I need them to do and what can I do to make their day easier? If there are small tasks that you haven’t written down but have stored in your head, make a little note to yourself for the morning. 

Write out your schedule for tomorrow – do you have meetings? Are you busy at lunch? Do you have any deadlines tomorrow? The more you write down, the easier you will find waking up and getting stuck in the next day. You won’t have to spend your first hour trying to remember what you needed to do as it’s all there in front of you. 

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Create a Night Routine 

Being able to switch off from work is a key habit to unlock your productivity. Making sure to pack away your laptop and documents every night can help you clear your mind of work.

Practising yoga is a habit many successful and highly productive individuals incorporate into their day. It’s such a mindful exercise than can help you switch off from work as well as help work through any problems and worries you are having. 

Lighting some candles, getting an early-ish night, having a structured skincare routine for the evening are all steps to help wind down slowly and set you up for having a productive next day and beyond. 

Start Early

I have always found I am more productive in the mornings. So, for me, getting up early can allow me to make the most of my most productive times. There’s also something strangely motivating about being the first one up – being able to get through some tasks that could be harder as more people start the day and there are more distractions going on around you. 

Making a habit of starting your day early is one way I can allow myself to settle into my work day – getting through my inbox first thing and getting started on my priorities. 

Have a breakfast worth waking up for

“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!” our parents would drill into us from a young age. And, now, I completely agree. Almost like having something small to look forward to first thing in the morning. Whether it’s having your favourite cereal, fresh fruit or toast, whatever makes you happy to help you start the day on the right foot, can help set the productive tone for the rest of your day. 

Set obtainable goals

Depending on what you want to accomplish it might be to complete an assignment, read and revise a certain chapter, have an empty inbox at the end of the day. A mix of both smaller milestones and larger aims for the day can allow you to prioritize and structure your day to make it as productive as possible. 

Know your limits – one daily goal is sometimes enough to take up a whole working day. Sometimes it can be demotivating to try and accomplish too much so, take it slow. And, who knows, maybe you’ll finish that task early and have time to get a head start on your goals for the next day! 

I personally like to set weekly goals as well – the big projects I have that week and tasks that need completing, but then breaking these down into more manageable chunks and goals. This allows you to celebrate those small successes and see how your productivity one day feeds into your overall productivity and success for the days to come. 

Track your progress

This is definitely one I picked up at university and a tip I recommend to any student. The productive habit of tracking your progress can be personal to you and there are many ways to do this effectively to boost your productivity. For example, at university, I would write down all the required reading I needed for each of my modules and split it up by lecture and seminars. That way, I could see my progress for each module – ticking off the reading as I did it. 

Seeing progress as you revise can be trickier and instead of tracking the progress of your memory per say, I found it more motivating to see the time I would put into my revision each day. I had an app on my laptop that gave “focus time” – about 25 minutes where I would focus on work followed by a break. I would aim to do between 6 and 10 intervals a day and I could see this tracked in the app. It was so great to see when I hit my daily goal and boosted my confidence for exams and my motivation to come back and revise again the next day. 

Now, at work, I track my personal progress by splitting up tasks into smaller subtasks and ticking as I go. This can help you see your own work on a project and to reflect on how far you’ve come when tackling larger tasks. 

Take regular breaks

With more of us working from home, you can almost feel guilty for taking a 10-minute break but burn out is real and, in the long-term can really affect your productivity levels and, more importantly, your mental health. Make sure you’re having time away from your screen, taking at least an hour for your lunch and not working late into the nights. The more you do this, the more drained you will feel. 

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Plan your down-time

If you really struggle to stop and step-away from your work, make a habit of scheduling in breaks. Or, schedule your meeting to finish at 10-to the hour and take those last 10 minutes before the next hour to make yourself a tea and get a break from your screen. 

Add in your plans away from work. If you have something one evening or at lunchtime, add it to your calendar so you know what you need to work around. Add your working hours to your calendar – this not only tells others you’ve finished for the day but makes sure you are finishing at an appropriate time so you aren’t drained and tired the next day. 

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Step away from your phone

The best thing I’ve done for myself is cut down my screen time – this has had a great impact on how I can be more productive at home . I’ve made and it’s definitely boosted my productivity levels. Not spending an hour endlessly scrolling in the morning and not having it being the last thing I do before bed. Also, spending my breaks reading, going for a walk or watching an episode of something instead of spending time on my phone. 

During working hours, I tend to not touch my phone and sometimes leave it in another room and forget about it for the day. I don’t thing you really realize the benefits of cutting down your screen time and stepping away from your phone until you give it a go! 

Review your day

And we go full circle back to tip #1. To know what you need to do the next day, take some time to look over what you’ve accomplished that day. This can take just 5 minutes to do and is not meant to be a demotivating but just a brief moment to assess the work you’ve done, celebrate the tasks you’ve accomplished and then allow you to plan for the next day – was there anything you didn’t get round to? Any new projects you’ve been assigned or tests you have tomorrow? Reviewing your day is the perfect way to wrap up your day as well as write any last notes for your future self while it’s fresh in your head. 

These habits will have you ready and on your way to be the best, most productive version of yourself. From first thing in the morning, to last thing at night, these habits will show you how to be productive every day – they will see you through the whole day to make sure you as productive as you can be without causing you to burn out and become demotivated. The more you implement these habits into your working day, the easier it will be to work productively. 

Thank you for reading about how to be more productive at home!

About the Author

Sarah at saraheliza.co.uk shares all things productivity. You can read more about her time as a student and being a new graduate living in London. She also shares her favourite books, beauty picks and more.

Find more on twitter and on Instagram – @distortings