The number of people who work from home has increased since the turn of the COVID-19 pandemic and is not going down any time soon.

As the world is adjusting to the realities of the “New Normal Lifestyle”, businesses are either closing down or repurposing their facilities and strategies to focus on other areas that align with their business objectives.

According to the Society for Human Resources Management, more companies are planning on introducing work at home opportunities over any other benefit.

In line with the new reality, creatives are not left out. People who function in the creative industry like graphic designers, content creators, digital marketers, bloggers, and other creatives are also adjusting but are finding it difficult to maintain a high level of productivity that their businesses thrive on.

Maintaining a high level of productivity in the face of economic uncertainties and the reality of working from home has become one of the biggest challenges that creatives face and in this article, we would be looking at a few work from home tips to help people in the creative industry get back to or exceed their usual level of productivity.

Below are the 7 most important work from home tips for creatives in other to maintain high productivity in their work.

Condition Your Mind

There is little anyone can do when the mind is not conditioned right.

This is often overlooked but not for creatives. Creatives get accustomed to a certain working environment so much that changing it would likely affect either their workflow or psyche.

For creatives to achieve more, they should gradually accept the new reality that their work procedures have changed and in fact, have become even simpler.

Accepting the new reality that your working condition and environment have changed would go a long way to condition you for better and more profitable work experience.

Create A Starting Routine

What do you usually do every day before you start working for the day?

Successful people have different types of routines they observe before kicking off their day. Some take a walk, others jog, while others do either yoga or read a book. Whatever it is you do that would signal to your brain that it is time to work is fine.

The morning is a particularly sensitive time and should be taken seriously. As a creative, you should build up a morning routine that is aimed at signalling to your brain that it is time for the creative juice to flow.

As a creative myself, I work out for 20 minutes, take a glass of water and rest for 10 minutes. This has helped me so much that once I start working out, my brain is already drawing ideas to either pending projects I have unfinished or inspirations for new projects I am about to start.

Whatever sets your mind and body up for work is fine. Just create a routine you MUST follow through every morning.

Create A Dedicated Workspace

No matter how creative you are, you would not be optimally productive when you work from your bed or the couch in the living room.

Get a space, somewhere you can set up for work.

Do you have a home office already? That is excellent. Don’t you? Set up one. It does not have to be expensive and classy, just somewhere comfortable you go to when it is “work time”.

To do this, I bought a table that looks so much like my office table, a selfie ring stand for hanging my work phone so I can seamlessly attend video conferences or even take video calls while also working simultaneously and a little sound system. These things keep me comfortable while working.

Figure out what ticks the box for you and make it work. It does not have to be expensive and so much techy, just some secluded space where all you do there is work!

Maintain Regular Hours

How many hours do you usually work in a day? Seek to maintain the same number of work hours. Your body is already accustomed to working and toiling for several hours that when you close earlier, you feel like you have under-achieved. Allowing this feeling of under-achievement to set in would make you gradually accept that you can get off work at any time – avoid it!.

It is not just about the number of hours you work but also about what you accomplish with the number of hours expended while working.

Seek to do so much more in that time frame that when you get away from work, you feel happy and fulfilled.

Set Ground Rules

With distractions, you achieve nothing.

Set ground rules that would minimize distractions to its lowest.

Working from home also means that there are children, friends, or other family members who would be around to either want your attention or distract you without them even knowing.

How about your phones? How distracting are they? The sole reason why it is not optimal to work from the living room is so that you would stay as far from the television and other electronics as possible.

Be intentional about reducing distractions while it is “work time”. Your clients are not going to allow your distraction excuses when you miss deadlines and the bills you have to pay are not going on holidays any time soon; staying away from possible distraction is a good way to maintain “laser” focus and help you hit your productivity goals.

Take Breaks Seriously

Do not work for so long that you forget to take a break, relax and refuel. Do not forget to also stretch out your body or hands once in a while when you feel niggly – this happens more when your work furniture does not entirely obey ergonomic rules.

Take a few minutes or an hour off work to rest or blow off steam (in a good way). During my break periods, I take a few minutes to either lip sync to my favourite songs or check youtube for short video clips that would give me a hard laugh, and at other times, I just walk around to stretch my body generally.

What is your usual break ritual? Take it seriously. Do you like to rewatch “Avengers: Endgame”? take a few minutes to watch your favourite scenes. Whatever it is you do, reply emails, take phone calls, whatever, just take that few minutes to blow off. It helps you to refuel for more work.

End With A Routine

Every day when I close from work, I sign off from a few websites I may have used, shut down my computer, and clear my table. What do you do as you close work?

Just like you signalled to your body that it is time to work, do signal it that it is time to stay off work.

Maybe play a song, dance a little, or just play around with the kids. Do something every day to tell yourself that work is over for the day.

Something Extra

While working, there is usually a time window where you are more productive. Figure out this window and seek to do more within that period because that is usually when your brain is in full swing. Seek to eliminate any form of distraction within that period because whatever your creativity does not allow you to do at that time would be hard to come bye.

If you do not have a list of things you plan to achieve in a day, then you would really not know when you have hit your goal for the day. Have a to-do list for every day and break them down into little junks of work that are time-bound.

One more thing; social media!

Stay off social media except your work is on social media. The human mind enjoys distraction and nothing distracts or suck more unnoticed time than social media. Do your best to only hit the social media when you must and get out when you are done with it. Staying one more minute on social media means you are reducing your “work time”

What other tips would you like to share?

About the Author

Noble Cyril is a self-motivated, highly productive Brand Specialist, Business Leader, Blogger, and Founder of BuildGoodBusiness Blog. He is the author of “How to Position Yourself for Relevance” amongst other resourceful ebooks. He believes that every small business has a shot at growth when they apply result-driven business growth principles.