Careers that allow you to work from home and create your own schedule requires a great amount of focus and motivation, as well as being skilled in managing your time and staying on top of project deadlines. Being a team of remote workers, Red Toque Creative is always looking for new ways to better manage our time while keeping productivity and fun up. Here are a few tips that we have found to work best.

Keep a Day-to-Day Planner

  • Day planners or week planners are a very useful way to take a step back and look at what you hope to accomplish for the week. They are great to use in order to avoid feeling overwhelmed by the amount of work you have. It also allows you to focus on one project at a time and make the most out of your day.   

Prioritize your Projects and Tasks

  • Prioritizing your projects and daily tasks is one of the best ways to better manage your time and ensure that time sensitive projects are completed by their due date. There are various ways to prioritize, such as on the amount of time the project will take, the importance of the project, the due date, the quick wins, etc. Make a list of all tasks that you are working on for the week and schedule them into your day planner based on whichever way you’ve decided to prioritize them.
  • Extra Tip: Not sure if something is important? Talk to the stakeholders involved. What is their timeline? When do they absolutely need this done by? Often everything seems urgent, but asking one or two questions will reveal if that’s truly the case.

Take Away Distractions or Work Away from Home

  • Whether this requires you to lock your phone in a separate room or disable Netflix, removing distractions during your work period will provide you with a more productive day. Being at home can also be very distracting, where you can find yourself doing household chores or looking after kids or pets instead of focusing on work. If this is your issue, a local coffee shop or coworking space are perfect for clearing your mind of the distractions of home and focusing on the tasks at hand.
  • At a coworking space: Headphones mean ‘Do Not Disturb’. Save the chit chat for those looking to connect near the water cooler and coffee refill station.

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