Before I begin today’s blog post let me be completely transparent and say I have not fully managed how to be 100% productive as a freelance writer working from home. As a disclaimer I also have almost 5 years of working from home and so by default my career has taught me how to block out the noise. One piece of warning is that my advice will not come to you by osmosis but with a little (okay I lied) with ALOT of practice and execution you can increase your productivity. If you’re looking for productivity BEAST, go talk to Gary Vaynerchuk, I’m not quite on that level,yet.

Get Out The Bed Before Anyone Else

I’m a morning person, I’ll admit that. I am the friend everyone has in college who loves 8 AM classes just so she can get her day over with before most people even start and you know that worked out pretty well for me as an adult. Now that I’m older, married and have a VERY active TWO year old who’s probably currently dreaming about how she will terrorize the room I just cleaned lastnight when she went to bed, being a morning person is alot harder but guess what? I do it.

My “8:00 AM” is now 4:00 AM. Yes, 4:00. Not even Jesus is up that early (or perhaps he and I are the only two awake at this time and hey I’m cool with that). While 4:00 may sound ungodly to some it’s what works for me. My husband normally wakes up at around 5:20 and if I wake up at 4:00 I have almost an hour and a half to get alot of things done before he wakes up and starts asking millions of questions that only husbands seem to ask(including: where HIS clothes are). Once my husband leaves I have (on a good day) about an hour to get things done before my daughter wakes up. On average waking up at 4:00am gives me about 2-3 hours of completely uninterrupted productivity. Not to mention, nobody is on social media at that time so that’s not even on my radar that early in the morning.

DND Mode On Your Phone Is The New Away Message

My phone is almost always glued to my phone and I am not proud of it at all but sadly that’s the generation I am apart of. I have recently learned how to put my phone on Do Not Disturb because if I don’t my friends and family will call and text me all day long and destroy my productivity and I’ll allow them because I don’t know how to ignore calls.

As a freelancer and or entrepreneur your family and friends often assume that you’re ALWAYS available to chat and nine times out of ten you aren’t and if you want to give them insight on your life you may want to share this blogwith them, thank me later.

Write Content in Batches (When Possible)

If you’re a freelance writer who relies solely on other people’s direction this tip may not be for you. If you’re a freelance writer who does new writing this tip is also not for you. If you are however a writer who has to create content for your own platforms, batching content will be your friend. Set aside a day(I typically use Sunday nights or Monday mornings) that you can be most productive and write and schedule out all of your content for the entire week. It may take several hours to complete this task but it’s one less thing you’ll have to worry about EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Automation, Automation, Automation

I’m a firm believer that automation can be your enemy but it can also be your friend. If anything in your day can be automated, automate it. If you can automate your bills, automate it. If you can automate social media posts, automate it. Automation can save you time and everyone knows that saving time means you’ll save and make more money.

Turn Social Media Off

If you really need to be productive and you feel like social media is getting in your way, turn it off. There are apps that I have discussed in the past that will help you be more productive and you should most certainly give them all a try.

What things have you tried that have helped you increase productivity while working from home? Leave your comments below.