Increasing Productivity When Working from Home
Quick Answer: Working from home productivity does not rise on its own, at least not at first. Productivity is the rate at which you produce results, so you first need measures: track your activities daily for four to six weeks, see how they correlate to your results, and then re-evaluate your efficiency and effectiveness.
Does Productivity Increase When Working From Home?
Before we get into this article, one question you may be asking yourself is: Does productivity increase when working from home?
The simple and straight answer is: Not really. At least, not at first.
But, what is productivity? How do you know when you are productive?
Defining Your Productivity
Productivity is the rate at which results are produced. Simply put, you are productive when you are aware of the rate at which you produce results. For example, you can bake twenty four cookies per hour, close one deal per week, or receive three referrals per month. Productivity is anything that can be measured over time.
Increasing results means you can produce more results in less time, e.g. going from 24 cookies per hour to 30 cookies per hour. You can do this by either being efficient (going faster), effective (doing more with less, which requires thinking!), or using other people's time, skills, resources, or experience so that the rate at which results are produced increases over time (this requires systems!).
So, when you're dealing with a productivity issue, you need to have a result (or set of results) that you can expect. To be aware of what it takes to produce a particular result, you need to have measures and data tracked for those measures over time.
Tracking Your Working From Home Productivity
If you don't have measures and data tracked over time (e.g. daily, weekly, monthly), then you don't really know how you produce your results. All this means that you won't know the rate of increase or decrease in your productivity.
So, when you first start working from home, do you have measures? No. Do you have data? No. So, can you possibly increase your productivity if you have nothing to measure it against in that environment? No.
What it takes to be productive at home is to identify measures for things that you do and begin tracking them.
For example, let's say you want to have one new client per week. While you may be aware of what it takes you to produce that result at your office, doing it from home is a new game, so you will need to track your data differently.
Things you can track include: number of reach-outs on LinkedIn, number of conversations, scheduled discovery calls, completed discovery calls, needs discovered, initial offers made, offers fitted and customized, offers accepted.
You can certainly add more, but that's a good start. If you track this information over four to six weeks on a daily basis, you will then see how your activity correlates to your results. If you produce your intended result of one client per week, then you will know what it takes to achieve even more.
Re-evaluating Your Productivity
If you don't produce the result as intended, you will have to re-evaluate your activity and the quality of your actions. In other words, are you focusing on efficiency, or are you focusing on effectiveness?
Of course, you have to keep in mind that every time you start a new system (e.g. working from home), you have to account for the fact that it will take time for the new system to come online. So here is where being reliable and holding yourself accountable comes into play.
We recommend having a trained coach hold you accountable so you don't let yourself slide or stop your activity altogether.
Getting Help With Productivity
If you're looking to better assess your productivity while working from home, you are welcome to contact us for a complimentary "working from home" analysis. We will ask you some key questions and determine key points for how you can become more productive.
By Julian
- Productivity does not increase when you first work from home, because you have nothing to measure it against.
- Productivity is the rate at which results are produced, and anything measurable over time counts.
- You can raise it by being efficient, being effective, or using other people's time and skills through systems.
- Track activities like conversations, discovery calls and offers daily for four to six weeks.
- If results fall short, re-evaluate efficiency versus effectiveness, and get a coach to hold you accountable.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does productivity go up when you work from home?
Not really, at least not at first. Without measures and data for the new environment, you have nothing to compare against, so you cannot tell whether you are more productive.
How do I measure my productivity at home?
Pick the result you want, like one new client per week, then track the activities that lead to it: reach-outs, conversations, discovery calls, offers made and offers accepted.
How long should I track before I judge the results?
Track daily for four to six weeks. That is enough to see how your activity correlates to your results.
What if I'm still not productive enough?
Re-evaluate your activity and the quality of your actions: are you focusing on efficiency or effectiveness? A trained coach can hold you accountable so you don't slide.