How to Stay Productive while Working from Home

During the hiatus I took this spring, I spent some time brainstorming new content ideas for the rest of the year.

And today, I’m excited to introduce the latest resource to Ponder Trail: videos!

I wanted to try switching up the format for how I give tips for creative business and brand strategy, and what better way to share it that with video?

I will be uploading to the blog and my YouTube channel twice a week, on Wednesdays and Fridays. Each time I upload a video, I will add it as a new blog post with all of the info mentioned in the video.

Since I love talking about productivity and working from home, I figured it would be the perfect video to start with. I hope you enjoy!

Motivation, Productivity, Time Management, Youtube VideoSarah ForestAugust 12, 2020creative entrepreneurComment

Practical Productivity Tips for Running a Creative Business and Working from Home // Ponderstream Show Notes

The ultimate goal of productivity is to get rid of busyness and replace it with efficiency, effectiveness, and progress.

As creative business owners, hustling often works its way into our lifestyle. We have so many ideas and things to do. But sometimes that mentality pulls in too many things that aren’t actually helpful or productive in the long run. On the outside, it can look like we’re getting lots done, while in reality, we’re running around in circles.

Don’t simply add to your hustle for the sake of feeling busy. Instead, you want to see progress from the time you put into your business, and you want your time to have a big impact. True productivity looks like speeding along the process of reaching your goals or helping you stay on track.

Here’s how:

How to Stay Productive while Working from Home During Isolation or Quarantine

While many creative entrepreneurs have already been working from home, in recent months, people around the globe have faced strict social restrictions and isolation orders. This has taken away the much-needed work days at coffee shops that entrepreneurs often rely on to stay productive and to get out of the house throughout the week.

With productivity in jeopardy from being stuck at home for months on end, it's easy to slow down, get behind, or take days off unintentionally—simply because your drive to work has dwindled. But when starting, running, or scaling your own business, it's critical to keep working and getting things done.

So what is an entrepreneur to do when their livelihood is tottering at the top of a mountain along with their close-to-plummeting motivation?

You've got to push through and boost your productivity so you can get tasks done!

So here are 11 of my favorite work-from-home essentials to stay motivated and get back into the groove.

How to Effectively Use Time Blocking to Schedule Your Workweek

When you run your own business, it’s easy to leave your day open and unstructured because you can, right? But it’s also easy for that openness to become filled with nothingness.

And that’s where a schedule comes in to save the day. Structure is a key part in a productive day, and I’m here to share one of my favorite methods of organizing my time as a creative business owner.

It’s called time blocking, and it is why I’m sitting here today writing this blog post to help you on your entrepreneurial journey. Because without this system, my productivity would have flatlined a long time ago.

If you’re hoping to schedule your workweek and start being productive, this post is for you! (Plus, I’ve included a copy of my free goal-planning workbook, complete with a few pages dedicated to helping you schedule your week.)

My Simple Method for Batching Tasks to Maximize Efficiency

Imagine gaining back hours each month without delegating, cutting back, or automating your tasks. It’s like free time that’s yours for the taking.

This not-so-secret weapon is a strategy that all creative entrepreneurs have at their disposal, and it’s called batching.

It’s the king of task management, yet this effective trick is so simple you can master it in 3 easy steps. If you try it out, I guarantee you’ll benefit from this approach to getting things done.

Learn how in today’s post, and start saving time so you can focus on the projects you’ve been wanting to work on.

How I Work from Home and Stay Productive

Working from home is a huge blessing that comes with having my own business. And while most of the time it’s amazing, it does pose its own challenges.

Common struggles among creative entrepreneurs living the work-from-home life often include managing time, limiting distractions, and avoiding the dreaded cooped up feeling.

Over the course of five years of working primarily from home, I’ve tried countless methods to overcome these hangups—and boy did they plague me when I was first starting out.

After all of the trial-and-error, I’ve honed in on the top strategies that made running an online business from home a magical experience.

So here are 11 simple practices I follow to help me stay productive each day.

3 Goal Setting Hang-Ups, and Solutions for Each

Setting and reaching a goal consists of 3 main stages:

the part that depends on your time, resources, and tools
the part that relies on your know-how and abilities
the part that counts on you doing the work

These areas each create their own hurdles around achieving goals. Over the years, I’ve struggled with all three of the hang-ups above, and today I’m sharing my best insights on how to overcome them.

With goals, we either tend to overaim with excitement or under-aim with overwhelm. Both often result in feeling stuck. But instead, we need to find the right balance to bust through roadblocks like these.

Good news is, goals are infinitely easier to set and achieve with you are equipped with the right tools in your pocket.

If you are struggling to start or grow your creative business, don’t extinguish your dreams before you have a good run! Give it your best shot with the tips in today’s blog post.

4 Steps to Stop Re-Setting Goals and How to Start Reaching them Instead

Are you making headway on your goals? Are you staying on track? Or do you often find yourself missing the mark and rewriting the same goals at the top of next month’s planner pages . . . again?

In my last post, I talked about the simple missing link to reaching goals, and I explained why many goals always seem to get away from us or feel out of reach.

Today, I’m showing you how to apply that secret so you can finally break the cycle of pushing your goals into the future.

If you tend to rewrite the same to-do list week after week, these 4 simple steps will help you understand and overcome the common struggle that many creative entrepreneurs face: how to actually reach goals.

The Missing Link to Reaching Goals

Goals.

We set them. We plan them. We reach them, too.

Or at least, we hope we do.

Some goals propel our business forward and help us reach new grounds, while others are critical for simply keeping our business above the water.

There’s something thrilling about reaching a goal—especially after working hard for it day after day. The feeling you get when you finally check one off of your list creates a strong sense of accomplishment and a surge of motivation.

But it can be quite discouraging when you find yourself transferring the same unmet goal over to next month’s planner pages, time and time again, to no avail.

“Maybe next month will be different. Maybe I’ll finally check that one off,” we hope, once again.

But when we are stuck in a cycle and struggle to reach our goals, it’s time to try a different approach.

Last January, while thinking deeply on this subject, I had an epiphany. I figured out the secret to reaching goals—or at least the key I had been missing for years.

I realized there were actually two distinct types of goals, and I was completely missing the mindset behind one of them.

It completely transformed the way I think of goals, how I set them, and how I map them out as a creative entrepreneur.

This blog post sheds light on that secret, and I can’t wait to share it with you!

How to Create a Productive and Inspiring Workspace (at Home or in an Office)

What do you love most about a good workspace? For many creative entrepreneurs, it’s natural light, a clutter-free feel, a lack of distractions, and cozy, comfy vibes. These all work together to create an inspirational space that allows us to work productively on our businesses.

Whether you have an entire office at your disposal or a tiny corner in your living room, today I’m sharing 10 simple steps for creating an enjoyable workspace—no matter your setup.

If you want your work zone to feel like a productive retreat you get to return to each day, let this blog post be your guide.

How I Set, Plan, and Follow Through on My Goals

video + blog post

In my last Ponderstream Episode, I shared my step-by-step process for how I reach my goals. My process includes creating goals, breaking them down into daily actions, and monitoring your progress along the way.

Over the past year, I’ve focused on creating an effective and streamlined goal-planning system that saves time. Setting goals can be an easy place to get hung up on, so I wanted to outline a specific method that I could follow over and over again.

My goal was to be able to incorporate a step-by-step planning system into my routine to eliminate the pitfall of wondering where to start each day or what to work on next.

After over a year of experimenting and refining, I’ve ended up with a simple goal-planning process and created a workbook to go along with it. It’s made such a difference with reaching my goals, so I was excited to share it with you all last week in my livestream.

Essentially, my method for reaching goals is breaking them down all the way into simple to-do tasks that are assigned to each day. This creates a step-by-step plan for staying on track so you can monitor your progress and actually complete the tasks necessary to accomplish your goals.

There are 4 main sections: prepwork and laying the foundation, setting goals, planning them out, and following through. Join me as I walk you through the entire process in detail.

Missed joining this one live? Register for next week’s Ponderstream webinar here.

My Productive Work-from-Home Schedule

Turns out, when I don’t have a schedule to follow, time leaks through my day like a siv.

. . . And I have a hunch I’m not the only one.

When I first began working on Ponder Trail, my mornings started at the early hour of 4:30am. I’d wake up and hit the ground running after my husband headed to work. Those morning hours were golden for being productive and making progress. And it was easy to spend 12 hours getting things done and getting my little company up and running.

Since then, though, our schedule has changed quite a bit.

After shifting to a later, and somewhat unconventional, schedule, it took a while to figure out a routine that was optimal for running my business. It often felt like I couldn’t get anything done or stay focused.

But I took it as a creative challenge, and over the last few months, I’ve been extra determined to create a daily routine that optimizes productivity and is easy to follow.

I’m happy to report that experimentation and persistency were just the ticket: after much determination, time-tracking, and habit-building, I landed on a new daily routine and work schedule that exponents productivity! In fact, it’s been my most effective work schedule to date.

I’ve been fine-tuning it ever since, and today, I’m taking you behind the scenes to see what a typical day of working on Ponder Trail looks like.

Keep reading for a tour of my routine and how I schedule my time.

4 Key Things to Do Each Quarter to Maximize Success

A new quarter is the ideal time to check in with your business to maximize success. I always find quarterly segments to be perfect for finding clarity, setting goals, and staying on track throughout the year.

Their 90-day time span allow for progress to be made and give you ample time to effectively analyze the ins and outs of your business.

It’s all-too easy to drift from your course and lose sight of your brand’s focus, so in today’s blog post, I’m offering some help.

Ensure game-changing progress over the next three months with just four simple things to do at the start of each quarter.

How to Plan 30 Days of Instagram Content

Planning Instagram content 30 days in advance has many benefits.

It allows you to create and prepare everything so you only need to spend a few minutes on Instagram each day.

It helps you to “show up” consistently without Instagram becoming your full-time job.

It saves so much time and lets you create an Instagram routine that works with your busy life.

And, you never again have to stress out about throwing a post together last-minute.

If you’re wishing for a better posting strategy, or if you’re just curious about this whole “planning” thing, you’ve come to the right place. Because today, I’m sharing my simple step-by-step process for intentionally planning 30 days of Instagram content.

My Step-by-Step Process for a Successful Year

It’s that time of year again—when everything feels fresh and new. Goals swirl around our minds with ever-growing excitement about what we hope to accomplish in the new year.

We dream big about our businesses and can’t wait to get started on our latest and greatest ideas.

But without a methodical way to set and reach goals, there isn’t much hope for success.

So today, I’m giving you my step-by-step process to effectively plan for a successful and productive year. This is an in-depth blog post you won’t want to miss.

How I Got a Head-Start on the New Year

I wanted to try something new going into January this year: get a head-start.

The first few weeks of January usually get away from me, and before I know it, I’m halfway through February.

So I brainstormed ways to set myself up for success this year, and I’m happy to announce it’s made a huge difference so far. They are strategies I plan to continue implementing for the rest of the year, and I recommend you try them out, too.

This is what I did:

17 Ways I’m Improving My Productivity this Quarter

Do you ever find yourself struggling to make progress? With countless distractions and ways to wander from the path, it’s easy to fall behind.

The ability to work in a productive capacity can make or break any business. In fact, much of your success likely rests in this skill.

I’ve been focusing on maintaining its momentum over the past several months, and in this mega-packed blog post, I’ve rounded up 17 ways I’m improving my productivity this quarter.

I guarantee you’ll want to start implementing some of these strategies today!

Entrepreneur Highlight: Implementing Simplicity to Boost Focus and Productivity

The first time I landed on Vanessa’s blog, Pursue Simple Joy, it only took about 5 seconds to realize how productive she is in her business! So I am thrilled to have her join me on the blog to share her insights and story with you all today!

Vanessa and her husband, Micah, are an inspiring resource for boosting focus and productivity through simplifying the unnecessaries.

Their blog is filled with thoughtful post-after-post about pursuing simplicity for a more joyful life. And it’s easy to see the benefits of their approach just by glimpsing at how much they get accomplished.

I was intrigued to learn more about Vanessa’s tips and methods for maintaining such high productivity levels, and I knew she was the perfect creative to invite on for my weekly Entrepreneur Highlight series.

This feature is jam-packed with so many easy-to-implement takeaways about running a small business.

For strategies that will supercharge your focus and productivity, keep reading.

The latest insights for creative entrepreneurs