Working from home is such a blessing and curse at the same time. While I love the flexibility and lack of commute, staying on task at home can get tricky at times. There always seems to be laundry and package deliveries, cats to snuggle and text messages to answer.
If I’m not careful with my time, I can easily go a full work day with only a few hours worth of work actually completed. If you’re anything like me, some structure and strategy will greatly improve your focus.
Here’s 5 strategies that may help you!
1| Remove the phone from your office/desk
It’s amazing how addicted we can be to these devices! More than we admit to. It’s usually right about the time I get to a tricky image that my mind begins to wander and thinks, hey you haven’t posted on Instagram today yet, maybe you should just check the feed quickly and see if anything cool is happening. Removing the ability to open the Instagram app (or Facebook or CNN or, or, or…) by having the phone in another room makes me focus so much more. It keeps me on task and getting edits done.
2| Chrome Extensions
Even with the phone removed from my office, the computer is still accessible, which means I can still pop over to Facebook or any other distracting, attention grabbing website instantly. The Facebook Feed Erradicator and StayFocused Chrome extensions are two that I use to eliminate distractions and restrict the time I spend on social media and time wasting sites.
3| Toggl
I’m always tracking how much time it’s taking me to edit images and when I use Toggl, it’s like a race against the clock to get it done as quick as possible without stopping for distractions. Have you ever tracked your editing time before? I highly suggest giving it a shot! P.S. – Toggl‘s basic plan is totally free!
4| Blocking work in LR
Breaking down Lightroom catalogs into wedding categories, camera serial number, or any smaller bite sized chunk helps me feel like I’m getting somewhere fast. Kind of like when you’re running a 5k and you break it down by focusing on one mile at a time. This really helps me mentally chip away at a those 1000+ image galleries.
5| Keeping your mind engaged (but not too much)
Editing for hours on end can quickly become boring to the mind. Despite the gorgeous images I see on a daily basis, my mind wanders often. To keep myself focused on the the day’s edits, I like to keep my mind engaged with podcasts, long form interviews, or old tv shows. Anything that doesn’t require me to look up from my screen, but still entertains me.
With these strategies in place, you’ll have no problem getting edits done, make money, and grow your editing business!
