5 Tips To Increase Your Home Office Productivity

Almost every fitness professional I know has some kind of home office set up where they plan their personal training sessions, make their calls, do their taxes etc. etc. and today I've got 5 simple tips to help you increase your home office productivity.

Working from home instantly throws two very challenging hurdles at you before you even get started:

• Separating business and home life,
• Lack of stimulating social interaction.

So why make things any tougher on yourself?

1. Create a separate work space:

Not everyone has the luxury of having their own 'war room' set aside as an office, even so you should find a separate and permanent space where you can put a desk and plug in your computer...I call that a 'War Nook'.

Your desk could be behind a partition in a larger room, it really doesn't matter, but make sure that the space that you create is permanent and yours.

2. Avoid working in your bedroom:

If you have a desk in your bedroom, or you regularly take your laptop to bed, you need to try and find an alternative arrangement. There has to be at least one space in your home that is not connected to work.

There is nothing wrong with spending late nights creating content (it's actually 1am right now as I write this), but your productivity will increase if you work in a designated space and you will be able to relax better when you go to bed and switch off.

3. Natural Light:

Natural light keeps you alert. It also provides a more vibrant feng shui atmosphere for you to work in. If you don't have access to a window, get your hands on some full spectrum light bulbs to give your work space some energy.

4. Invest in a 2nd monitor for your computer:

One of the first things I recommend to anyone who wants to instantly increase productivity is to get themselves a second monitor for their computer.

Studies have shown that you can expect a 30% increase in productivity, simply because you're not flipping screens everywhere and looking for folders.

These days you can pick up decent 22" LCD monitors for around $200 and the increased productivity means it almost pays for itself in the first week!

I challenge you to ask anyone who uses two monitors if they would go back to one, I practically guarantee there is no chance.

5. White Boards

Let's be honest, you cannot have enough space on your walls to be able to scribble down ideas, memos, mind maps, to-do lists...whatever!

White boards make getting things down fast and easy and thanks to modern technology, with a quick snap shot from your phone; your white board content is easily shared with colleagues, employees and clients via MMS, email or your social media channels.

Making simple adjustments like these to your home office or nook or whatever you have; will cut your work time down drastically, motivate you to be more creative and improve the quality of the material that you deliver.

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