Working from home is a dream most people would love to experience. It offers a freedom that is unlike the freedom you’d achieve from any other job. Not only do people want to work from home, but they’d love for it to be their own company they are working for!It’s actually not as difficult to make money online working from home as you’d think! So what exactly stops so many people from doing it? The issue I believe is simply a lack of willpower and productivity.
Defining Willpower and Productivity
What exactly is willpower?The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines willpower as:
the ability to control yourself : strong determination that allows you to do something difficult (such as to lose weight or quit smoking)
What about the definition of being productive?Again, we’ll take the definition from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary which states it as:
doing or achieving a lot : working hard and getting good results
How Do We Obtain Willpower and Productivity if We Don’t Have Them?
Just like most things in life, willpower and productivity are things that with practice you can become better at using.Imagine if you decided to start jogging to get your body in shape. Would you go out the first day and run 5 miles? Fuck no! In fact, you may not even run your first time out. You may have to start walking every day first depending on how out of shape you are!The key is to…
Start Small
Starting small doesn’t mean you can’t dream big! Do you want to own a multi-million dollar company? Then add it to your dream board, goal list, bathroom mirror or where ever else you need to in order to keep you motivated!Once you’ve done that though, it’s just as important to figure out the Action Steps you’ll need to take to get there. Maybe it looks something like this…
- Purchase a domain name.
- Purchase hosting.
- Install WordPress.
- Find or create a theme.
- Write three blog posts per week.
The reason you need to break down your goal into smaller steps is because it’s easy to complete smaller steps and each time you finish one of the steps it increases your willpower slightly. Also by having a plan written out it allows you to be more productive as your not wasting time trying to figure out as you go what you need to do and then getting distracted. As I said above, it’s the same mentality of beginning to jog and walking instead of running to start off until you work your way up to running!
Setup a Schedule
Set aside a block of time every day, every other day, etc that you will work on your business. Make this a consistent block of time. For example, everyday from 8am to 10am three times a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) you may schedule that you’ll write for your photography blog thus giving you your three blog posts per week that we wrote down in the step above.By doing this, it trains yourself to know that during this time you can’t do anything else and will help you be more productive when sitting down to write as you’ll know this is what this time is for! Nothing else! By actually setting a schedule up for yourself it will keep you accountable which helps increase willpower and productivity.In fact, even if you it’s a one time take, if you struggle with getting it done, schedule it for sometime during the next week! It sounds simple, but it works!
Remove Distractions
The problem with willpower and productivity is when you fail it hurts your ego. If you decide you’re going to set aside three days every week with two hours for each of those days to write blog posts but then you don’t do it, after a while you’ll be convinced that you have no willpower and you’re not able to tell yourself what to do!The truth is distractions could actually be to blame. It’s easy to decide to sit down at a certain time on a certain day to write but then hear your phone go off with the sound of a Facebook notification and HAVE to check it!Remove distractions from your set work times by being proactive in creating an environment designed to limit distractions to a minimum.This could include things like silencing your phone once it’s time to start writing or better yet, turning it completely off!Ask others in your household to respect your time and goals and to only bother you during those certain hours if it’s an emergency. If you don’t ask people will just assume interruptions don’t bother you!Install software that doesn’t allow you to visit certain sites during certain times. An example of software like this is an extension for Google Chrome called StayFocused. This app allows you to block certain websites for a specified time or allows you to set daily limits on how much long you can visit a site like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.
Summary
Following the above steps will easily increase productivity and boost willpower more than you’ve ever experienced if you’re willing to give them a try.I’m sure you’re thinking it can’t be that easy, but it honestly is! If you plan ahead to be productive and to do what you say you’re going to do you’d be surprised what you can accomplish!Do you have any other recommendations to help boost your willpower and increase your productivity? If so, leave me a comment below and let me know what works for you!