Contract Worker - Freelancing Experiences

18 Ways to Stay Focused While Working, Part 1

by Rico on March 14th, 2007

Dave Cheong’s many years of working in “many client sites and a variety of layouts” have given him invaluable experience. Experience he shared with the world last August 2006. Yet the advice he gives is practically timeless, because his 18 Ways to Stay Focused at Work applies regardless of setup or location. So without further ado, here are the first nine items of his list, along with my thoughts as a freelancer:

1. Write out a daily task list and plan your day. Check out Marking Your Way to Improved Productivity.
2. Allocate time slots colleagues can interrupt you. Even the relatively deserted environment of the home office won’t save you from interruptions, so it’s important to let others know (especially friends and family) when you’re available during the day. Or you could simply disable all forms of communicating (staying invisible in IM, letting the answering machine handle calls) while you can’t be interrupted.
3. Apply time boxing. A great way to manage multiple projects at the same time. Just remember that the key to doing this successfully is to keep the necessary details in mind.
4. Setup filters in your email. Gmail is great for this, since you can apply more than one label to each individual message. Meaning you’re not forced to pigeon-hole an email into only one category.
5. Do not check personal email in the morning. Check out Why Your Internet Morning Routine Limits Your Productivity.
6. Set your IM status. I’ve found that using a “cute” status message (like “Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to work I go”) really indicates your unavailability. People tend to ignore the default “I’m busy” because they’re so used to seeing them.
7. Listen to the right types of music. Well it depends, but any kind of music proves distracting to me.
8. Use the headphones but leave the music off. Ah, a more effective way to work (again, at least for me).
9. Fill up a water bottle. In a general sense, having everything you need at hand lessens interruptions. Like Vyoma, who keeps “a water bottle handy.

I’ll cover the next nine tomorrow. But your welcome to give me a piece of your mind dear readers.

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POSTED IN: Great Advice, Ramblings of a Freelancer, Ways to Work Faster