I KNOW I’m not the only person in the world who gets distracted during the day, but I think those of us working from home probably get the worst of it. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times a day I’ve found myself on Twitter, Facebook, B&H, etc. doing nothing in particular, just wasting away minutes of the day. It happens the most when I’m in the middle of a task I don’t particularly want to be doing, like a tedious PhotoShop edit or calculating mileage. But these things have to get done whether I like it or not, and I’ve found a couple of things that have helped me out tremendously:

• Tea! Having a hot cup of tea next to me is almost a surefire way to make any task more enjoyable. No idea why, but it does! Having that tea in a cute Anthropologie mug is an added bonus 🙂
• Taking regular, scheduled breaks. Having a dog is really helpful with this- I take Lily out at 9, 12, and 3, so if for some reason I’m chained to my desk with editing or answering emails, I know I HAVE to get up at least once every three hours to walk the puppy. I try to break it up even more than that by refreshing my cup of tea or grabbing a glass of water- just getting UP from my desk helps shake me awake if my eyes are starting to glaze over.
• Tracking my progress. I found a really fun pad of “to-do” lists at PaperSource and every morning (well, most mornings) I write down whatever I want to accomplish that day. Sometimes it’s a two-bullet list, other times it’s the entire page. But creating a NEW list every morning keeps me feeling sane- I used to do the “three pages of cramped writing” lists, adding whenever something else occurred to me that I hadn’t done yet, but I found myself getting incredibly overwhelmed by that sort of thing. Break it down into day-by-day lists allows me to see how well I’ve done daily at staying on-task- I love being able to cross off everything on the list and tuck it away in my “completed” pile (yes, I keep them).
• Beginning with the end in mind. I know that every day when Matt gets home, it’s time for me to step away from the computer and close the door to my office. So in the event that I’m working on something I haven’t been looking forward to, I know that the day will END at 5:30. I don’t know about you guys, but when I start on a project with no end in sight, particularly one I’m not jazzed about, I tend to get discouraged. This also relates to my timetable to starting and finishing a wedding- my first few weddings I ever shot took me SIX WEEKS to edit. Six long weeks of working every night and every weekend. Mind you, this was while I was still working at a desk job, but still. It seemed never-ending. These days I’m much quicker- if I stay on task and work efficiently, I can finish in 3-4 days. Knowing that I have ONE week to complete wedding edits keeping me moving and prevents me from getting behind.

So how about y’all? What are your best practices for keeping yourself moving along?

Happy Wednesday!