Working Online: How to Stay Focused and Be More Productive

| June 10, 2015

Working Online: How to Stay Focused and Be More Productive

Let’s face it. A lot of entrepreneurs and business-owners work online. Whether you are a freelancer or running an online store, the Internet will be an important part of your daily work routine.

Even if you work in a very quiet office, the Internet itself is filled with a plethora of distractions that can make even the most motivated person lose his focus.

So how do you work online and stay on top of everything? How can you be productive in a way that lets you do more and yet spend less time working? Here are tips that will help you if you are looking for answers.

Close your email

Email is distracting. Really. So if you are not spending time writing and replying to emails, it is best to close your inbox. It will help you focus better on the work at hand if you are not constantly reminded of new incoming mail and communication.

Say no to social networking

By popular concensus, social networks are the Holy Grails of Procrastination. Unless you are super disciplined, you can easily waste hours on them.

If you have to spend quite a bit of time online for work, it is a great idea to totally ban social networking sites while you are working. Have a specific time of the day when you look into your social networks to find out what everyone has been up to but when you are at work, make up your mind that you will not log in to any of your favourite sites.

Silence your phone

These days people don’t use their phones just to make and receive calls and text messages. They use it for a variety of things including Facebook, email, games and apps. So it is not uncommon for people to have a neverending flood of cell phone notifications distracting them from what they’re working on.

If this is you, then it is best that you turn off your notifications when you are working online. Keep your phone on flight mode, or just have alerts that notifies you of incoming calls. The others can wait.

Close unneeded web pages

Having too many tabs open in your browser can also be very distracting. So keep your browser clean of any web pages that you don’t need. Open tabs compells you to look at them. So better they are closed.

Working online is something all of us have to do and staying focused on the job at hand is essential. With the few tips above, you can ensure that your work-day is more productive.