Working from Home Productively: A #Bufferchat Recap

Aug 10, 2017 3 min readBufferchat

This week on #bufferchat, we shared tips and best practices for working from home — and how to do it productively! The community discussed how to set up home workspaces, techniques for minimizing distractions, and much more, including the age-old question: do you wear real clothes or pajamas? ?

Read on to discover all of the awesome advice that was shared during the chat!

Catch our weekly Twitter chat, #bufferchat, at TWO times every Wednesday for valuable industry insights and to meet hundreds of other smart marketers and social media enthusiasts. Same topic, same place, just at different times – feel free to join in to whichever chat time works best for you!

4 pm AEST (Sydney time)

9 am PT (San Francisco time)

Bufferchat on August 9, 2017 (Topic = Working from Home Productively!)

This week’s stats:
Bufferchat #1 (4 pm AEST): 52 participants, reach of 1,081,238
Bufferchat #2 (9 am PT): 180 participants, reach of 1,966,482

Q1: How do you transition to starting your work day when working from home?

From the community:

  • “Start early & don’t look at your phone before you begin your morning routine or you will be sucked into the digital vortex!” @ZenYinger
  • “Create a routine. Wake up 1-2 hours before you start and use it as “me” time—have breakfast, work out, grab coffee.” @AboutDanielle_
  • “I look at our priorities organized in @trello, put on my trigger song that gets me in work mode, and get to work.” @clarusclientbst

See all the great answers to question 1 here!

Q2: What are the 1-3 most important aspects of a workspace for you?

From the community:

  • “The chair. The lighting. Level of white noise.” @zerodarkadam
  • “Lots of natural light, iced coffee, and good wifi.” @MicheleElizabth
  • “A tidy neat desk, a cup of coffee, and dual monitors.” @adQuadrant

See all the great answers to question 2 here!

Q3: When you work from home, how do you work in breaks throughout your work day?

From the community:

  • “I take a break when I’m feeling stuck. Scheduling breaks seems to get in the way of momentum for me.” @ideabloke
  • “Work in Pomodoro shifts of 25 minutes with 5 minute breaks in between. After 4 shifts I take a half our break.” @EntHacks
  • “Depends on what I’m working on, but when I can I try to break 10-15min hourly, it keeps my brain from working against me.” @andrew_c_becker

See all the great answers to question 3 here!

Q4: How do you minimize distractions while you work?

From the community:

  • “Close all tabs (especially social media sites) other than the ones you need for research and switch off notifications.” @thatcontentshed
  • “Stick my headphones on. With a good playlist, I’m ready to conquer the world…Well my work at least.” @etakappadiamond
  • “I think minimizing distractions all starts with having clearly defined goals when you start the day. Trains run on tracks.” @iAmDarthJones

See all the great answers to question 4 here!

Q5: How can you make sure you’re staying on track with the work you set out to do that day?

From the community:

  • “The secret ingredient is to schedule work around your #energy, instead of #time.” @TCInstituteNY
  • “I always “eat the frog” first. Do that ONE big task, before email or anything else. Feels great to have it done.” @drewplaysdrums
  • #Productivity tip: estimate how long you think it’ll take. If you’ve done it before, multiple x1.5. If you haven’t x2.” @bgtrotter

See all the great answers to question 5 here!

Q6: When working from home, would you choose to wear real clothes or stay in pajamas, and why?

From the community:

  • “Getting dressed in real clothes definitely helps me prepare for my day and get in a different mindset than rest.” @dmtors
  • “When performing a skype meeting, it’s all about a dress shirt and sweatpants! #LaptopLifestyle.” @kevinwiens
  • “I’m usually in workout clothes because they’re comfy! My attire has no impact on how productive I am, my mentality does. ?” @KhadyaHale_VA

See all the great answers to question 6 here!

Q7: What’s your #1 tip for working from home productively?

From the community:

  • “Create a dedicated space for working, even if you don’t have a home office. Find a spot and make it yours.” @ExpWriters
  • “Even though you work from home doesn’t mean you have to work whenever you are home. Set boundaries for your work day.” @kalynochka
  • “Become aware of yourself- knowing what distracts you, what times you work best at, etc. Practice constraint.” @blossmweb
  • “Practice! Working productively is a skill. It’s ok if it isn’t perfect right away. Tweak, repeat, find what works.” @dan_kaufhold
  • “Start the day by looking at what you need to accomplish by EOD, prioritizing, and doing things one at a time. Find a groove!” @TheMikeyDunn

See all the great answers for question 7 here!


Thank you so much to our awesome community for sharing such great insights in this chat!

Do you have any comments or answers to these questions? Leave your thoughts in the comments! We’d love to hear from you!

Image sources: UnSplash

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