1 Surefire Way to Increase Your Productivity

Freelancers must learn to be as productive as possible. You have to juggle multiple responsibilities within your business, work with various clients, etc. If you aren't productive, you can easily fall behind and have upset clients within one week or less. 

However, there is one surefire way to increase your productivity: get ready for work.

You will be surprised at how much you can get done when you have shifted your brain into working mode. The quickest way to go from 0 to 60 (productivity style) is to get dressed for work - all the way down to putting on shoes. I explain more details in this video:

It works, believe me. If you don't believe me, try it, and if it doesn't work, you have full permission to give me a good cyberslap :-).

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Why Every Freelancer Needs a Productive Work Environment

For the past year I worked from my couch, the bed, Bread Co. (a St. Louis twist on Panera Bread), and even on my patio. Were these productive work environments? Not in the very least. Sure, these spots are fine when you're only doing an hour or so of work, but not for working a full day. You need your own personal space that is defined as your office.

Why does an office make you more productive? There are a few reasons:

• When you enter your office, you know it's time to work because that's the space dedicated to working.
• You can have a desk that is unique to your working style.
• You can have an ergonomic office chair that is comfortable and provides a good level of support.
• You can put up pictures of your family, friends, pets, etc. that mean the most to you (the reasons why you work).

Now that I have my own office, things are different (though my space is a bit cluttered right now). I'm better able to focus, and I know when I sit down in my office chair, I mean business. I have even been able to hook my laptop into a monitor from an older computer so that I can run dual screens. This helps immensely as I'm able to look at information on one monitor while I may be keying everything in on the other.

How has having a dedicated office boosted your productivity?

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