One of the first responses I get when I tell people I work from home is, “I would love to do that, but I’m not disciplined enough!” People say that if they didn’t have to show their face somewhere every morning, they’d sleep until noon or spend half the day watching Real Housewives.

…Wait, you’re not supposed to do that?

While there are definitely days I take it easy, most of my days don’t look that different from someone who works in an office. The biggest difference is the flexibility—sometimes you’ll find me napping at 2 p.m. but staying on my laptop cranking away until midnight, or knocking out a bunch of work early in the morning so I can head to the beach or work out in the afternoon.

Flexibility was the driving factor in wanting to leave my 9-to-5, so I take full advantage of it. However, that means I plan my days pretty carefully to make sure everything gets done. Here’s what works for me to plan my day effectively.

How To Plan Your Day When You Work From Home

Separate long-term and daily to-do’s

In a world filled with Washi tape and Erin Condren, I’m as basic as they get. This At-A-Glance planner has been my go-to for the last four years. It, combined with a spiral notebook, is how I plan my entire life.

I use the monthly planner to map out a bird’s eye view of events, like upcoming trips or important deadlines, and the spiral notebook to plan out daily tasks.

Every day, I have two lists going: tasks for today and tasks for tomorrow. I find it helpful to have a list for tomorrow because it gives me a place to offload things that pop into my head, but that don’t need to be done right now. I can put it on the ‘tomorrow’ list and forget about it.

On the left side of my list, I put work-related tasks—concrete things like ‘finish writing assignment’ or ‘draft website copy’ that I can cross off when they’re done. On the right, I put life tasks—things outside of work I want to get done that day, like making a doctor’s appointment or calling back a friend. I find it helpful to separate work and life tasks because it makes the list more manageable.

Underneath that, I’ve got the same thing going on for the following day. Anything beyond tomorrow goes in the monthly planner.

At the end of each day, I take a few minutes to fill out the rest of the next day’s list. It’s helpful to start the morning with my priorities already outlined.

Plan by the hour

When I have a particularly busy day, or one where lots of things need to happen at a set time (conference calls, etc.), I like to plan things out by the hour. This is super effective in keeping me on track and making sure all of the important stuff gets done.

If you work with clients, mapping things out by the hour is also a great way to track and bill your time. For example, if I have an hour blocked off for working on a client’s blog but notice that I’m still not done at the end of the hour, it might be appropriate to reconsider the amount I’m billing them.

Finally, I really like planning by the hour because it’s a manageable amount of time to work on a task. In an hour’s time you can really make some progress, but it’s not so long that getting started feels overwhelming.

Put your phone on silent

Most of the day my phone is on silent. I know this isn’t feasible for everyone, but you’d be surprised at how well it can work when you get used to it, and how much more you’ll get done.

I started putting my phone on silent about a year ago when I noticed I was spending an ungodly amount of time on the phone. The truth is, 90% of work-related things can be managed via email, and it takes a fraction of the time.

If you want to test the waters, start small. Put your phone on silent and set an alarm for an hour. Then, go deep on a project without the temptation of checking your phone. I try to return phone calls in chunks, like before I eat lunch and toward the end of the day.

Take breaks between tasks

If you work from home, you probably switch back and forth between several different projects over the course of a day. I’m the type of person who can get “in the zone” on something and hammer away at it without distractions, but only for so long. When I hit a wall—usually after about an hour—I’m done, and I need to take a breather before starting something else.

I take a lot of breaks: to eat, to catch up on Vanderpump Rules, twice during the day to walk my dog. If I’m feeling antsy, I’ll do a yoga video or go for a bike ride. Even when I schedule out my day hour by hour, I build breaks into it.

You’ll get a lot more done and be less likely to burn out if you give your brain time to recharge between tasks.

Even though I do most of my work during normal business hours, I love the flexibility that being self-employed offers. What does your typical day look like? How do you plan in order to maximize your time? I’m always curious to hear what other people do, so leave me a comment and tell me!

If you want to learn more about working from home, you might also like this post: 5 Awesome Things (And 5 That Suck) About Working For Yourself

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