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With the entire world forced to stay indoors, organizations had to find ways to continue to do business and sustain themselves. Remote working and work-from-home became the new norm. The sudden rise in dependency on technology and the internet has acted as a boon for the global market for Digital Advertising and Marketing.

According to a survey, the market may reach $786.2 Billion in 2026 from $350 Billion in 2020, at a 13.9% CAGR. Moreover, another survey concluded that the entire workforce of more than 87% of marketing companies was working from home in 2020.

Simply put, digital marketers must perform twice better while working from home, away from the collaborative work environment and endless tea breaks for brainstorming strategies. Unless they are systematic and organized in their way of working remotely, they are bound to be less productive and burn out instantly.

Here are a few productivity tips for work-from-home digital marketers.

Carve Out Your Dedicated Workspace

Your productivity is directly dependent on your work environment. All the rooms in your home serve specific purposes. As a digital marketer, you need a space that stimulates your gray cells.

Therefore, the first step in introducing an office space in your home is to identify your work niche. Ideally, this space should be distinct, decluttered, and fully equipped with office equipment such as a desk, office chair, storage, laptop/desktop, printer, telephone, whiteboard, pin-up board, and stationery.

It should have proper lighting and ventilation. It should also have enough room to allow slight movements. Finally, and most importantly, it should be a space with high-speed internet connectivity.

These additions to your home office would help you focus and boost your creativity, thus increasing your productivity.

What’s more, a proper workstation at home plays a vital role in limiting your distractions during office hours.

Get out of Your Pajamas

Working from home gives you the benefit of staying in your pajamas 24×7. But should you? Dressing up for work helps you be prepared for the day, express your sense of style, and stay motivated to achieve your goals.

It may be ok to have a pajama day once in a while but make sure that it doesn’t become a habit. You may not want to wear your strictly formal dress pants while working from home. However, you may aim to sport a clean and smart outfit.

Just like an appropriate home office station, your home office attire does wonders for your productivity and boosts your morale. It also helps you feel a part of your professional team, thus aligning your attitude with your goals.

Lay out Clear Expectations, Goals, and Objectives

One of the most noticeable differences between working from home and the office is the people in your surroundings. With your loved ones just a call away, you may get tempted to get easily distracted.

To ensure a productive work day at home, you must communicate your expectations clearly to your family members so that you may focus on your tasks.

Further, an efficient way to avoid all temptations is to have clear digital marketing goals and objectives. Align your tasks to your monthly goals and communicate the same to your boss and colleagues. You can utilize goal-tracking tools to track time and attendance for your progress and keep your team on the same page.

Make Daily To-Do Lists

Working from home also means working without supervision. You have the liberty to accomplish tasks as per your comfort as long as you are meeting deadlines. In such a scenario, it is common to lose track of time or overlook an important task.

Start your day with a to-do list so that you can structure your day. This routine would help you perform efficiently and stay productive. It would also enable you to optimize your time while prioritizing your tasks.

As you complete a task, strike it off your to-do list. As you log off at the end of the day, a completed to-do list will leave you fulfilled and help you feel highly relaxed for the rest of your evening.

Utilize your Breaks

Working from home saves commuting time, meaning you can take multiple short breaks without compromising your daily targets. We often hear about the demerits of staying glued to the screen for long hours like obesity, depression, and back problems. It’s also important to note that these breaks can be beneficial for your mental health, providing a necessary pause to refresh and reduce stress.

Taking breaks while working from home would help you catch your breath from continuous working and let your creative juices flow. Utilize these breaks to move around and stretch. Go to the kitchen to get yourself a glass of water. As a digital marketer, these breaks would give you opportunities to rethink your strategies. You would feel refreshed and energetic throughout the day. These meaningful breaks would impact your productivity positively.

Pro tip: If you use your break to scroll your phone, check you don’t spend too long on it with e.g. an iPhone time tracking app.

Secure your Data

Being a digital marketer means you also have access to extensive consumer data. You may also have access to confidential information like the financial details of your organization (ake sure you have access to a secure data room to store those sensitive files). With all your data stored in a digital format, ensuring the security of your files becomes one of your priorities while working from home.

Using strong passwords to safeguard access to your system is the first step to avoiding a data breach. Take appropriate measures to ensure cybersecurity as well as data protection.  One measure that can be adopted to provide added security is to bring onboard a cmmc solution.

Close Shop at a Designated Time

When you work from home, it becomes tough to identify the right time to stop your work and relax with your family. You can get so caught up in your ongoing task that you may forget to check the time.

Unlike the office, where your colleagues getting up from their desks and rushing out act as your cue to pack up and go home, ending your work at home is not an exclusive activity.

To avoid burning out while working from home, you must set up an alarm clock for closing time and indulge yourself in other non-work-related activities, a vital practice for maintaining a healthy work-life balance in the digital transformation era.

Organize Virtual Interaction Sessions

Limited connection to your colleagues and other employees of the organization while working from home can be isolating and lead to disorientation from your organization’s business goals.

Further, it can lead to miscommunication, misjudgment, frustration, unclear priorities, and a steep decline in the team’s performance.

Therefore, you must make it a point to interact with your team daily. It could be a simple phone call via a business phone system or a virtual conference using these platforms. A daily interaction would help everyone to feel valued and a part of a larger team. It would also boost your motivation and work efficiently without losing focus. You can always be a part of online board meeting to get more out of your work

Manage your Emails, Drives, and Tools

Digital Marketing agencies rely heavily on email communications, cloud storage, and digital marketing management tools. A disorganized filing system can result in reduced productivity.

Spend a designated time once a month to organize your emails and digital files. Unsubscribe from unwanted email threads, use labels to organize your emails, systemize folder structures in your drives, and categorize your digital marketing management tools.

Incorporating a reliable document storage software is also pivotal. This software ensures that all your documents, from client contracts to campaign plans, are stored safely, accessible, and backed up. It’s a game-changer for agencies aiming to enhance document storage efficiency and security.

These would save time and help you locate your emails and files whenever required.

Avoid Over-commitment

Over-commitment does not do anyone any good. And yet, it is unavoidable. At the time of the assignment of tasks, you may commit to accomplishing something. However, as you approach the deadline, you start stressing out and work till the wee hours. You may have completed your task, but is it up to the mark in terms of its quality?

You must maintain a schedule of all the tasks you need to complete and the time you can spare to take up additional assignments. It would help you to manage your tasks well and also enable you to communicate effectively about your prior commitments to your team members.

Bonus Tip: Identify And Purchase The Right Tools Of The Trade

To perform your job as a digital marketer, you will need to rely on certain tools like website builders, analytics tools, SEO tools, and design tools, among many others. Choosing these tools should be treated as a business decision, and pricing should not be the only concern.

It is important to analyze the tools you are about to purchase on other metrics like their influence on your focus and productivity and their ability to produce quick results and take prompt actions.

It is also important to research and learn about new tools continually, and this should not be limited to just digital marketing tools. The right productivity tool(s) or extensions for productivity for Chrome and other browsers can help you take your productivity to the next level.

Closing Statements

The Digital Marketing industry is fast-paced and growing. It has maximum scope for functioning successfully with a 100% work-from-home setup as it has the potential to accomplish a majority of tasks online. The benefits of working from home undoubtedly outweigh the associated challenges.

With a well-thought-out strategy, digital marketers can easily have a near-perfect work-life balance without compromising their productivity and efficiency while working from home.

Author Bio

Piyush Shah is an affiliate marketer and has helped grow multiple businesses from nothing to making insane business figures. He is currently working as Head of SEO at Dukaan – All-in-one eCommerce platform.

Nikola Roza

Nikola Roza is a blogger behind Nikola Roza- SEO for the Poor and Determined. He writes for bloggers who don't have huge marketing budget but still want to succeed. Nikola is passionate about precious metals IRAs and how to invest in gold and silver for a safer financial future. Learn about Nikola here.