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If you are a professional photographer, it can be difficult to stay productive while working from home. Between home photoshoots and long editing sessions, you may find it difficult to stay focused and achieve your goals.
Fortunately, there are ways around this. Here are some productivity tips every photographer should keep in mind when working from home.
1. Set limits
You might think that you can still be productive while working from your bed or in your living room. However, this is not entirely true; playing Netflix while you’re working or a friend is visiting won’t help your productivity as a photographer.
Designating a distraction-free space for your work can help keep you productive. If you want to get creative, you can design your ideal workstation using apps like Planner 5d, HomeByMe, and Roomstyler.
2. Choose the right software for the job
You might be dependent on Adobe Photoshop for your photo editing projects, but using it for simple editing can be overkill. For simple tasks, focus on using easy-to-use photo editing programs.
Try to choose editing software that automates as many editing tasks as possible. Luminar, PaintShop Pro, Canva, Pixlr, and Aurora HDR are simple photo editing apps that you can use without any difficulty.
3. Take a break whenever you need to.
While you know that working for long, uninterrupted periods can slow down your productivity, you could be guilty of working without a break anyway. Plus, working from home means you’re confined to one space, which can lead to additional boredom.
Make sure to take a break when you want to rejuvenate your mind and body. Use the Pomodoro technique, which encourages you to take a five-minute break every 25 minutes of work. There are many free timer apps that can help you follow the Pomodoro technique, like PomoDoneApp, TomatoTimer, and Pomofocus. Also, don’t forget to stretch your muscles during your breaks.
4. Eliminate all distractions
Checking social media or visiting distracting websites can take a toll on your productivity. Apart from that, getting distracted by smartphone notifications can also negatively impact your work. You need to keep these distracting things at bay for better performance in photoshoots and post-production.
Use a social media app blocker like Freedom and Flipd. You can also use website blocker apps like WasteNoTime, LeechBlock, and Cold Turkey to block all unproductive websites.
5. Have fixed working hours
Creative professions like photography often require flexibility in terms of time. But to become more productive, you need to take some flexibility away from it and get into a routine. Set your work hours when you are most productive and motivated.
If you’re not sure what your most productive hours are, use apps like Toggl and Clockify. These apps will keep track of the time you take to accomplish any task. You can decide your most fruitful hours by checking which tasks you complete the fastest and what time of day you completed them.
6. Focus on the most difficult task first.
If you’re used to doing the simpler task first and leaving the hard work until the end, stop doing it. Since difficult tasks require more effort, you should start working on them with a fresh and productive mind, usually at the start of your working hours.
Tackling the more difficult tasks first will also give you plenty of time to complete them. Add all your pending tasks to a project management app like Todoist, nTask, Asana, or ClickUp. In your list of pending tasks, find the most difficult and complete it first.
7. Continue networking
Networking is one of the most productive things you can do for your photography business. If there isn’t enough work right now, why not invest your time in networking? This low cost marketing strategy can really pay off in the end.
Join communities like Meetup and Discord to stay up to date with what your fellow photographers are up to. Also interact with business owners and local artist groups to stay informed of any potential networking events.
8. Create your own content
If you’re struggling to find your next photography gig, that doesn’t mean you have to sit idly by. You can share photography tips and tricks with budding photographers through your own YouTube channel.
It doesn’t have to be an expensive endeavor – you can use free software like Shotcut and Lightworks to edit your videos. If audiences love your videos, you can potentially earn passive income through your channel.
9. Create reminders for your goals
To stay motivated and productive, you need to set concrete goals for yourself and focus on them. Achieving your goals is easy when you constantly remember them. Apps like Lifetick let you set goals and track your progress, and also serve as a reminder of what you need to accomplish.
As a photographer, productivity means not wasting your time looking for your gear. When you have your lenses, tripods, memory cards, etc., in designated areas of your workspace, you won’t have to waste time looking for what you need.
However, your photography tools aren’t the only things you need to keep organized. Also, make sure you have all the office essentials like your laptop, notepad, pens, highlighters, printing paper, rulers and necessary cables organized and easy to find.
11. Get creative with home photoshoots
As a photographer, you can capture stunning images wherever you are. If you make full use of your creativity, you can find photogenic material without traveling to distant places.
Don’t let working from home rob you of your productivity and creativity. You can take minimalist photos of your garden, workstation, or kitchen that tell compelling stories.
12. Perform batch jobs
Doing the same type of tasks all at once is useful for productivity because you don’t need to shift your attention between multiple tasks. For this you must categorize your tasks and choose to work on a category on a particular day.
For example, work on marketing on Tuesday and networking on Friday. You can use apps like MeisterTask, Trello, Airtable, and Notion to easily categorize your tasks.
Become a more productive photographer
Productivity is the key to achieving your goals. While it can be difficult to eliminate distractions and stay focused on a task when working from home, improving your productivity will only boost your success as a photographer.
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