Sales Loves MarketingTo stay productive working from home, give your day a clear start and end, work from a space set up for calls and focus, protect blocks of time for your most important work, cut interruptions and agree with your team how and when you communicate. For sales and marketing teams, that structure matters even more, because so much of the job happens in meetings, calls and shared deadlines.
How common is working from home now?
Very common, and it has stayed that way. WFH Research, run by economists Jose Maria Barrero, Nick Bloom and Steven Davis, surveys US workers every month. In September 2026, 26.82% of full paid working days were worked from home, according to their series on FRED, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis data service. For many teams, home is simply one of the places the work happens each week.
Is working from home less productive?
The best evidence says it does not have to be. In a randomised trial published in Nature in 2024, Nick Bloom, Ruobing Han and James Liang studied 1,612 graduate employees at Trip.com, including engineering, marketing and finance staff. Half worked from home on Wednesdays and Fridays, half stayed in the office. Over the following two years:
- Performance reviews and promotions showed no difference between the groups.
- Quit rates in the hybrid group were about a third lower, 4.8% against 7.2%.
- Job satisfaction went up.
That is one company and one setup, two days at home a week. It suggests the question is less whether people can be productive at home and more how they organise the work.
How do you create a routine that works?
Keep fixed start and end times
Without a commute, the workday can drift into the evening. Pick a start time, a lunch break and a finish time, and stick to them. Share them with your team so people know when they can reach you.
Mark the start and end of the day
A short ritual helps your brain switch modes: getting dressed for work, a walk around the block before you start, closing the laptop and putting it away when you finish. The point is a clear line between work and home.
Plan the day the evening before
Write down the two or three tasks that matter most tomorrow and put them in your calendar first. The Eisenhower Matrix is a simple way to decide what is urgent and what is important.
How should you set up your workspace?
Use a dedicated space
A separate room is ideal, but a corner of a room that you only use for work also helps. If you work at the kitchen table, pack your work away at the end of the day so it is out of sight.
Set it up for calls
Sales and marketing work is full of calls, demos and video meetings. A good headset, a camera at eye level, decent light from the front and a quiet background make you easier to listen to and less tired at the end of the day.
Sit well
OSHA's guidance on computer workstations recommends keeping your head level and in line with your torso, elbows close to your body and bent between 90 and 120 degrees, feet flat on the floor or a footrest, and your back fully supported. It also recommends changing position often and standing or walking at intervals.
How do you protect focus at home?
Work in focused blocks
Group similar work together: prospecting calls in one block, writing in another, email at set times. The Pomodoro Technique, developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s, is one simple method: 25 minutes of focused work, a break of about five to ten minutes, and a longer break after four rounds.
Cut notifications
Every notification pulls you out of the task in front of you. Turn off everything you do not need during focus blocks, including social media apps, and check team chat and email at set times instead of constantly. Use your phone's screen time limits if social media is a habit.
Take real breaks
Step away from the screen: walk, stretch, make a drink, go outside. Breaks are when you recover the energy for the next block.
How should remote sales and marketing teams communicate?
Agree on when people are reachable
Set core hours when everyone is online for calls and quick questions, and leave the rest for focused work. Mark focus time in shared calendars so colleagues know not to interrupt.
Write things down
Remote teams depend on written updates. Keep briefs, decisions and campaign plans in shared documents, and post short status updates in your team chat so nobody needs a meeting to find out where things stand. Tools such as Slack, Notion and Asana are built for this.
For sales: let the CRM do the reporting
If reps update the CRM after every call, managers can see the pipeline without asking for it. Use video for pipeline reviews, deal coaching and listening to call recordings together. A clear sales cadence keeps prospecting on track when nobody is watching.
For marketing: review asynchronously
Share drafts with clear deadlines and comment in the document rather than holding review meetings for everything. Save live meetings for brainstorming and decisions.
Keep the human contact
Working from home can feel isolating. Regular one-to-ones, team calls with time for small talk and occasional in-person days help people feel part of a team. Managers should check in often, not only when something goes wrong.
What are the pros and cons of working from home?
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
| No commute, so more time and less cost | Household distractions, such as family, pets and chores |
| Longer stretches of focus time | Work and home blur without clear boundaries |
| More control over your schedule and environment | Less spontaneous contact and learning from colleagues |
| Easier to fit work around personal life | The same four walls every day |
Most of the disadvantages can be reduced with the habits above. For more ideas, browse our productivity tools and our list of productivity apps.
Frequently asked questions
How do I stay productive when working from home?
Keep a fixed start and finish time, work from a dedicated space, plan your most important tasks in focused blocks, turn off non-essential notifications, take short breaks and agree with your team when you are reachable.
Is working from home less productive than the office?
Not necessarily. A randomised trial of 1,612 employees at Trip.com, published in Nature in 2024, found that working from home two days a week did not affect performance reviews or promotions over two years, while it cut quit rates by a third.
How can sales reps stay productive working remotely?
Block fixed times for calls and prospecting, set up a quiet space with a good headset and camera, keep the CRM up to date after every call so managers do not need status meetings, and use video for pipeline reviews and coaching.
How long should breaks be when working from home?
Short and regular. The Pomodoro Technique, for example, uses 25 minutes of focused work followed by a break of about five to ten minutes, with a longer break after four rounds. Standing up and moving during breaks also helps your posture.