Seven Pro Tips For Working From Home
With most of us suddenly working from home due to COVID-19, I thought I’d share some tips I’ve learned over the last decade. May the force be with you my friends! You’ve got this. We’re all in this together. 💪🏼
Manage your thoughts: Notice what your thoughts are about working from home and try to think thoughts that serve your end goals.
If your thoughts are along the lines of “I hate working from home,” “This is going to be a disaster,” “I’m not going to be productive,” “There are too many distractions at home,” “The bed is going to be calling my name all day,” “I’m not good with online technology,” then most likely your thoughts will come true! These thoughts will create feelings of anger, frustration, anxiety, annoyance or inadequacy. When you feel this way you’re not likely to work productively from home, resulting in you manifesting your thoughts.
So what’s the cure? Get curious with what’s going in your brain and give yourself a big dose of compassion if you see something you don’t like. It is okay. Your brain likes to stay in it’s comfort zone and is just trying to keep you safe and comfortable. It’s doing its job. Emotions are simply vibrations in our body, they are harmless if you just let them be. Allow those feelings despite the discomfort. Resisting them magnifies the pain and dulling it with buffering behaviors like over-eating or over-drinking only provides temporary relief and often creates new problems.
Thoughts to consider: Once you’ve given those uncomfortable feelings some airtime, consider dropping the thoughts that created them and generating new ones. Thoughts to consider might be: “I’ve got this,” “What a treat to work from home,” “Technology is my friend,” “I save so much time not commuting to work,” “I’m going to make the best of this,” “I can do this,” “I am going to be so productive today,” “I can do hard things,” “This is easy,” etc. The key to choosing a new thought is you have to believe it and it has to generate a feeling that creates a feeling that fuels you to take action that serves your end goal. That will be different for everyone. So spend some time thinking about what that feeling is for you. Is it commitment, determination, curiosity, focus, etc.?
Plan your schedule: Map out your schedule for the entire week Monday morning or Sunday evening. Steps to follow:
Schedule your “free time” on your calendar first (personal, family, workout, friends, doctor appointments, kids, etc.)
Schedule blocks of “focus time” in chunks of 1.5-2 hours when you turn off all notifications to work on creating content for your business that requires brain work.
Create a list of all the results you want to produce this week, prioritize them, decide how much time you are going to give yourself to complete each task, transfer them to your calendar and throw away the list.
Follow your calendar no matter what - your calendar is your boss!
Manage your emotions when you don’t feel like following your calendar.
Establish a morning routine: Get up a regular time, take a shower, get dressed, etc. and then tweak it to fit your personality and interests. For example, I like to wake up and immediately meditate followed by a cup of decaf tea. My husband likes to wake up to the news. You can journal, stretch, do yoga, go for a walk, read a book, stare out your window, listen to the news, enjoy a lazy breakfast, etc. Play around with what works for you. There is no right or wrong.
Tidy the house: If you are someone that likes to work in a clean and tidy environment get it out of the way immediately. I tidy up the house right after breakfast before showering. I clean up the kitchen, tidy up the living room, bedroom, etc, so I don’t have an excuse not to concentrate throughout the day. This can also be done the night before as well for those whose mornings start early.
Turn off all notifications on the computer: I turn off all notifications for all emails, iMessage, WhatApps, Slack, FaceTime, etc., on my computer except for my calendar, including notifications on the badge icon. I only know if I’ve received a message when I open the app during designated times.
Keep junk food out of the house: I try to keep junk food out of the house. If you want to eat healthy food and know you are likely to dig into a bag of chips when you have a report to write then keep those shelves junk food free! Don’t kid yourself.
Get outside at least once a day: Start or end your day with a walk or run! Walk around the neighborhood with your kids for lunch. Find some stairs to climb up and down. Anything to stretch the legs and get outside! If for some reason you can’t, stand up every 60 minutes and walk around the house and stretch for a few minutes (this is a good idea anyways).
Bonus tip: If you have a job in which you don’t interact with people much during the day, try to make an effort to reach out to other humans at some point during your day. Call or video chat via FaceTime or Zoom with a friend or work colleague, or chat with your neighbor during your walk (you can still talk while honoring the 6 feet of COVID social distancing!) It makes a difference. Human connection is important. Reach out and get some love. ❤️
If you’d like to dive deeper on this topic set up a free consult with me. I’d love to connect with you. Sending you lots of love and light as we all journey through this COVID-19 challenge together. ❤️💫