Working from home can rock or you can totally suck at it, depending on how disciplined you are with the time you save from commuting. In the podcast, I describe how I get ready to work from home. Unfortunately, I cut off some of the tips towards the end, it’s all included below.
GET READY
You’re probably thinking, “Oh hell no, I’m NOT planning to get ready, I’m working from home, no one will even see me. It’s no pants day.” Relax, you can stay in pajamas or sweats if that’s your preference. Get up at your normal time, then workout it’s no excuses on work from home days, make it happen! Then shower and put on your favorite comfy outfit to get ready to work. Working from home gets you a pass to workout, so you don’t have to worry about it the rest of the day. Take care of you; workout, eat a great breakfast, make your to do list, all before checking email or social media. No social media, until you take care of you!
MAKE A LIST
I love lists, it keeps me organized, and it doesn’t take long to write. I use Reminders on the Mac or Evernote on the phone. You can add everything you need to do, from personal errands, work tasks, long-term projects, grocery items, anything that needs to get done. Get it out of your head so you have a visual of everything you need to do.
- Make a list of everything that needs to get done
- Categorize your sticky notes or tasks
- Personal
- Professional
- Side Projects
- Groceries
- Errands, etc.
- Prioritize
- Prioritize the top 3 things that need to get done today and do those first
- Next figure out which errands can be grouped together then schedule those on your calendar. Type in the errands, place and what you need to do or buy directly into the calendar notice.
- Schedule the other items on your calendar
- Take pictures of your sticky notes or sync the newly organized list with due dates to your phone.
WORK
I recently read about the pomodoro technique where you set a timer to stay focused on a task for 25 minute increments, then you take a 5 minute break to do non-work related things. If you suddenly realize you have something else you need to do, write the task in your To Do List. For the “work” intervals, you don’t go on Facebook, email, Twitter, Snapchat, Periscope or whatever your distraction of choice is until after the timer goes off.
After you complete a pomodoro (25 minute “work” interval), make a tick mark on a sticky note. After you complete 4 pomodoro’s, you can take a longer break of 20 minutes. For a procrastinator, this technique is a dream because working for 25 minutes doesn’t seem daunting, so you can get to work pretty quickly.
RELAX
Since you’re not sitting around watching reality TV or talk shows or cleaning to procrastinate from doing work, you’ll have time to relax. Personally, the Pomodoro Technique was a game changer. It helped my mind stop procrastinating because anyone can stay away from social media for 25 minutes, right?
P.S.
I’m challenging myself to creating 1 minute Periscope videos daily. Then repurposing these videos into blog posts, YouTube videos and podcasts. The brilliant idea I had this morning was to turn the Periscope into a podcast, which morphed into this blog post because I realized there were a few points I missed during the podcast. What do you think of my first podcast? What would you like to hear about in the future? Let me know in the comments.
RESOURCES:
Follow 1 a Day, 1 Minute Video Challenge
Periscope: LifeHacks, Social Media & Business for daily 1 minute videos on life hacks, social media and business. I’m sharing tips, tricks and epiphanies.