👨🏽‍💻 👩🏻‍💻 5 Tips to Work From Home Effectively 🏘️. 🏢

5 Tips to Work From Home More Effectively

{{first_name}}, are you struggling with working from home distractions or not able to create the outputs or make the progress that you really want? Or maybe you have gradually started back to work in the office under the rules but you find you are not as productive as you want to be and still feel isolated, then join 100's of other leaders who watched this video. 

In this episode we are talking about working from home, effectively productively and joyously. I know some of you have been working from home for the first time, some are more experienced at working from home, others are now back and forth in a hybrid type office, home situation. Some of you love it, some of you hate it, some of you struggle with it others are thriving with it. No matter where you are on the scale of love-hate working from home, a lot of these tips will resonate with you – most of which are common sense, but not common practice. There is no “one size fits all or some secret recipe” to get it right. Every family, every person’s situation is very different. So some of these tips will apply and some won't. Just pick which ones most resonate with you.

We have been locked down now in Costa Rica since March and have been homeschooling my 3 kids while trying to run our businesses online and we just found out that there will not be a return to classes for the rest of 2020!! So while we still aren’t perfect at this WFH thing I have to say for the past 6 months almost I think we have significantly got better as family with everyone working around each other. So I want to share with you some of my takeaways. But I want to set the context – the bottom line is no matter where you are working, what your situation or context is, it’s not just because of your environment that makes you less or more productive, it’s a mindset and discipline. Whether you are working from home on the kitchen table or at the office, many of these rules still apply to help you be more effective and productive working from home.  

{{first_name}} watch this short video for 5 simple tips to help you gain control of your working environment, setup beneficial schedules and routines, get clear on your outcomes from the days, weeks ahead and create some ground rules. You cannot afford to miss this.

1. Have a Schedule & Routine & Take breaks

Set a schedule and create new morning routines as much as you can. Having clear guidelines for when to work and when to call it a day helps many remote workers maintain work-life balance. That said, one of the benefits of remote work is flexibility, and sometimes you need to extend your day or start early to accommodate someone else's time zone. When you do, be sure to wrap up earlier than usual or sleep in a bit the next morning to make up for it.  Creating a morning routine about allowing yourself to begin your day with confidence, peace, and a positive attitude. Starting the day this way can allow us to effectively complete tasks and to handle things that come our way without constantly feeling stressed or overwhelmed. Research states it can give us confidence, physical emotional mental well being Give yourself some predictability in an unpredictable world – setup a solid morning routine. It gives you stability before your day begins and becomes unstable.

The morning routine helps us set the tone for the day, better allowing us to control our schedules rather than our schedule controlling us. As we start each day fresh, we can better focus on what is in front of us, where to prioritize our time, and, ultimately, increase our productivity.

Automatic time-tracking apps, such as RescueTime and  Microsoft Analytics let you check in on whether you're sticking to your schedule. They can also help you figure out what times of day you're most productive versus when you slack off or whether you are spending way too much time in meetings. You can use that information to your advantage by reserving your hours of high focus BLOCK time for your most important tasks. I am quite creative and sometimes I hate having everything so structured as I used to feel I was losing my freedom but in actual fact the more structured and disciplined I am the more freedom I gain! If you get that structured focus time – you really do have more space to move around and do more creative or downtime.

You may have heard of the famous Pomodoro Time Management technique also where you use a timer to break down work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks 5-15 mins. This is the BLOCK time I like to use set my alarm for 35-45 minutes, go into airplane mode on my phone, no notifications just focused block time. Then I take a break. Taking regular breaks, getting up from your workspace, taking a walk, breathing, doing exercise, walking the dog, removing yourself from your desk for 5-10 minutes hourly. The latest brain research states that on average the adult brain can concentrate on one task effectively for up to 40-45 minutes max. Recent research on productivity with over 2 million people stated that the most productive people took breaks after 52 minutes.

Remember that these short breaks boost your productivity as your brain and cognitive fuel tank needs time to recharge!

     2: Get your own working space

In an ideal world, everyone in the family would have not only a dedicated office, their own dedicated Computer or ipad to work from. But not everyone has a separate office in their home, and having that many machines isn't always realistic. Instead, make the best of your home setup – dedicate a desk and area for each person. It may be at the same kitchen table, or in the same home office, but setup your environment and space so that everyone can have that dedicated focus time in peace and quiet if necessary and day to day working in another area. There are 5 of us right now all locked down all busy – sometimes all of us on calls at the same time so we have make sure we plan each day who needs what space. So we have one big room as our office where four desk fit and everyone has their “place” My older son likes his privacy so he has his room. My young two like and need to have helps sometimes with their homeschooling so they are permanently in the office.

But I have created inexpensively with a few extra small desks in our bedroom and downstairs in the patio other spaces so that if needs be peace and quiet is required for concentrated tasks or video calls everyone has a spot to go.  Its about making the best you have with what you have got at home. What I found is that personally I love to switch up my environment depending on what tasks I have. Rather than just sitting at my desk I now escape down to the patio and do my writing and preparation. Just shaking up that environment really helps.

      3: Get clear on your outcomes for the day and week and month ahead.

Here’s the thing if you show up to your kitchen table, home office, your desk at the office, nothing you really do matters if you don’t know what you are aiming to achieve for the day, week, month or even year. You must know what you are about – your deadline, focus points are for this month, week, today... a lack of clarity breeds distraction, breeds low productivity. So for example I have my

Daily Power of 3  - my non-negotiable's – today I want to put my head on the pillow and know that these three things are going to be done. Also I have a Friday finisher list – no matter what..

        4: Set ground rules with people / family in your shared space  

Set ground rules with other people in your home or who share your space for when you work. If you have children who come home from school while you're still working, or you have online or distance schooling going on while you work, everyone needs clear rules about what they can and cannot do during that time. Additionally, divide up the domestic labor, share chores, take turns on keeping on top of keeping the house running well. Also have rules for when to be interrupted. At the start of lockdown it was a hot mess. I would have my 8 year old asking me about something then my other two kids lining up for other things it was a hot mess. But now my kids know when I say – boys I’m recording – I lock myself away in my wee space and they know not to come near me. But again communication is the key.

     5: Connect, collaborate and reach out.

Working from home can be isolating. Even now if you are back in the office every now and then, with new regulations and social distancing it is just as isolating.   

Communication is More Important Than Ever. Even in the best of times, it’s important for remote workers to communicate constantly with their teams and managers. That sort of frequent communication is vital to ensure that project milestones are hit and that nobody miscommunicates something important. During COVID-19, though, there’s another reason: It can ease feelings of isolation. Since random lunchroom run-ins and deskside drop-bys are no longer a given—even after some people are asked to return to their workplaces—we need to be more creative with new approaches to foster healthy relationships at a distance.

Across the world, many companies are hosting virtual happy hours and other events to ensure that employees stay connected. These are vital for morale, but you don’t need to wait for HR or your manager to organise something; even reserving a few minutes per day for a “colleague chat / 5 minutes virtual coffee break” can greatly improve everyone’ mood. 

Personal connection isn't just good for engagement and happiness at work, it's what makes us human. It's part of our genetic makeup. Set out time to connect daily with people – not just project updates but a 5 minute coffee chat.

Review the five tips ...listen we’ve all been thrown into unpredictable unprecedented times. There's no one secret way to get through this turmoil.  The ability to work from home effectively or work in our new office setup of isolation is challenging but we can and will get through it – its trying out new things seeing what works for you. Seeing what doesn’t. It's about being kind to ourselves and others  as we manage  this roller coaster.. There will be good days, great days and hot mess terrible days – kind of like accepting the Irish weather (that I miss terribly) with four seasons in one day... But every day we can be grateful that we get up and fight to have another day. In the words of one of my favourite tunes by Crowded House – Four Seasons in one day

“wherever there is comfort there is pain, Only one step away, Like four seasons in one day”...

 Try the strategies above, and your ability to be more productive no matter what your work from home or mixed up hybrid home / office setup is, will get better and take a step in the right direction. So thank you for joining me in today's episode if you found this helpful please share it with others and like us / comment on our facebook, instagram, linkedin pages...

You can also listen to this on our CimaOmega Podcast channel .

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