Q-Tine Learn-Time: Staying Productive With Home Officing During Quarantining
I am a “work at home junkie!” I’ve done it most all of my career, and it just works for me. I’ve figured out how to be productive, how to feel good about being solo in my work, and how to work the time management. However, different strokes for different folks, huh? I’ve had countless people tell me “I just can’t do it!”
Well, right now we don’t have a choice. So, while we’re all in this together, I thought I’d give you some of my tips on how you can make it work! Here you go:
- Suit up. Yea, there’s something to be said about working in yoga pants. Occasionally. But, listen, you need to take “you” and the task at hand and still be professional. Seriously, try it. Take a day when you’re “just not feeling it” and suit up. Listen to your inner-self and see if that alone doesn’t make you want to straighten up, take notes, and get to work. Suit up. Look professional!
- Keep a schedule. Set your alarm for the same time you used to do when heading to the office. Yea, you may have some extra time on your hands now because travel has changed to 3.5 seconds, so what can you do with THAT time to help your psyche? Or maybe it’s help with your health. A few more minutes added to your workout in the morning. Some time for additional quiet reflection to start the day. More spiritual time? An extra cup of coffee in bed before the day goes off the charts. What? What can you do with your newfound time to help YOU? Also, be disciplined in your day. Permission to throw a load of laundry in, unload the dishwasher, step outside, and check the air. Permission to do all of that! After all, the mind needs a break! Occasionally I step into my Creative Room and work for a few minutes on a craft project I have going. (My latest: finger crocheting! Oh my! I’m addicted!) It’s amazing what a few minutes will do in moving the brain work from the left side of the brain to the right. Just what I need to feel good, productive, and ready to tackle another project on the task list. But remember to stick to a timing for your break… 15 minutes or so and then back at it! Don’t forget the “back at it” concept!
- Speaking of the task list: have one. Since it seriously appears that time has stopped with everything going on, it really hasn’t! Ya gotta have a task list. Ya gotta have goals for the day, week, month. What are those? Stick with them and make them happen. After all, one day all of this is going to lift, and we’ll be back at it. Take this time to work on those things you know are looming and knock them out! (Christmas will arrive; you know it will! Maybe some early shopping or crafting to get ahead of the game! Presentation due for a conference that blew out in 2020, but is already on the docket for 2021? Get to it! Now’s the time!)
- Work on you. What are you doing to work on YOU right now? With some “newfound time” without travel or possibly other responsibilities normally had with an in-office workday, you might have some time. What are you doing with it? I’ve had a blast in signing up for a wonderful site called SkillShare.com. Every day I pick a different subject to learn about… felting, creative writing, creative fonts, storytelling, public speaking tips. While it does have a small fee for signing up, possibly you go the free route and peruse www.YouTube.com. Learn something! Turn those lemons into lemonade, Friends!
- Close your door. One of the things I have told people in the years I’ve coached and mentored is that you have to set boundaries when you work in your house. It’s so easy to pop into your office (or the dining room table turned office where your computer sits) to “check one more email.” And, the rabbit hole begins. One turns into 10, which turns into checking something else, which turns into…. Stop. Just stop. Close the door, shut down the computer, turn the phone to silent. Whatever you physically must do, you MUST leave the office. Boundaries. Boundaries. Boundaries!
There you go, Rockstars! Now go do you, be you, and rock’it!