How to Survive The Shelter In Place Order While Running Your Business From Your Home
Finding that great work-play-balance can be tough – especially now that a large portion of the workforce is working from home. How can you establish a good routine while working from home? There’s no shortage of distractions – Kids, your spouse working in the other room (or coordinating conference calls so you’re both not on the phone at the same time). Even the refrigerator can be a distraction.
How are you going to survive working or running your business from home? Here is our 5 work from home tips:
Noise canceling headphones – Believe me, they work wonders. (Last year I bought a pair for a trip to Singapore and they were a life saver in helping me sleep on the plane.) Even if I’m not playing music, they help me filter out the outside world. I wear them all the time when writing or working on projects.
Clean your workspace – I am a clutter magnet while working and it’s a terrible habit. Projects can take me longer because I often can’t find that one piece of paper I wrote something important on. To combat this I start my day by cleaning my work station and getting organized for the day. It’s just like making your bed every morning – It starts you out on the right foot and able to better take on the tasks of the day.
Set working hours – This one will keep your sanity intact. Every day is a non traditional workday in my office, but I do keep to a set of rules that help me not feel overwhelmed. Every business owner knows that the work is never done. When you work primarily from home, you start to feel like you should always be working – and for a while I was starting to feel guilty when I wasn’t working. This leads to burnout real fast. I now have a very strict policy. No focused work before 8 am or after 7 pm as well as weekends being off limits – unless there’s a client emergency (and that website better be burning down for that to apply.) This way there’s an end to the workday and the constant stream of things to do. It also makes me more productive during the time that I am working. So it’s a win win. Sometimes this doesn’t always work – but the idea of trying to keep some semblance of a schedule makes me look forward to the work week. Instead of it being a sea of never ending tasks.
Equip your office with useful tools – Nothing makes me madder when things don’t work according to plan. Even though I run a tech forward company, that doesn’t mean I’m the best with everything tech. Last week I spent a half hour yelling at my printer tinkering with my printer, and nothing makes me more frustrated than when things don’t work properly. I like to take the time to set everything up properly and perform three separate test runs to make sure everything runs smoothly. Working from home also means telecommunicating and more video conferences than ever before. It’s great getting your office set up with the best equipment so it makes all the new ways we work easier than ever. (Our friends over at Soundhard.com have great conferencing, podcasting & telecommunications equipment!)
Dress for success – This one I take with a grain of salt unless I’m on a video call. For calls I try my best because I’m vain enough to care what others think of my at home appearance. What do I mean by dress for success? This just means to get out of your pajamas. Even if it’s just into a pair of gym clothes. Seriously, NOTHING is more shameful than looking at the clock and it’s past 3pm and you’re still in your pajamas.
(Bonus tip!) GO FOR A WALK OUTSIDE – Once a day if you can. Sunshine and fresh air is good for everyone and keeps the creative juices flowing. No one likes a pale workaholic that hisses when the shades are opened.
With all this wonderful information working at home should be a breeze, right?! We’re crossing all of our fingers and hoping that the world will come out of this pandemic nonsense soon. We’re hoping that everyone stays safe, healthy and that no one will want to strangle their spouse or roommate for not keeping the kitchen clean. Again.
