Introduction
Productivity expert Holland Haiis gives tips on how to work from home without letting your productivity — or well-being — suffer.
Script
How to Survive Working From Home
Clock in On Time
Holland Haiis, Productivity Expert: In setting up the best system we want to look at a schedule. Scheduling ourselves first thing in the morning by setting our alarm clock, taking our shower, dressing for work, the same pieces that would go into the puzzle of our morning routine if we were leaving the house. What we want to avoid is – there’s a trap of sleeping a little longer, maybe an extra hour, not showering, jumping up, being in our bathrobe, hitting the on button for our laptops and then starting to work.
Make a List
Take out a pad, maybe it’s a single sheet of paper, whatever works for you, and write down your three top priorities for the day. What are the tasks that you really need to accomplish today? How do you need to move your projects forward? And you can refer back to that as you may, during the day, fall down that digital rabbit hole. We want to be able to quickly access, hey, wait a second, I’m a little off track, let me get my brain back on track and let me look at what it is that I really need to work on today.
Hit Pause
Take micro-breaks. We know that when we take micro-breaks it actually relaxes our brain and when we relax our brain it re-energizes us, it re-engages us and we make less (fewer) errors. Go to the window, look outside, take a pad of paper over to a different chair, give yourself five minutes, doodle. We’ve got to mix it up. We want to we want to keep a schedule and, at the same time, we want to be flexible enough to mix it up.
Don’t Go “Home” in the Middle of the Day
While it’s tempting to turn on the television, maybe catch up on a favorite program or it might feel really good to put a load or two of laundry in and get that done, you’ve got to remember that your sticking to the schedule of I’m working from 8:00 to 5:00, 9:00 to 5:00, 9:00 to 6:00. You’re not managing your home right now. You’re managing business.
Clock Out On Time
Set the time that you’re going to end your day. Don’t let it drag. I’ll do it after dinner and then it’s 8 o’clock and then you say, well I really need to finish this project and then you go to 10 p.m. and then you go oh my gosh it’s 10:30 but I’m not done with the project and I said I was gonna finish the project no matter what. The next thing you know it’s 1:00 in the morning. So the way that you can make sure that you avoid that is set your start time set your end time. It’s like bookends. Make sure you’ve got two bookends to your day.
Keep Moving
You can go out and take a walk even if you walk around a parking lot, even if you walk around your backyard or you walk through your neighborhood, but there are ways that we can make this work and we can still get exercise. You can take a bike ride. You can jump rope. You can buy a hula-hoop. Maybe you want to turn on some music for 30 minutes and have a dance party. I’ve done that myself and it’s kind of fun. So you can do that and, again, it gets you more creative and more productive to finish your day and it takes you out of that slump.
Quiz
1. In setting ________the best system we want to look at a schedule.
Discussion
- How have you managed your routine while working from home during the Covid-19 confinement period?
- Do you find it important to stick to a schedule when working from home? What are some of most important things that help you get through the day?
- Has the extended period of working from home made you feel like you’d like to do more or less of it in the future?