5 Tips for Remote and Work From Home Professionals

hello there good people of the world and fellow homebound workers I'd like to share with you today five tips for working from home now these come from over 20 years of a career primarily spent either working remotely or from home I think you know over those 20 years maybe one and a half or two years have actually been spent going into an office on a regular basis you know an eight to five type schedule that sort of thing the rest have been spent working from client sites working from home on some days of the week and then more recently predominantly working from a home office in my case with a global organization where I work with and have people working for me all around the world so let's jump right into it tip number one win the morning I did a video on this a while ago was one of my first videos like three people watched it so those three thank you hopefully you found some degree of Enlightenment but basically what I would suggest if you're working from home set up a morning routine and don't make it something where you're up you know 10 minutes before your first meeting and you're kind of rolling out of bed and starting your day off in a rush to get to the first thing I personally like to get up pretty early I get up around 5 15. I meditate in the morning I have some time to think to kind of go through my calendar go through what I want to accomplish that day get myself mentally and physically organized and then the kids wake up for school I get them breakfast get them out for the bus and have a little bit of time with them each morning but I have a fixed routine and I make sure that routine includes some time for me to you know get organized have some quiet focused time if it's not your jam you know you don't have to get up at five but I would at least make sure you get up and give yourself enough time to have some quiet time have some Focus time if nothing else be able to look through your calendar see what the day has in store for you you know look through your task list see what kind of items you want to reprioritize or move around and basically end that period with an idea of here's the you know one or two major things you want to accomplish that day when you do start to get into your calls and your meetings you'll be more focused you'll be more prepared shared you'll be more kind of ready and in the flow of the day versus you know rolling out of bed and sort of rushing to get to your first meeting Speaking of meetings and that sort of thing they're kind of the Bane for remote workers you know everyone I talk to one of their biggest complaints is I look at my calendar and the things just wall-to-wall you know Zoom or teams meetings I barely have time to go to the bathroom you know that's the the common complaint and that brings about tip number two which is Master your calendar you know you could work for your outlook or Google Calendar where the thing just you know barrages you every 30 minutes telling you you need to call into something you need to do something you need to be talking to someone or you know worst case by two or three in the afternoon you're 15 minutes late for something because of all these other calls that have ran over or alternatively you can take control of your calendar and use it as a tool to help you focus and have a productive day so what I mean by that is go in and schedule time for you where you have time for focused work I block out my morning again I go through that when the morning routine get the kids off to school I try and get a workout in generally a run or something like that and then I have my calendar open for meetings I also block an hour for lunch each day I you know usually don't sit there and have this elaborate one hour lunch but I use that time to again kind of say what did I do this morning what's happening in the afternoon make sure I understand and I'm prepared for everything that's going on and have a little time to take a break you know I might go out and take a walk I might read a book for 10 15 minutes I might fart around the internet for 10 or 15 minutes but I had that break in the middle of the day that's blocked that's defined that's scheduled similarly I'll put my kids Key activities in my calendar you know I don't necessarily put in what they are or anything I don't you know specifically schedule the exact times but if I've committed to taking my son to scouts or taking my daughter to dance or you know taking the kids to other sporting events I'll block that time out and just you know put n a in the description in case anyone you know needs to read it or whatnot and that way people aren't scheduling meetings you know I'll try and put a 10 15 minute buffer so I don't have to take meetings in the car unless it's urgent and that way when people go and try and book those you know if they're rude they'll just stop over it if they're a reasonable human being they'll say hey you know the only time I can meet with you is 8 P.M I noticed you have it blocked is there a way you can make an exception and then we can have a conversation but in that case I'm in control of my time and it's me that decides whether I want to give that time to somebody versus just letting them you know have access to 24 hours of my day each and every day similarly if you can set up one of those little things where people are able to book your calendar that are external you know if you meet with a lot of clients if you meet with a lot of customers I think there's one tool called calendry that everyone uses Outlook or Microsoft now has a tool called bookings where essentially you can send somebody a link and they can go in and find the time that's available you can set parameters so you know I don't allow external meetings on Friday afternoons if I can help it and that sort of thing and that saves you from those stupid email exchanges of you know hey would you like to meet I have you know Tuesday afternoon Wednesday from this time and Thursday from this time then you write back to me on you know Thursday morning and say I'd like to meet Thursday afternoon and that time's already booked and we spend 40 minutes going back and forth arguing about times this way I send somebody a link you know it's up to the minute it sucks all the data out of my calendar it has kind of my own rules set there and it saves that back and forth the third tip get a dedicated space and keep it clean and you know this may be feel like it's an easy tip for me to give living in the suburbs and actually having two dedicated workspaces you know if you're in an apartment in Manhattan or Tokyo or whatever and you know you're sort of taken aback saying hey I can barely afford space for myself let alone a dedicated workspace I think you can still put this tip into action and you don't necessarily need to have a whole room in your house you don't necessarily have to have this big fantastic dedicated physical space even if you're working from your kitchen table you know create some ritual around converting that kitchen table into your workspace so you know I've heard of people that'll put their laptop in a work bag every day and then when they're ready to work you know they take their bag out they put on the table they take the laptop out you know some people have a little uh you know token or Talisman they put on the desk it could be a little Vaz with a fake flower it could be a picture of you know something but essentially what you're trying to do is create this mental trigger that hey I'm at work now you know I'm sitting in my space even if it was the kitchen table 15 minutes ago it's now my office I've got my work tools here you know I've got things laid out and I'm ready to be productive and I'm ready to start my day if you do have a dedicated space and again that could be a you know a corner of your room and you know I've lived in apartments I've worked on the kitchen table and that sort of thing or it could be a dedicated room try and keep it clean you know I will generally on Sunday try and clean up my office that ends up being our you know receiving Center for our home all the Amazon junk gets in there I tend to have a few projects going and we'll leave some junk around but I'll try and clean that up so at least on Monday morning when I come in the space is clean you know things are kind of serene and again it gets me into that mode of focusing on I'm starting the work week I'm ready to be productive I'm ready to shift from you know being at home and hanging out to still physically being at home but now being in the workplace fourth tip if you're going to invest in anything for your home office invest in a good chair and I'm generally somebody that considers themselves a big dumb animal I don't invest in tons of Creature Comforts I you know would rather buy a camera or a laptop or something cool than buy a piece of furniture but a good ergonomic office chair makes a world of difference especially when you're working from home you tend to sit more you know if I'm working through a day probably the only time I get up other than going to lunch is you know to go get some water go use the facilities so you're spending a lot more time in that chair it's not a very healthy thing for your body and if you're sitting in a bad chair you know I started getting a sore back when I had a 50 you know local office supply store special that's just not good for you it's not good for your health it's not good for your comfort and it makes working from home a lot less comfortable a good ergonomic office chair new is going to cost you probably in excess of a thousand bucks you know for me that was a bit of a kick in the cajones just putting that much money out for a chair but conversely number one it's good for your health number two you're gonna feel better and not feel sore and not you know get up like a creaky old man when you do get out of your chair and number three a good chair is going to last you 15 years so you take that thousand bucks over the course of 15 years you know 70 80 bucks a year doesn't look that bad in terms of the amount of comfort it brings you you can also look on craigslist or Facebook Marketplace sometimes people will be selling good chairs you know if there's a local company that goes out of business they may have a whole bunch of good office chairs that they're releasing there are office supply stores that will sell used chairs and equipment from companies that have gone out of business so there are some ways to cut costs but you know plan on spending a grand or more get yourself a good chair you know don't get some gamer chair or the a chair that's 50 bucks at you know the local office supply store because your back is going to hate you for doing that and the final tip and this is probably the one I struggle with the most is close down your workday so just like you have a ritual at the beginning of the day you know again that could be opening up your laptop at the kitchen table that could be walking into the lovely dedicated room within your home you also need a way to mentally shut down and stop work I've struggled with this quite a bit particularly if you're on you know calls in the evening if you're you know wrapping up a call around 7 30 and the whole family is waiting for you to have dinner the Temptation is to hit that hang up button and Scoot into the kitchen and you know sit down and say hey I'm here the problem with that is your brain is still at work and this is where I've struggled you know you've got the whole family there you're having dinner for us that's a very important thing is having that that family dinner each evening and you know yes my big old butt is there at dinner but my brain is still at work it's trying to process that call it's you know thinking about all the things that I haven't done yet and all that nonsense so what I try and do even if I have that late evening call and I'm you know rushing to get to dinner is even if you just take five minutes you know I'll shut down all my work related applications you know maybe I'll just kind of pace around my my office for a couple or three minutes maybe I'll just close everything down close my eyes take a couple deep breaths but have some ritual where you end the work day you know I think the one thing we miss by working from home is you know yes the commute kind of socked and driving back and forth but it was a you know very concrete and fixed ritual where you would finish the work day you would get in your car get on the train or whatever and you would have that time to decompress and to kind of mentally file away the work day and prepare for your life at home so to the extent you can duplicate that experience it'll make you more present for your family you know roommates spouse whoever lives in the apartment with you if you live by yourself you know it'll let you ship those mental gears and let you engage in your hobbies let you engage in some rest and relaxation and not essentially be working around the clock I think one of the big dangers and it's become a little bit cliched with this idea of you know sometimes working from home can turn into living at work and if you don't have these rituals where you're able to shut down to end your work day it's very easy to fall into the Trap of you know oh my laptop's 20 feet away you know let me just poke over there and see who emailed me or you know it's 10 in the morning or 10 at night and you can't sleep you know let me log on and do a few things or you know sure I'll schedule that call with you know whatever other country at three in the morning and you know I'll do that three four times a week you end up just impacting your life to an unreasonable extent and that not only makes you a less optimized human but it also makes you a less effective worker so I'm not just saying you should you know sandbag and phone it in or quiet quit or whatever the cool term is these days taking care of yourself you know bookending that work day making sure you're taking time for yourself and time to open and close the workday properly will make you a more effective have been more productive worker so if you have any tips that you've come up with working from home if you have any great ideas you know whether it's a practice that you engage in or Gadget or something throw in the comments I am particularly interested since I am a consumer of these tips as somebody that works from home generally would appreciate that appreciate you you know keep up the good hard work from home and hopefully these tips help make you a happier and more effective remote worker and wish you all the best in all your Pursuits big heavy signing out peace ever wonder why every talking head on YouTube asks you to hit the like And subscribe button at the end of their video you were right because we're living in a computer simulation and Our Benevolent robotic overlords get just a little bit of energy every time you hit that like so do me the rest of civilization and Our Benevolent robotic overlords a favor match that subscribe be kind to each other keep living your simulated dreams

Channel: The Big Heavy

Views: 3,719

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Id: VuZnXq9exp8

Length: 12min 59sec (779 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 04 2022