THE TOP 12 WORK FROM HOME TIPS & REMINDERS
As someone who has spent close to a decade working from home (WFH) and coaching high functioning execs and entrepreneurs how to improve their work performance and life process….
12 Work From Home (WFH)
Tips and Reminders
Click here to get my “DAILY PLANNER” —- a step by step way to help you stay organized and forward-thinking about how to get better results week-to-week.
Rule #1: Once you are up, MAKE YOUR BED!
This is a simple one but a staple with high performers.
I know its tempting to cozy back up in your warm sheets, but once you are awake its essential to get your feet on the ground and get moving. When you hop out of bed, one simple and symbolic gesture you can make to close that dreamy door behind you is to make your bed. When you do so, you take a step into your morning, get a quick life win, and begin to set the day into motion ——a signal to your sleepy brain that the day has begun.
Pro Tip:
Put 1 liter of lemon water and your vitamins by your bedside. Drink the lemon water and take your vitamins when you are still waking up and on an empty stomach. This will help you wake up, provide a boosts your immune system (ahem lemons provide vitamin C), and has a lot of other health benefits to balance the pH in the gut, which is known to fortify the body and maintain good health. It also ensures that you get 1 liter of water before ever getting out of bed–a healthy start to your day!
When you set yourself up for success, that is exactly what happens!
Rule #2: Embrace the day, PRIORITIZE YOURSELF FIRST.
It pays to have a powerful morning routine, one that helps you consistently shift unwanted emotional states into peak ones. Hence, why it’s so vital that you take care of YOURSELF before the world “needs you” and attempts to get a hold of you.
5am-9am should be YOUR TIME. An exclusive time you dedicate ONLY to doing personal rituals that ensure peak performance throughout the day. (Kids are no valid excuse. Ask my clients they will tell you!)
When you do this EVERY MORNING, you practice the highest expression of self-care. Not to mention it helps sharpen your mental capacity and gets you centered in your body and soul.
And the more you do it, the easier it is to maintain your intentions and a consistent focus, especially during these chaotic and crazy times.
Pro Examples:
Take on daily journaling, HIIT workouts, stretching, yoga, breath-work, prayer, meditation, gratitude rituals, full-on dance parties, singing, cold showers etc. to clear your mind and start your day on a stronger note.
Do one or all of these to help you start your day in a more aligned way.
Pro Tip:
If inclined, habit bond your workouts or meditation practices with empowering self mantras, music, and perspective-shifting podcasts. This will help weaponize your mind and ensure you hit a peak state to start your morning which, should carry you till the close of the day.
Yoga, breath-work, meditation, and HIIT exercises downregulate the survival part of your brain. The part that keeps you overly anxious and worried. The part that does its very best every few seconds to tell you what you need to do and what you have yet to do…
Anddddd the more you exercise, the more this part of the brain shuts up, relaxes, and gives up control. If you don’t already exercise and use movement as a way to surrender over your fears and anxieties to the larger energies that be, try it!
Not only will you neutralize the nagging thoughts always pleading for your attention you can begin to weaponize and reshape your perspective however you want, not how it wants.
Rule #3: Plan your day THE NIGHT BEFORE
Hopefully, at the end day, you already have a rough idea of what you need to get done the next day and have undergone looking at the day you just had ( what you did, what you didn’t do, and are asking yourself the important questions, which will help you get clear on how you need to improve into tomorrow)
After doing this, it’s important to pull from yesterdays to-do list to create a maximum of three tasks, yes ONLY three of the “most important” needle-moving tasks that will make tomorrow amazing.
Pro Tip:
Choose three tasks in BOTH your professional and personal life. It’s not enough to get your work done if you sacrifice taking care of your personal and relational needs. (food shopping, paying bills, getting the car serviced, cleaning your apartment/work space, setting time to see/chat with friends, etc)
Additional Tip:
Pack a gym bag or lay your clothes/ shoes the night before so there is less decisions that need to be made as you wake up. This reduces any resistance you might have going from just waking up to getting outside and getting your sweat in.
Rule #4: Dress the part and DITCH THE PJ’s
Wear different clothes during your work days. I know it is alluring to work from home in your Pj’s or workout clothes, but part of why you are so focused during normal work hours at the office is because your are dressed for it and took the ritualistic steps to get into “work mode”.
Right now, I have my coaching hat on and am writing this wearing one of my favorite sweaters which helps me switch gears to GET. THINGS. DONE.
Wearing Pjs and working from home may work in the beginning or for a few days at first, but its a terrible habit to get into. It’s best to begin to treat your 9-5 work time as if you were in your office and dress accordingly in a way that inspires you and helps you enter “the zone”
Rule #5: Pour yourself a cup of excellence then KNOCK OUT YOUR WORK.
After you conquer your morning, you are now dressed and ready to go, so it’s time to dive headfirst into knocking out your hardest and most challenging project FIRST.
Yes, that project. The one that is most challenging and will require the most amount of energy and time. You know the one I’m talking about The project that you’ve been avoiding——the one that continues to hang over you like a mistletoe on a bad date.
So instead of resisting it and taking care of the emails and other reactionary business tasks, save those for lunch or the afternoon lull and choose to utilized the hours of 9am-12noon exclusively to making headway with the hardest task first.
When you make headway with a project(s) like this, you will feel wayyyy more accomplished at the end of the day.
Rule #6 Set yourself up for success & TURN AIRPLANE MODE (ON )
Now that you are in your workflow, it’s important to stay as uninterrupted as you can for as long as you can—or at least until you hit your productivity goals for each section of the day (morning, afternoon, evening ).
That said, my work heaven entails having a spotless workplace and ZERO notifications/distractions that affect my workflow.
Before anything, I ensure that my work area is clean and organized. Typically, I do this the night before, so I can dive right in.
That way, when I am ready, there are ZERO distractions in my environment and nothing that will take me out of the work I have to do.
I only turn my phone back on during breaks. You should try it! You’ll be happy you did! And cheer up—your IG likes, texts, and calls will all still be there to answer during your self-appointed work breaks.
99% of the time, anyone that wants to get in touch with you, can wait the 1-2hrs to hear from you while you give work your undivided attention.
Rule #7: Limit all non-business calls/conversations same as you would at work.
When you work from home you have ultimate freedom, which could be freaking amazing and or a real slippery slope without the proper discipline.
If you typically don’t answer calls during certain times at work, why start when you begin working from home???
When you work from home you must begin to be your own boss—- telling on yourself when you have been less than productive so you feel the importance of getting back to your work.
Do your best to adhere to “working hours” same as you would in the office working your 9-5.
If you need explain this to anyone, just tell them that you are at work and will call/text them back during one of your various breaks and or after you are done.
Rule #8: Peak productivity is like a HIIT workout.
You should operate in work cycles of high intensity mixed in with a body-centered work rests. This will keep your day and your body optimal.
Want to make your workday more interesting and effective?
Crank out 50 mins of work at a high intensity, then switch off to a resting break for 10 mins.
Here are a few of my favorite resting breaks to keep me both fit and mentally sharp.
health: pushups, pull-ups, wall sits, planks, crunches, and the ever famous burpee
wellness: breathwork, stretching, yoga, meditation, playing a musical instrument or being one (singing), chugging water, taking a short walk to grab a coffee or around the block.
Rule #9: Create balance. Breaks are good for you and healthy too!
The truth is, if you work from home it’s very easy to begin your day as soon as you wake up and create a bad habit of starting your workday earlier and earlier and working longer and LONGER hours.
So, if you find yourself doing this, STOP IMMEDIATELY!
When you work from home, you have zero commute and are in full control over your schedule. In other words, you have wayyyyyy more time freedom, SO START TO USE YOUR TIME MORE WISELY!
For example, the 2 hours you normally and otherwise would spend commuting can now be restructured towards whatever you please.
And as long as the work gets done, no one will ever argue or ask how you spent your day.
When I worked in sales, I’d work from 9am- lunch and then would take 1.5 hrs to myself to go to an afternoon breathwork yoga class from 1:30pm -3pm. I’d then come back to do my work from 3:30-8pm and guess what happened?!? I crushed the rest of the day and got wayyyy more done!!! And guess what???? My sales increased and no one asked any questions. 🙂
We all know what its like to try to do work after lunch and or during the afternoon lul, so instead of limping through the finishing line of the day, or simply trying to survive it and complete it,—— take your power back and take that class ( virtual or otherwise) which revitalizes your mind/body/spirit to close out the day strong.
Rule #10: avoid aimlessly scrolling on the socials, news media outlets holes, playing computer games, chatting on dating apps, watching TV etc.
If you use the socials for work, get on there to do your post and then get off. If using the socials has little to no impact on you or your business life, use them sparingly and or only during set times.
When we are intentional instead of mindless about how we use our smartphones (all the apps that come along with them) we begin to use our socials, apps, and media outlets how they are supposed to be, AS RESOURCES.
They are to be used to connect us with friends and family and help us stay up to date with global information.
So, if you find yourself scrolling for 20-40 minutes on a media outlet or social site, the technology has you and not the other way around.
Limit your time on smartphone to certain hours and only visit sites, play online games, or watch TV shows or news to wind down from the day.
Rule #11: Separate your work area from your resting and sleeping areas
If you just started working from home and haven’t yet set up a work area, I’d highly recommend doing so.
If you typically just wake up and begin working from anywhere ( ex. your bed) this can be a very slippery psychological slope.
Over time, as you try to relax or sleep you will feel the urge to do work and vice versa when you want to work you might feel the urge to relax and sleep.
That said it can be very confusing and intertwine, so make sure to create an office for yourself and or designate a certain area in your apartment used exclusively for doing work.
That way you can keep your spaces where you relax, sleep, and hang as separate as you can!
Rule #12: Create work cut off times & a 15-20 min process to close each day
If you are reading this, chances are, you are a high performer — someone who has a high expectation of themselves and is personally driven to max out their productivity while also maintaining exceptional life balance.
If this is you, it’s important to realize that sometimes it’s better to “call it a day” and close up shop on the early side of things than to stay up late or forge on till the wee hours of the morning.
You may get more work done tonight, and that may feel good, but typically it will compromise tomorrow’s success habits and productivity.
Remember, it doesn’t matter how much you get done today because there will always be more work to do tomorrow, ALWAYS.
So if you were effective with your time today, GREAT! You should not feel bad when you call it quits till tomorrow.
When you add a clear START and STOP to your work times and add in a 10-20 minute closing process, you will not only mentally leave your work at the office, but you will be way more organized for tomorrow and powerfully set up to take on the next day.
Remember, when you work from home your office is, in fact, your home, so there is no such thing as “leaving the work at the office” you must create a mental process that separates you from your work so you can let it go to relax and enjoy when the day is done.
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If you found this article helpful, shoot me a quick note at the below email address.
I love hearing from my tribe and would be interested in hearing your favorite takeaway.
Purposely yours,
Devin
Devin@inercourcoaching.com
845 821 4870
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