Hi, I’m Kris Stokes from Custom Fitness Personal Training Studio here with a very important message today that it is time to get dressed. I know that sounds ridiculous, but you cannot believe what’s been going on over the last two weeks, or maybe you can, maybe you’re one of the people that I’ve been talking to. I’ve heard things like I haven’t had makeup on more than once this week, or I have been in my pajamas all day. You wouldn’t believe how often I sit on the couch and watch Netflix. All these comments keep coming up. So I’m not sure why I’ve felt like my hair was on fire all week long whenever everybody else is not quite feeling that way. It’s probably just a personal issue, but what I do know is that working from home can sound like a great idea. I used to do that before we had the studio, and it sounded great, but it comes with its own list of complications that we need to be ready to work through.
Some of you have been working from home now for just a few days, whereas others, have been working from home for a few weeks now, and if we don’t address these issues sooner rather than later, we end up in a world of hurt. We get busier and busier in our mind, but our productivity actually goes down and down.
So I wanted to give you a few tips today to kind of help you start to redirect your focus, become more productive again, and not feel like you’re constantly working at home, but rather have kind of separation again, because when we go to the office, we oftentimes feel like we have separation. We go in from eight to five, we’re there, then we go home. We switch hats if you will, and do our mom thing, or our dad thing or whatever we may be doing, and we become that person. Right now, whenever it’s all mixed in at the house, a lot of times it just feels like it all meshes together, and we just don’t know how to do it. And then you add kids being at home, and schooling at home on top of that, kind of blows your mind, right?
So we have actually been a family that has had moments of working from home. We’ve homeschooled in the past, since first grade with my fourth grader, and we try to build these things in together, but it only works if you have a plan. So this is not just my Type A-ness talking here, but a plan is super crucial to this.
So the first thing that we got to do is we still got to structure our day. We’ve got to plan it out. So writing down your schedule, it’s not going to be optimal. It’s not going to always work out the way that your paper says that it will, but it gives you a plan of, this is kind of my guideline, this is my guard rail, if you will, of trying to stay in place, and figure this thing out.
The second thing is to make sure that you have a space set aside for where you’re going to work from. Working from your couch is great for a day or two, your back will kill you after that, and you’re not really as focused. You may be focused on the TV, or who’s going in and out the living room, or whatever may be happening. So even if it’s a corner of a room that you can set up a small table in, or a card table or something, or you have a desk there, set that up. For my husband and I as we’ve started working more and more from home, we kind of discussed the fact that that doesn’t always work well whenever we’re both in the same space working together. So we’ve even discussed using the children’s play house as one of our offices for temporary needs as they may be.
So there’s different options. Sometimes you just have to think outside of the box, and no it’s not going to kill your kids if you take away their playhouse, or their playroom for a moment in time to be able to work a little more efficiently, because it’s going to make you a better parent. Or maybe you take an extra room in the house, maybe you don’t have kids, and you’ve got an extra room that you can use, and you kind of set that up, but make sure and set up your space so that you know that when you go into that space, that’s your work environment. That’s not a place to be watching TV, and fixing everybody’s meals or doing anything, it’s a place for you to be able to focus and be at work, hard as that may be, and then make sure that that space is set up with everything that you need. Not just your computer, but pens and pencils, as well as your paper, or an extra phone or whatever it may be to make sure that you’ve got that space set up, and it’s ready to go.
So you’ve got your plan, you got your space set up, now here comes the hard part. When you wake up in the morning, what do you do, right? So we’re working from home. Maybe we have a schedule that we have to stick to, maybe we’re still nine to five, and have to hit those hours, checking in with people, having meetings, those kinds of things. Other people may not have that kind of schedule. They may get to, maybe you get to just relax and start work when you want to, and that’s leading a lot of people to sleeping in and things like that. Maybe you’re not technically working from home right now. Maybe you’ve been kind of brushed off to the side for the moment from your job, and you’re not really sure what to do.
So let’s think about that as well and put that into perspective here. Wake up at the same time every morning. If you want to be productive, wake up as though you’re going to be productive. Don’t sleep in all morning long. So wake up, get ready to be productive, get dressed, put on actual clothes. Pajamas are great. They’re comfy for a little while, but put on clothes because it tells your brain that it’s time to be productive, and to get into normal daily living. So go ahead and put on your normal clothes, get your makeup done, do your hair. I know you’re not going anywhere. You know you’re not going anywhere, but just do it anyways, because it’s going to make you feel better and make you feel like you’re in the mindset of productivity.
Now the next one is kind of a if you need to type of thing. There was a commercial on not too long ago where the woman turns on audible or something and then she goes on like a train or bus or whatever and takes this long route, and then she comes back home and her husband says, “I’m not sure why you’re having to commute whenever you’re working from home.” But that’s honestly, as silly as that commercial is, a great idea. If you’re struggling with productivity and you’re struggling with getting yourself dressed, get in the car after you get dressed and ready in the mornings, just like you would if you were going to work, and go drive around the block, or go drive for a few minutes, come back as though you’re entering the office setting. What it’s going to do, is it’s going to help to kind of manipulate your brain pattern to understand that this is now a productive time. That now we’re in a different stage than whenever we woke up and had breakfast. A lot of times it’s very hard to transition from breakfast in the kitchen to our home office. So if that transition of driving helps you, every now and then it’s helpful for a lot of people to just experiment with and see if that would be a good thing.
So we’ve got a plan, we’ve got a space, we’re going to make sure that we’re up and dressed, and then we got to stick to our schedule. So it’s so hard when you’re working from home, because five o’clock no longer becomes five o’clock, right? You can still do paperwork until like eight or nine, and sure the kids can play outside, and you don’t really have to pay attention to them. And we’ve all fallen in these traps before. So make sure and set an alarm that goes off, say 30 minutes before, 15 minutes before, 10 minutes before, five minutes before, so that you know, okay, this is the last bit of work that I can do today. And if possible, if it’s in a separate room, like a guestroom or something, shut the door when you leave, go ahead and shut the door. You’ve left the office. If you need to drive around the block again, but leave the office in the office. Okay? And be done with that so that whenever you get done, then you could come back, and spend time with your family, and be home and relaxed, and that will just help to boost your productivity during the day.
One last tip is make sure that you write down your big three things each evening before you go in to the next day so you can make sure that you’re getting all the big things done that you need to, and you’re really focused on what you’re doing and you’re being intentional with those productive hours.
So if you need more help being productive, especially in the areas of health, wellness, exercise, nutrition, you name it. Feel free to give us a call (806) 322-3188, we are currently doing live coaching online. We are also doing nutrition coaching, health coaching, mind coaching. Again, we are jack of many trades, so if you have an area of health and wellness that you need some help with, we would love to be able to customize a program for you. And we’d just hop on a call to get a strategy session going, and see if we’re a good fit for you. Hope you have a great day, and we’ll talk to you soon.