18 Practical Productivity Tips for the "Suddenly Working From Home"

Photo by Izabelle Acheson on Unsplash

If you have been sent home from the #office to #workfromhome there are some things you might want to know from someone who has been doing it since 2003! Here are my 18 Practical Productivity Tips for setting up your schedule, your setting and your systems for staying connected, being productive and capitalizing on the new openings that have been created for you as a result of this shift in circumstances!

1.     Get clear with your employer on what their expectations are for you in terms of “facetime” as well as what the structures are for tracking how and when you are “working”. 

2.     Discern how much time you used to use for commuting, lunch appointments, conference attendance etc. is now open for you. 

3.     Take a long hard look at your industry – is this a time for you to double down in your commitment to this career or is this a time for you to explore other options and swiftly?

4.     Look at what you need at a minimum to do your job well if you know you are going to be sticking with this company and industry.

5.     Set up a DEDICATED space where “WORK” is done and keep it separate and clear.  You can acquire a room divider if you are short on space – just make sure you aren’t “working all over the house”.

6.     When you are complete with your work be complete with your work – it’s on you to stop the “Scope Creep” that can happen.

7.     KEEP YOUR TIME YOUR TIME – set the boundaries and set yourself up with specific, actionable things you can now do in the time you used to spend commuting and going out for lunch meetings and conference attendance.

8.     Discern what you want to LEARN – now that you have more time freedom FEED your head – what is it that will make you more valuable – to yourself and/or to the employment world?

9.     Exercise more – get outside!! You CAN now – instead of sitting in your corner office or cubical pining away on a gorgeous day – find the spaces and places where you can enjoy nature and also work or not.   Can you take a phone meeting from the park?  You most certainly can!

10. Foster more local connections – you are still going to be out and about – look for the people, places and possibilities on the ground where you live that you haven’t capitalized on in the past.

11. Explore and experiment – now is the absolute perfect time to innovate, ideate and SPEAK UP to suggest new, better, different, alternative ways of doing things in your work – on your team – in your company – in your industry.

12. Be the OUTREACHER.  Be the leader in making sure others who are in your spiral of connections are contacted, communicated with and celebrated as they navigate and adapt to the changes.

13. Be the organizer – seek ways to collaborate even more with your colleagues across the industry you are in – set up group meetings on zoom or skype or your company’s webinar platform to brainstorm and share what’s working and what’s not.

14. Ask for help – be willing to be humble – you don’t have to have all your shit together – NO ONE DOES.  This is not the time to hide your vulnerabilities – it’s the time to have the strength to expose them.

15. Imagine what else is possible.  A significant shift like this is also a time of exponential opportunity.   Be open open open to the new that wants to be created – in your own life as well as in your industry.  

16. Let GO of all attachments wake up each day knowing you are a creative, capable being.    Be CERTAIN that you are resourceful and have what it takes to be courageous and release everything that is collapsing in service to the opening of what’s now to be created.

17. Take charge of yourself.  Now is the best possible time to focus on your health, your wellbeing (mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically).  Be aware of your own evolutionary process.

18. Listen in – are you being called to make an even more significant change – use the momentum of this enforced change to catapult you in the direction of your own highest good.  If you were feeling like the job was killing you – no time like the present to be presenting yourself to other possibilities including self employment.

Anjel B Hartwell is an internationally known speaker, mentor and Top 50 ranked Podcast Host of the Men On Purpose Podcast & the Top 75 Ranked Wickedly Smart Women Podcast.  She quit the corner office and has been a “Work From Home” entrepreneur for almost 20 years.  She cashes in from her couch primarily using Virtual Speaking to spread her message, make money & mentor her clients worldwide who have collectively generated in excess of $55,000,000 in revenues.  Discover your Speaker MAGIC Archetype and apply to get a free download of her new book Be Heard By Millions & Live Your Destiny – A Creative Age Leader’s Guide to Speak, Sell, Serve & Succeed by taking her new quiz at quiz.beheardbymillions.com