My Top 5 Tips for Working From Home

We’re in a state of flux right now. I don’t know how this will end, I don’t even know what will happen next week and it’s unnerving and it’s scary.

What I do know is that this “social distancing” thing is a real and necessary thing right now and many of us are being asked, or told, to work from home. 

My job is managing Marketing & Public Relations for a not-for-profit genomic sequencing company. I am lucky that my job allows me to work from home, but some people are unfortunately not that lucky. 

In my previous roles, I traveled extensively for work, and worked from home whenever I wasn’t traveling. I would have anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks at a time at home, and the rest of the time I would be traveling. 

In those 12 years of working from home, I feel like I perfected the process and now that we’re in this state of #stayhome I am seeing a lot of people on social media asking for tips on making it work, so I thought I’d share with you my top 5 tips for working from home.  

1 Get ready to go. 

Firstly, it can be difficult to just get started. Home is for home life, it’s not where you work, so it can be difficult to get into the mindset of working from your comfortable home space. One thing that can be quite useful is to ‘get ready for work’. Even if you aren’t going to see anyone that day, get dressed for work and prepare yourself - this will help prepare you mentally as well. You may end up on a video call at some point during the day, so at least make sure your top half is presentable. But apart from that, the routine of putting on your ‘work clothes’ will help your mind shift from home to work. 

2 Prepare your space.

Prepare a space that is specifically for work. Boundaries are very important for people who work from home and you will need to be able to leave that space at the end of the day. Not only does it give you a space to leave, but it also allows other people at home to “see” you in your workspace. They will learn to respect that when you’re in that space, you’re working and they should avoid interrupting you. It doesn’t always work out that way, but it does help to have that separation. Part of this space should include a good chair. Working from the couch does sound like a great idea, but it can be diabolical for your back and neck. Set yourself up with a proper desk space with a good chair that will support you all day. Again, this becomes a place you can ‘leave’ at the end of the day. 

3 Make time for the distractions.

There will be things at home that will distract you from your work. For me, when I’m working from home, I can always sense the pile of laundry that’s waiting for me. We tend to feel like we should ignore it because it’s not work, but it will play on your mind until you get it done. So make it part of your routine. I set the machine going before I start for the day and take a break mid-morning, around the time I’d usually grab a coffee with a colleague, and use that time to deal with those wet clothes (coffee in hand of course!). You’ll feel better about getting something done, you’ll get it out of your head, and you’ll make yourself some headspace to get more work done. 

4 Stay in touch. 

It can be so easy to cocoon yourself away and work through the day on emails and papers and presentations and before you know it, it’s 5pm and you haven’t spoken to anyone or had any human interaction all day. Working from home can be a very isolating experience and it’s very easy to find yourself alone in your own thoughts. It’s important to make some time during the day to make contact with others. Try to space out your meetings throughout the week, have a phone catch-up with one of your teammates over a coffee in the morning or during that afternoon slump. 

5 Set routines for yourself. 

Without the buzz of an office or other workspace environment around you, it can be very easy to spend your day meandering between topics, to go off on tangents, or to just get stuck in the one task. Set yourself routines. Start your day be making a list. Grab a coffee and sit at your desk and let your brain tell you all the things that need to be done. Just wrote everything down, regardless of due dates or the order of events. Go through your calendar and write down your appointments for that day. Take note of any phone calls or emails that you have to get done that day. This process can take as little as 10 minutes. Once you’re done, prioritize your list and make a schedule for yourself for the day to make sure that you can achieve as much as you can on that list. 

Bonus: Do something for you. 

Many of us will be saving an hour or more in commute times by working from home. What can you do to fill that time? What things have you been putting off because you ‘don’t have time’. You could start work earlier and have more time in the evening, or you could create a morning routine for yourself to work on something that will make you feel good about yourself, which will set you up for a good day ahead. Morning routines can be very beneficial, and I’d love to write a whole new post about that another time. 

So that's it, that's my top 5 tips for working from home. I hope you’ve found it useful. I’ve taken some of these tips into my everyday desk job as well and I think they help me to be more productive at work. 

Working from home can be isolating, as I said, but it can also be incredible productive and rewarding. I’d love to hear any other tips you have for working from home. Let me know in the comments. 

How I Do My Monthly Review

Each month, I do a review. Usually it’s quite structured, where I have certain categories such as “What I learned”, “What I want to try next month”, “Challenges”, “Wins”, etc.

In April 2018, I tried something different. I put myself “in the zone” by setting up my page and then I just wrote. Here’s what I came up with:

Me Time is a Real and necessary thing. 

It’s true, it is. That month, I wore myself out. I tripped on the dog leash and tore a muscle in my calf, and made it worse by not resting. I picked up a nasty flu-like virus, which knocked me out for a few days, and I rarely left work before 7pm. I was tired, almost to the point of being burnt out.

It’s funny, my word of the year was Nurture – I vowed to take care of myself, and didn’t really kept that promise. So – it’s time to take a little more care. I still can’t slow down too much, but I CAN take rest days, and properly rest. Even just take some “me time” every few days.

We can do it.

I need to get back on track with my work social media. 

With the ridiculously busy days, and me taking on someone else’s job while they were on medical leave, some parts of my real job had to take a back seat. And actually, it is my favourite part of the job. I used to spend some time each week preparing social media posts for the week ahead and I had a very active presence for my work’s social media. This requires a creative switch to be turned on in my brain – however, the “other” job is very analytical – lots of spreadsheets and numbers and forecasting and reports. By the time I have time to do the socials, it’s far too late in the day, my brain is fried and all creativity is lost.

It’s time to get back on track.

Investigate scheduling apps

I think the best way to get back on track is to set a schedule. Whether that’s with the use of scheduling apps, or simply by using Calendar reminders, I need to try something to make it happen. I’ve just set up my social media tracker for May, and I’ve also written a social media to-do list. That’s certainly a start. A content calendar is next on my list!

We can only do so much – learn to say no, learn to delegate, learn how to put your own life mask on first.

Prepare for meetings in advance. 

My days are so full of meetings these days, that I don’t often have time to prepare for them. I used to do research before my meetings and be fully prepared for them. I need to get back into that habit. It’s good to:

• read the notes

• make sure you know what you want to achieve, regardless of who called the meeting

• have some questions ready

• know who will be there.

Don’t expect others to change their behaviour and then be surprised when they don’t. 

This was a big “lesson learned”. I was surprised, and very much disappointed, when someone treated me the way she used to – with no respect for my time, with no appreciation for work done, and with unrealistic expectations. I should have known, but I somehow expected things to be different.

I don’t believe that people can’t change – I believe they can – but they have to want to change, and see the value in doing so. It was naive of me to think otherwise, or perhaps just hopeful, wishful thinking. Instead, I have to take a step back, take a deep breath, and logically explain what I need, what I can and can’t do, what I’ve achieved, what’s next.

So that’s my April 2018 Review. Do you do a monthly review? What have you learned from you reviews?
Let me know, I’m keen to hear from you!

kikki.K Workshops

By now you must know that I’m a kikki.K addict. The brand just speaks to me.

The products are gorgeous and I love how inspiring they are. I do use some digital planning systems – it seems almost impossible to escape Microsoft Outlook, but I’ve always been drawn to paper. Particularly for planning, I need to sit and gather my thoughts and then write it out. I think the “writing it out” part helps to cement that in my brain, it really helps me to focus and then remember.

But back to kikki.K – in addition to the gorgeous and inspirational products, the stores themselves are styled in a way that speaks to me. I love the base of white, with the pops of colour. That’s the aesthetic that I aspire to and I think my own home has aspects of that aesthetic.

So I’m always drawn to spending more time in-store. When they began running workshops, I jumped at the chance to go to one. I’ve done the Planner Workshop (twice), a Christmas Workshop, a Mindfulness Workshop and the new Dream.Do.Enjoy.Share Workshop. And I really loved all of them.

The Planner Workshops are fantastic. I went to my first one when I was quite new to planning, and I went to my second one last year, when I already owned (and used) 4 planners and a bullet journal LOL.

But still, I found it useful. It helps you to brainstorm the best ways to use your planner, to work out what you want to track and therefore what sections to set up. It also gives you some insight into their Habits and Goals Workshops by giving you some tools to help you prioritise your tasks – which tasks are the ones you absolutely have, which ones will make your life easier, which ones can wait.

The Christmas Workshop was lots of fun. I still go home to see my family at Christmas and the planning is all done by my Mum (I know right, so lucky!) so the planning part of the workshop was not so relevant to me. Although I can see how awesome it would be for people who have to plan the whole event out.

I really enjoyed the Mindfulness Workshop as well. It’s not something I would have considered attending a few years ago, but as I get older, and as my work makes me more stressed (well, my old work did), I came to relish those moments of Mindfulness. The workshop gave me ideas for practicing Mindfulness, to help me to prioritise myself when I needed to.

What I love about the workshop (apart from the free goodies that you get to take home, and the Lindt chocolates that they give you) is that they give you the tools to continue practicing what you learn. While you’re in a group and everyone has different ideas and needs, they still help you to brainstorm your own needs and apply what you’ve learnt to your own life.

Finally, the Dream.Do.Enjoy.Share. workshop – this was my absolute favourite. Longer than the others, and the newest, it was such a great evening. The content was amazing and thought-provoking and powerful, and even quite emotional for some of us. Aside from that though, it was a perfect intersection of women attending. They were fun, interactive, empowered, unafraid women. It was an absolutely inspiring night. Some of us have kept in touch and we meet up every couple of months.

So, a little about the workshops in general. You pay a fee, but the gift that you receive on the night is usually worth more than the fee. Plus you get a discount off everything purchased on the night, as well as $10 off your next workshop. The instructor introduces herself and the course, and then invites us to introduce ourselves and say something about why we are there and what we hope to achieve from the workshop. She then takes us through the material – either through the planner, or through the workbooks that are provided as the gift. Everyone is given ample opportunity to participate and interact and I find that the people who attend seem to be quite open and honest and genuine people.

If you’re considering a workshop, I would say – if you can spare the $40, do it, it’s a great experience. At worst, you’ll have a night out with like-minded individuals and take home some gorgeous stationery. Almost certainly, you’ll have an inspiring and amazing evening. You may even meet people who you continue to interact with, long after the workshop.

If you want to see more, visit my planning instagram: @desleyjane_plans

Why I Plan.

For me, planning was always quite a private thing. I was initially attracted to the beautiful stationery (you will discover that I am quite a Kikki.K addict – actually all stationery!) but I became drawn to the process of writing things down, recording memories and details and then going back to dwell in those memories later.  I also revel in the structure and routine of the planning process. It makes me feel more organised, and ultimately it leads to me being more productive.

As a child, I had a hardcover diary that my mum gave to me. I treasured it. It was made by The Australian Women’s Weekly magazine – note that the magazine is quite a bit different now compared to how it used to be! The diary was red with white polkadots and filled with images from Australia. It was your typical week-on-two-pages layout and I loved writing in there, running my fingers over the glossy white pages – such seemingly important things going on in my life back then. It was 1988 and we were going to World Expo in Brisbane. There was a cyclone. My grandmother came to stay many times. I don’t think I have that diary anymore, but I still remember those specific details, the large rounded letters etched in my mind.

I wish I could read it again.

Step forward to now and I have numerous planners and notebooks, and notepads, sticky notes, stickers, wash tape, pens (oh! the pens!!). I have, over the last couple of years, began planning again in earnest and it’s something that I now do every day.

So why do I plan?

Firstly, I find the process of writing, drawing, decorating, organising to be therapeutic as well as creative, and I love getting caught up in that.

Secondly, I have a lot of areas of my life to keep track of and I needed some way of making sure that nothing clashes along the way.

Since I’m a list maker (if you’re reading this, I’m sure you love lists as much as I do), here’s my list:

• My 9 – 5 job is corporate and involves a lot project planning, monitoring of social media, analytics, preparation of spreadsheets (ohh my goodness the spreadsheets!).

• I have a side business as a photographer. I primarily do product photography, specifically styled flatlay shoots, creating lifestyle shots for small local businesses.

• I have a website for that photography business which I have to maintain and update.

• I have a photography blog. I have been blogging for almost 3 years now and have a strong community of people there. I run some challenges and enjoy creating new content for that platform.

• I am crafting planner accessories – paper goods centred around my photographs. This is in its very early stages and I need to focus a lot more time on this.

• I create content for social media. I am addicted to Instagram. I have two accounts (one for photography and one for planning) and I really enjoy spending time there. The planning community in particular is a joy to interact with and  I have actually had business come through via Instagram.

• I have a dog and I have family and friends and I love spending time with them.

• I have all of life’s little things – dentist, bills, shopping, all the usual things that we all have to handle.

In future posts, I will go into more detail for how I plan.

PRO TIP: Using multiple planners can help you gain clarity if you have a lot of things going on in your life, however it isn’t for everyone. You may find it too confusing to have your things separated. It really is a personal choice.

Until then, happy planning!