Tips for Working from Home in the Age of COVID-19
Simone Eyles, tech entrepreneur and mother of two, is currently self-isolating per doctors recommendations. What does this mean for her business? Read on to learn her best tips about working from home successfully.
As the pandemic spreads, more and more companies are being forced to close their offices and enable workers to telecommute. Depending on your personality, working from home can either be an introvert’s dream or an extrovert’s nightmare, and if you throw some kids in the mix it can be total chaos! However, it can also simply be as easy as sitting in the chair and doing the work.This cheat sheet can help you be just as productive as you would be at the office.
1. Stick to the routine. Start your day and do what you usually do and instead of “leaving the house” for work, leave and go for a walk, knowing that you are now coming home to “work” and treat it much like the same, no housework or washing. Keeping your same morning routine will help your headspace. Not getting dressed or ready for the day and then trying to work without having the mental space to separate home with work can lead to difficulties. To combat that, get ready and then have a set workspace to put work aside from home. For me, my workspace is my dining room table as I ditched my home office last year. I set it up and pack it down every day. I also have set hours where I not only work but deep work, my 8–10 hour day minus travel, lunch, meetings and constant distractions and interruptions means a few hours of productive work with measured outcomes.
2. Manage your time by dividing it into smaller chunks and larger stretches. The Pomodoro Technique is a tool to chunk work into 25-minute blocks. Use this technique to get yourself organised for the day or to do a few tasks in 25-minute blocks, email etc. Set your oven clock and walk away and get to work - with time ticking you will find yourself focused and on task and getting what you need to be done. Once you have done one or a few 25-minute tasks, it’s time for some deep work, and deep work is just that. It’s “the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It’s a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in less time” At all times, but especially during deep work, discipline is your friend. It can allow you to accomplish a full day of work in just a few hours. Put your phone away and turn off notifications. If you need to take calls, set ringtones for certain people and ignore everything else. Get the work done, and once it is done you can do all the other things that need to be done around the house.
3. Stay organized. Write a list, brain dump and prioritise. There are two reasons for list writing. The first and most important is the brain dump — dumping it out of your mind will free up headspace for concentration. Secondly it lets you prioritise…do the hard things first! Remember the 80/20 rule: spend 20% of your time “managing” and the rest of it doing the work. Most people have this the other way around - answering endless emails and social media scrolling is redundant work - making or doing is where you get work done and get results. Prioritize doing the work over managing it, and cluster tasks. This means that no matter what you do, do things in clusters of tasks or times. For example, plan your social media for the day, week or month and schedule it. Do your billing and invoicing on cycles. This is a good one for email — cluster emails by only checking once or twice a day instead of constantly looking everytime a new message comes in. This will help to stay on focus, and ultimately will save time.
4. The key to this system is to communicate. For instance, I have my kids at home, a customer on the phone, and my little boy wants to say hello. I explain to clients that I am working from home with the kids, and especially now, they understand. We are all humans and we are all in this together. Simply communicate to your clients, your peers and your bosses, especially if you are overwhelmed or struggling because they can help! Be creative about how you communicate, as well. Use technology and videos. I use Snapchat to send messages to my accountant! I can send a snap with a question regarding something and show her my screen and she can reply showing me how to do what I am asking about. 15 second videos can absolutely be more useful than some text instructions that are impossible to follow. Same applies for sending voice recordings over text, setting up a Facebook messenger group etc. Communication is KEY and tech has all the tools to really melt away all boundaries from geography to isolation!
Now back to you — we are in unprecedented times and we are all in this together. The whole world as we know it is being disrupted and by just taking it all one day at a time, that can take off the heavy load. Take care and note of your mental health, apply some of the above rules and I will see you on the other side.
Simone Eyles isn’t busy, she is getting #shitdone. As an entrepreneur, thought-leader, and mentor, Simone is disrupting the notion that big business is only for the big smoke. Simone is inspiring people to chase their business dreams and not to leave the rural and regional communities they love. She proves you can find success in your home town thanks to the power of technology. Simone co-founded 365cups in 2011. What started as an idea between two mates “wouldn’t it be cool to order a coffee on your phone” has led to phenomenal success. Forever the advocate, Simone serves on several boards and panels, and loves sharing her knowledge through speaking opportunities across the nation. What makes Simone even more remarkable is the resilience of her character. Her son Joshua was born with a rare kidney disease and underwent successful transplant surgery in 2012. Her resilience was tested once again in 2018, when her daughter Jett Joan Autumn Eyles was born at 25 weeks premature. Simone stayed strong and is happy to report Jett is doing well. She continues to grow her business, serving a global market, and never worries about leaving the house by 7am to get two trains to work.
