We all know that the current economic situation has brought about major uncertainty and ambiguity in our lives. As an entrepreneur and a life coach, working from home can pose many challenges in doing all the work that needs to be done, such as business development and strategy, connecting with clients, marketing, social media activity and so much more. Having no house help just adds to it all. And let’s not forget the big fear factor! The fear of Covid-19, often reaching paranoia levels. Dealing with all this can get so overwhelming! I continued to battle this overwhelm day after day, only to realise that all this anxiety was keeping me from doing everything else that I really would have liked to, such as reading, learning something new, staying connected with friends, exercise, meditate! Shouldn’t being at home in a lock-down scenario, ideally have given me more time? It was frustrating to realise at the end of the day, that I had achieved almost nothing.
Having the preference of leading my life purposefully, I want to be in control of my life, and therefore, had to be more organized and productive. As I spoke with others sharing my apprehensions, I realized they were feeling the same overwhelm, especially the ones who were experiencing work from home for the first time. And that’s when I stopped to think… What can I do? Now is the time to put all those self-help books and podcasts on productivity to good use. Here are few techniques that have worked very well:
(I) ROUTINE: Most of us have a love-hate relationship with routine; they seem dull and stifling. But we couldn’t be more wrong. Having a routine brings control and certainty, which experts say, the brain loves. Contrary to that, uncertainty triggers the fight or flight response from the brain, which in turn, apparently increases the secretion of the stress hormone.
(II) POMODORO TECHNIQUE: It’s about managing your time. The technique says work for 20 minutes, take a 5-minute-break, repeat. This works when there are short windows of time available for work or to make a task seem less daunting. It’s easier to start off when you know you need to spend only 20 minutes on it for now. And before you know it, you will comfortably extend that to 30 or 35 mins! That’s ok, but don’t forget to take the 5-minute-break. Oh, and there’s a Pomodoro Timer App too, which you could experiment with.
(III) THE ONE THING: This really works for me and I give credit to the book, ‘The One Thing’ by Gary Keller. It talks about sifting through the things that you need to do, and identifying the one thing, such that by doing it, everything else gets impacted positively too. Basically, it’s about finding the one thing to do that can create maximum impact. Then it’s all about getting down to doing it.
(IV) TECH OVERWHELM: We all know there’s no dearth of distractions when we set aside time to work. I make sure there’s no technology distracting me – my phone data is turned off, there are no pop-ups on the laptop, and I even turn off wifi if I don’t need connectivity. Keep you phone so far from you that getting to it becomes a task in itself! Sometimes it helps to get ourselves a ‘tech-detox’ for a whole day – no phone, no social media, no news. I prefer to do this over the weekend so that I don’t miss any work calls or messages.
(V) THE GOLDEN HOURS: Notice what time of the day you are most productive – those are your ‘golden hours’, which you must protect fiercely. For me, 10:00 am to lunch works best and that’s when I focus on my ‘One Thing’.
(VI) LISTS: I love ‘To do’ lists. And that too paper and pen lists. It brings you razor-sharp focus and things get done. There are many techniques to working with lists such as numbering and prioritising tasks, keeping work and personal tasks on the same list, etc. Try it and see the difference.
(VII) STAYING CENTRED: In all of this, yoga, breathing exercises and meditation have always held a special slot on my list. Enough has been spoken on the benefits of physical exercise and meditation in the last couple of months. It truly makes all the difference. Just remember, whatever you do, regularity is the key.
And a quick word from my personal experience for all my friends working from home, I’d say, get dressed and go! Have a dedicated work space and actually go there. It could be your dining table or living room. Set up your workstation. The act of opening the laptop, placing your diary next to it, filling your bottle of water / cup of tea and then sitting down to work enables your mind to transition from home to work. And vice versa, so don’t forget to wrap-up at the end of day! Turn off your laptop, the diary goes back into the bag and the bag gets put away in its place. Make sure you feel like you’re back home.
So, take your pick from these productivity / performance techniques and take one step at a time towards leading the life you love! Let’s go for it!
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