Tag: tips

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Featured My Advice

How I stay organized working from home – work edition

organized woman working from home with laptop
laptop working from home organization tips

First of all, I want to thank everyone who has visited my blog and also liked my Facebook page. Although this is a new thing for me, and I am learning so much, the feedback was overwhelming. And I am so grateful for the positive response.

Now, the topic for today – organization. This is probably one that comes the easiest for me to talk about :D. And if you know me a little bit you know why I’m saying this. And if you don’t, well, fun fact about me, a while ago my close friend Steph was telling people I am sometimes more “German” than her :).

Anyway…so, I thought I would cover today the tips and tricks I use to stay organized at work. Just to keep it short and readable. And will have another post later on regarding the tools I use for personal organization purposes.

PLANNING – take time to save time

As mentioned in one of my previous posts regarding My top 3 tips about working from home, planning is one of my secret weapons. And here I do 2 things.

  1. I take Sunday evening 1 hour to plan my upcoming week. First I work in large chunks. I figure out when I need to block time in my calendar for personal errands and what time slots are non-negotiables from a work priority perspective. I also look for intervals I can block for email, focus time and other key tasks. Then I check which meetings I still need to schedule, which I need to move and so on. While I am getting into Personal Assistants like Cortana and I am training my Assistant Bot to help with my calendar, I don’t feel comfortable yet delegating this.
  2. Every morning, I take 15min to plan my day. I review key meetings I need to participate in and I decide on the key tasks I aim to complete for the day. This gives me a good indication of achievement and effectiveness at the end of the day. For this I use a good old to-do list. And that is simply because I love the feeling of crossing items off the list. I tried OneNote to-do lists (here is a video tutorial in case you want to try it out), I tried Digital sticky notes, yet nothing is as satisfying as my hand written to-do list. Even if the millenials in my team keep telling me I am old fashioned 😀

CALENDAR – give your calendar the power to tell you what to do

I’d be dead without my Outlook calendar. I use it religiously for both work and personal reasons. And I have everything in it – work related meetings, tasks I need to focus on, personal approintments for me and my family – EVERYTHING. And I feel my brain does not need to spend any more effort and energy remembering what I need to do. I just do what it tells me to do. Basically Outlook is more my boss than my actual manager :D. If you are not using a digital calendar, I encourage you to. It is lifechanging, trust me. And of course, you don’t need to use Outlook, it is just my choice because it is straightforward and integrated with my email.

Moreover, it is available on all my devices. And trust me, that makes a huge difference. Because slowly but surely, my phone is becoming my main device for work as well. And having my calendar at hand on the go allows me to stay organized and manage my time all in one place.

INTENTION AND DISCIPLINE – it’s hard but I cannot recommend it enough

“We don’t have to be smarter than the rest, we have to be more disciplined than the rest.” – Warren Buffett

This last one is in fact a segway from the previous one. And that is the fact that I start my days with a clear intention to be productive, to start on time and end on time. Not only the day as a whole, but also each time block I have in my calendar for the day. And I know, this takes a lot of discipline and for many it requires effort at least at the beginning – like any other habit you want to develop. But trust me, once you do it, it works like magic. You will start being more productive and many times finishing earlier than planned. Which is a nice treat both for you and your work colleagues. Everybody appreciates time back.

I hope you found some inspiration here. I’d love to hear your feedback if you try any of these.

Until next time,

Laura

Categories
Featured My Advice

My top 3 Tips about Working from Home

If you are new to working from home or have been doing this for a while but feel overwhelmed, here are my top 3 tips about working from home and doing it successfully. These are things I have discovered to be working for me over the years and that allow me to spend my day in a balanced yet effective way. As ever, not everything that works for me will work entirely for everybody else out there and I cannot claim that. What I do hope is that you will at least find a few ideas and inspiration to help you navigate through this lifestyle and find those things that work best for you.

1. PLANNING

Probably one of the most important things I have learned over the years while working from home is planning – taking the time every day, or even once a week to plan and schedule my time for that particular day or week. Now the way you do that is less important. My preferred way to plan is to do that directly in my Outlook calendar, by blocking particular intervals of time to do email, to focus, or to run errands. I decide when I want to start and end my day. In addition to that, for the blocks of time that have a less precise outome, I go the old fashioned way and I use a hand written to do list. That is because I find pleasure in crossing things my to do list. This also helps me keep track of all the short term as well as long terms goals.

As mentioned, there are multiple ways you can plan: to do lists, bullet lists, mobile phone apps like the Notes and Reminder apps, or more advanced ones like OmniFocus, Monday.com, Todoist, Pocket. Also, nowadays more and more use their AI assistants like Siri, Cortana or Alexa.

Choose your favorite and whatever works for you. The goal here is to make sure you at least:

  • Decide when to start and end your work day – otherwise you will end up working way too long hours
  • Decide what are the key tasks you need to complete on that day or week
  • Plan enough time for yourself. We will come back to this later in this post.

2. DESK SPACE

Another aspect that is key to my effectiveness while working from home is making sure my desk space is clean and well organised. Clutter makes me nervous and less productive. I then get distracted by things I feel I need to put back into their spot or by realizing I am missing items I use regularly. And this prevents me from really focusing on completing my tasks effectively.

So I made it part of my every day morning routine that I clear out my desk and get it ready for a great day. I put back all the things that do not belong there and I only keep my essentials: laptop and mouse and my docking station, my agenda, my phone and wireless charging stand so I never run out of battery on my phone and I am alwaysready to go without worrying if I have enough battery left to finish a conference call. Then I have a few “feel good” items I like to keep on my desk: my coffee cup, a scented candle, my water bottle and flowers.

3. BALANCE

Last but not least, make sure you keep your day balanced. Be sure to set some time asside for yourself and plan for that with intention. If you enjoy going to the gym, then plan for a workout break every day or every other day. If you prefer yoga, then set aside time for a few poses. Plan for meditation time, or a run or whatever helps you recenter. At the end of the day you want to feel content with what you have accomplished and not feel that you only “wasted” your time on fixing other people’s problems.

I learned this from one of my former managers who used to book time in his agenda for a daily workout during the lunch break. He would also encourage us, his team, to take an hour every day to work out or practice a sport that helps us get energized. Thank you, Simon 😉 And that was because studies show that when you exercise, your brain clears out and you become much more effective than without that workout.

All in all, working from home has its perks – the flexibility, the quiet time, the lack of commutting time – but at the end of the day, it is what you make of it. So be mindful and plannful. And enjoy every day.

Until next time,

Laura