Do the Shoes Make the Man?
The SDR Team @ demandDrive
I recently took a weekend trip to New Jersey to see some friends and hit the Atlantic City casinos. On my enterprising journey, I learned two critical factors to being a successful adult. Firstly, I am unequivocally bad at gambling and should refrain from doing so. It was a massacre. Secondly, and more importantly, I learned how to work from home.
On my way back, just as Sunday night was rolling into Monday morning, I found myself in New York City. That’s great! Except, I live in Boston — a mere 250 miles and 4 hours away by bus. I complained to my friend that I didn’t want to waste a vacation day because of a series of unfortunate public transit delays, so he suggested the obvious — work from home.
Like many of you, I know that I tend to be rather unproductive when I work from home. I’ve been known to clean dishes, scrub floors, and build extravagant Lego fortresses in lieu of doing actual work. Unless my boss is reading this. Then, I am known to work tirelessly from dawn til dusk. He countered with an odd solution: Shoes. He explained that most people will try showering and dressing for the day as a means of motivation but don’t realize that shoes are the key. As long as you have the shoes, you can wear any other comfortable clothing of your choosing.
After walking into my apartment at 5am, I decided to give his suggestion a shot a few hours later. I threw on my über-chic mahogany wingtips, and — oddly enough — it worked. I was more productive working from home on that single day than I had been in all the others combined, and I didn’t even think about throwing my feet up on my couch or letting myself become comfortable enough to nap.
Many folks in sales and business development have the opportunity to work from home, but are unsure if they can be successful. Give this peculiar strategy a try. Let the shoes make the (wo)man, and you can thank me (my friend) later.
This blog was originally published on August 13th, 2013.
