Work From Home: How to Stay Productive Without a Strict Routine
For people with extraordinary lives
You’ve heard it all.
Close your door
Turn off your phone
Block off uninterrupted work time
Blah blah blah
I agree, this is all great advice. And when I worked in a corporate office where I could do this, I was very productive. But working from home is a whole different ball game.
For starters, do you even have a door you can close?
My desk is in my lounge. There is no door to close.
And the more I tell my family I am busy, the more they will interrupt me.
So, what do you do?
Send your kids to their rooms for the day?
You might get the work done. That’s if you can ignore the urge to check that they are still alive and safe. Yeah, you will never get the “Mom of the Year” reward. Or worse you might end up with social services on your doorstep, But hey…
You were productive.
Maybe you don’t have kids. Maybe you work and travel. Maybe you are a caregiver. Or whatever your reason is.
Your life is extraordinary and normal advice is not working.
So, if you are also tired of juggling many balls,
and feel like a failure when you hit the pillow at night,
If you can’t stick to the productivity rules, then
It is time to change the rules.
The Big Morning Routine
The day will be what you make it, so rise, like the sun, and burn.
- William C. Hannan
How you start the day will set the tone for the day. You know this but it is so overwhelming trying to get the perfect morning routine.
I also like to start my mornings with a specific routine. It takes about an hour and includes exercise, meditation, journaling, and breathing exercises. Do I do this every morning? Hell no!
I can only do this if the rest of the household stays asleep until I am done. And they seldom cooperate.
So, some days, you use bribery to ensure you get 10 minutes on your own. Maybe drinking a cup of coffee while listening to the birds is all it is going to be today. And that is ok.
All Those Distractions
If I decide I am going to work without distractions, and I get distractions, I lose it. The disappointment of the distraction becomes bigger than the actual distraction. And I get nothing else done.
Let’s be honest, you can’t ignore a crying child or the scorpion that casually strolled in under your desk. You need to deal with it.
So, expect to have distractions and train your brain to work with them.
I promise it will be difficult in the beginning. (Sorry, there is no easy way here).
When a distraction comes, get up, deal with it, get back to your desk, and carry on working. Don’t stop for coffee or snacks. Get back to working.
Over time your brain will get trained, and you will learn to stay focused through distractions.
Get Beach Ready
I love working at my desk. My desk is properly set up, I am focused, and everything flows.
But I can’t be at my desk and my daughter’s hockey practice at the same time.
So instead of scrolling on social media while I wait for her, I have my “office bag” ready. It is based on the same principle as my “beach basket”.
I have tried and failed too many times to think I can grab things on the go, so I started a “beach basket”.
Everything we need for a beach day goes into this basket. So, when you have a beach day, it is simple, you grab everything from the basket.
Your “office bag” is the same. Everything you need, so you can work away from your desk, goes in the bag. And it stays there. When you go out, you grab your bag, and you can work anywhere.
I have in my bag a notebook, pen, earphones, and an extra book to read. And of course, my cell phone is always with me.
Are You Still Creating Task Lists?
Part of planning your day is creating your task list.
But I have a serious issue with task lists. If you give me a task list, I WILL NOT DO IT. Even if I created it myself.
I don’t know what happens to my brain. I think the wirings start screaming at each other and then they all stop working.
But goals are different.
Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.
-Tony Robbins
A goal is something you want to achieve. Not a task you have to do.
And it is much easier to complete something you want to do.
So, take your tasks and change them into goals.
Be Like a Palm Tree
Going with the flow doesn’t mean you don’t plan your workday. I still plan. I know exactly what I want to achieve by the end of each day.
But I don’t plan my hours. I don’t have specific times to work on specific activities. Nor do I only work office hours or weekdays.
Because we all know, life happens.
And if I believe I have to work at 9 am and I can’t, I will get demotivated. And then I will feel pressured to catch up because at 11 am I am supposed to be doing something else.
Trying to play catchup to keep to a time schedule will stress you out and you will get nothing done.
And so, you need to learn to become like a palm tree.
Imagine a palm tree in a storm. Do you see how rooted and strong the roots are but the rest of the tree bends and flows with the storm? That’s you.
You can have your plan for the day and on good days things go exactly as planned.
But when the storm hits, you bend and flow with the storm and adapt your schedule, while you stay strong and rooted and get the work done.
Last Thoughts
If you are working from home, you will know it is not as glamorous as everyone makes it to be.
There are days that it is hard, and you might even consider giving up and going back to a normal office setup.
But you also love working from home and can never imagine having a 9–5 again.
So, change things up.
There is no need to make life harder by following productivity rules. If the rules work for you, great. Keep them.
But since I dislike rules, and they seldom work for me, I change whatever I feel like changing.
And so can you.
