Five Remote Work Strategies for Intentional Productivity
___
BONUS FREEBIE: Want even more ways to stay organized, productive and less stressed? Click here to get access to my List-Making Starter Kit. It will boost your efficiency and get you back to doing more of the things you love.
___
I’ve been working remotely for six years now, so when the pandemic began, I felt ready to work from home and stay productive. I know that wasn’t the case for everyone.
Making the shift from an office to full-time remote work isn’t easy. There’s so many factors that influence productivity, and figuring out how to stay on top of things in a new set-up isn’t easy. So back at the beginning of the pandemic, I created a LinkedIn Learning course on this topic for people who were just thrown into WFH. It’s called Organizing Your Remote Office for Maximum Productivity.
I also recorded an episode of my LinkedIn Live show, Inside Scoop, about how to evaluate your remote work setup and make changes to improve your productivity.
Now that working from home is a permanent reality for so many of us, I want to challenge you to take stock of how it’s going for you. Consider these questions:
Are you as productive as you want to be?
Does your workspace help or hinder your productivity?
Are your digital systems organized in a way that supports your productivity?
Reflecting on these questions can help you locate where you may need to reconsider your strategies for productivity. Below are five ways you can become more intentional about your remote work productivity.
1.) Identify your productivity style.
How do you work best? This is something I wrote all about in my book Listful Living. Here are some questions to get you started:
- What time of day do you do your best thinking?
- What in your office sparks joy?
- What is the view from your desk?
- What kind of lighting makes you feel your best?
Whether it’s having a view of some green space or lighting a candle, making small shifts to your workspace can have big effects on your productivity. Think about working in an office with harsh overhead lighting and no windows. That can really diminish productivity because it saps your energy. I want to help you build the opposite in your home office. The goal is an intentional space that is inviting and supportive.
I use these tips myself. In my new home office, I needed to really consider where I should arrange my furniture. It took a few tries to get my desk into a spot that felt right!
2.) Create a video studio.
If you work remotely, your home office doubles as a video studio. You’re probably taking all kinds of video calls to conduct meetings and check in with your clients or colleagues. So take a moment to think about what kind of equipment and backdrop you need to appear professionally on those calls.
It’s important to up your game when it comes to virtual meetings — we’re way past the days when having your cat run around behind you was acceptable! Good video quality and audio quality, combined with a neat and professional backdrop, makes all the difference.
I shared some of my favorite equipment and video tips here. Remember, you don’t need to spend a lot on this all at once. Just think about what improvements are important to you and go.
3.) Set boundaries.
One of the biggest challenges for remote work is setting boundaries. Just because you aren’t clocking in and out of an office doesn’t mean you should be available 24/7!
It’s so important to set clear expectations with your colleagues and clients about when you will and won’t be available. This might look like an email signature sharing what hours and days you are reachable by email and phone, or automatic responses if someone gets in touch when you’re on vacation.
4.) Organize your digital life.
Remote work requires using a variety of communication platforms, from Zoom to Slack. Whether or not you have control over which of these platforms you use, you can always revisit the way you’re using them and take advantage of their features. For instance, do you use email folders? Do you send audio messages to colleagues?
It’s essential to think creatively about digital platforms and communication if you’re working remotely. Being organized is important because your colleagues might be spread out across the country or the world — they can’t just pop over to your desk to ask you where a file is located.
5.) Make an on-the-go strategy.
Working remotely doesn’t just mean working from home! You might be working from an Airbnb, a hotel, or the home of a family member. Having a checklist of items you need to bring to do your work from anywhere will save you so much time and trouble. This is something I go into in two of my LinkedIn Learning courses: Enhance Productivity in a Hybrid Work Environment and Be an Effective Hybrid or Virtual Employee.
You can watch the full episode of Inside Scoop for more strategies!
___
BONUS FREEBIE: Want even more ways to stay organized, productive and less stressed? Click here to get access to my List-Making Starter Kit. It will boost your efficiency and get you back to doing more of the things you love.
___
Four Lists to Get Stuff Done
BONUS FREEBIE: Want even more ways to stay organized, productive and less stressed? CLICK HERE to get access to my List-Making Starter Kit. It will boost your efficiency and get you back to doing more of the things you love.
I’ve been a list-maker for as long as I can remember. I really couldn’t live without them. I use them in every part of my life, from running my business to preparing for vacations.
Lists may seem simple, but taking a closer look and how, when, and why you write lists can have a huge impact on your productivity and organization. This is something I wrote about at length in my books, Listful Living and Listful Thinking.
I also created a LinkedIn Learning course on this topic: The Power of Lists to Get Stuff Done. I want to give you a little preview of that course so you can get started on leveraging the power of lists right now.
In this episode of Inside Scoop I walk you through a little preview of the full course.
Here are four lists that can change the way you work:
1.) The Goal List.
This is a powerful list for any area of your life, but it’s especially helpful in setting professional goals. And I don’t just mean things like “get promoted” or “write an email.” I suggest adding things like “finish the week without feeling overwhelmed.”
Writing a goal list at the beginning of each week gives you something to return to on Friday to reflect on how things went.
2.) The gratitude list.
The gratitude list is one of my favorites. It’s so important to take time to acknowledge the things we are grateful for. It can be a total mindset shift to start taking note of these, whether it’s getting to see a friend for lunch or finding a ripe mango at the grocery store.
Gratitude lists are an instant mood booster. Going through the process of writing these down can get you out of a funk when you feel like nothing is going your way. .
3.) The checklist.
A classic! Checklists are essential in so many professions. Everyone from pilots to surgeons makes checklists to make sure they have everything they need to do their job well. Lives depend on those checklists! I think that speaks volumes about how important this kind of list is.
Checklists are the right choice for tasks you need to do regularly. It can save time to create a checklist you return to rather than creating new to-do lists over and over again each time you need to do something.
4.) The timed to-do list.
To-do lists are probably the most common list out there. But I want to offer a twist that can boost the impact to-do lists have on your productivity: timing. Keeping track of how long things take you can allow you to create a to-do list that is organized by the length of time each task takes.
This is connected to your productivity style. If you know what time of day you have longer and shorter attention spans — and you know about how long each task on your to-do list takes — you can match up your tasks to your productive periods. Identifying your productivity style is something I go into in much more detail in my LinkedIn Learning course, The Power of Lists to Get Stuff Done. I also share about digital tools for list-making, managing stress around to-do lists, and much more.
You can watch the full course here.
BONUS FREEBIE: Want even more ways to stay organized, productive and less stressed? CLICK HERE to get access to my List-Making Starter Kit. It will boost your efficiency and get you back to doing more of the things you love.
How To: Setting Boundaries
___
BONUS FREEBIE: Want even more ways to stay organized, productive and less stressed? Click here to get access to my List-Making Starter Kit. It will boost your efficiency and get you back to doing more of the things you love.
___
When was the last time you did something because you didn’t want to let someone down? Whether your boss or friend or family member, so many of us have given in to people pleasing at one time or another.
And it just feels yucky.
Setting boundaries is something that should be covered in college — high school even! — because it takes a lot of practice to get good at it.
It’s not (yet) a universal skill.
Well, I want to help you out. I created a whole course on LinkedIn Learning about setting boundaries and today I’m spilling the beans.
I go into detail in a recent episode of Inside Scoop about the course so you can get a preview of what you’ll be learning.
When LinkedIn approached me about making a course on boundaries I was so excited. I know this is something that people can struggle with, and over the years as a journalist and producer, and now as a media trainer and author, I’ve found so many benefits to setting boundaries.
So in this episode of Inside Scoop I want to share some of the strategies I talk about in my How to Set Boundaries and Protect Your Time course.
The Case for Protecting Your Time
Think about how your time is best spent. When you start protecting your time, how will you spend it?
Years ago when I worked in a newsroom I was invited to a wedding along with all of my colleagues. Sure, I wanted to go and support my colleague, even though we weren’t that close.
So instead of instantly responding “yes” I paused and thought about how else I could spend that time.
Instead of the wedding I went to a Broadway show with my mom and loved it! We had the best time.
When you start thinking about time as yours it can be easier to put your needs first.
Time Tracking 101
How long do you spend scrolling through Instagram every day. Seriously, you should check.
Or the last time you attended a meeting that was scheduled for 30 minutes and ran for 52?
Before you can protect your time, you need to know where your time is going. How it’s being spent. You can do this by chunking out your time. List what you did today and how long it really took you (not the idealized time!). Think about which things were most rewarding and which were most soul-sucking.
List these out on two separate lists – the rewarding activities and the time sucks.
Setting Your Own Personal Boundaries
This is something I talk about often in my books, Listful Thinking and Listful Living. How do you work best?
For instance, I block out my days in a specific ways. Mondays are for writing and getting ready for the week. I don’t take meetings on Mondays. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are business focused. I produce Inside Scoop, meet with media training clients, speak to groups, and get business admin stuff done. Then Fridays are for creativity. I’m working on a novel and that’s when I’ve written most of it – on Fridays.
Make some rules for yourself. And stick to them.
Strategies to Stay On Track
In this LinkedIn Learning course I share a few scripts on how to say no, what to say instead, and how to feel good about it while staying accountable to your rules.
It’s easy to think about making changes and setting healthy boundaries, but it can be hard to do in practice.
So, as you journey off to set your own boundaries remember that just because you can does not mean you should.
There’s, of course, much more to learn in the full course, you’ll find it on LinkedIn Learning here.
___
BONUS FREEBIE: Want even more ways to stay organized, productive and less stressed? Click here to get access to my List-Making Starter Kit. It will boost your efficiency and get you back to doing more of the things you love.
___