Do you want to stay productive through this whole
quarantine work from home malarkey? I know most of
us have been working from home since 2020. So it's
not a new thing. But I feel like so much of what
happened last year was all about survival. And
really what I want you to do this year is enter
through survival mode. So in this video, I'm going
to dive into exactly how productive you should be
and how to keep your productivity and your energy
levels up through quarantines and lockdowns that
we're still gonna be rolling through for the next
few weeks or few months. That sounds good. Well, I
mean, not good. But like something that you could
probably use in your life. Let's tap that like
button and jump straight into it. You are going to
love this first step. Because you might need to do
less. Yeah, I'm telling you to do less things. And
I know right now you're getting a million at one
messages about all of the things that you should
be doing. While you're in quarantine, like
learning how to knit sweaters for cats, and color
coding your calendar at work, it's not making you
productive. And if you're like some of my clients,
it's leading to work from home burnout, and that
my friend is neither fun nor productive. You need
to find the things that you really should be
eliminating from your list. Now, you might be
wondering, how do I shuffle up my task list like a
reason? I'm so glad you asked. Because that brings
us directly into step two, on how to be productive
working at home, Ryan, you need to get your
priorities straight. And that mile long list of
things that you have going on, it's not sorting
itself out. For this, you need to go through your
task list and figure out what is actually
important and urgent, you feel like I'm speaking
another language right now when it comes to
prioritization, no worries, I actually have a
video that deep dives into a system on how to
prioritize your tasks at work, I will link it down
below so that you can check it out after you're
done this one, I will just handhold you through
that whole entire process. One thing I think is
really important to note here as well is that
prioritization is not a one time thing, you need
to create a routine where you are regularly
prioritizing the things that you have on your
plate to make sure that tasks at work aren't
piling on this way you can audit where you are
putting your energy and your attention and make
sure that you're focusing only on the work that
actually needs to be done. Trust me, when you make
this a regular thing, it is going to help you
avoid unnecessary overwhelm. When we think about
work from home productivity. One thing that we
always think of is like the processes and the
prioritization and the scheduling and things like
that. But that is not actually the end all be all
of staying productive when you're working from
home. And if you skip the next step, you might end
up doing something like this, instead of working
at home. One of the easiest ways to stay
productive at work when you work from home is to
designate work zones and life sounds and the less
that you shall mingle the better if you hang with
me regularly. This is going to be familiar because
we talked about it in my work life balance tips
video, but it really helps with work from home
productivity tail. Why? Because your physical
setting influences your focus. If you only sit in
your working spot, when it's time to work, it is
going to help your brain kick into work mode. And
at the end of the day, when you retire to your
sofa, it is going to help switch it into life
mode. If you have the luxury of having a home
office that my friend is the Holy Grail. At the
end of the day, just close the door to the room
and pretend it doesn't exist. But if you don't
have a work from home office, and I know a lot of
you don't just designate a spot at your kitchen
table or wherever it is that you are generally
working from, and make that into your work zone.
And this actually leads me directly into the next
way you can stay productive when you're working at
home, you might hate me for this one. And I fully
expect there to be harsh division in the comments.
If you want to be productive working from home,
you need to get dressed in the morning. If you
were to pajamas, I know you hate me right now and
you're smashing on that thumbs down button. And
you can't deny that the whole way you carry
yourself when you're wearing your PJs is very
different than when you're wearing what I've
recently heard people calling your hard pads. You
know, the non stretchy was you don't have to go
all out and wear like business attire when you're
working from home unless you want to. But I'll
tell you if you get ready in the morning, at least
to the level of you would be willing to leave your
house and not be embarrassed if you bumped into
someone you knew you will have a totally different
vibe and focus plus is going to keep you
professional looking if you have any zoom video
calls, which is actually the topic of my next
video. So if you haven't already, make sure and
subscribe because you will not want to miss that
one. Are you still feeling a little mad at me for
saying that you can't wear your pajamas when
you're working at home? I'm going to make it up to
my friends because the next strategy to work from
home productively is to take breaks. Who doesn't
love a good break? And I'm not talking about the
usual break that you've been taking, which is
probably eating your lunch really late over your
laptop in between zoom meetings? No, no, no, I'm
talking about taking real breaks restorative
breaks. If you really want to improve your focus
and your productivity, what you can actually do is
take a 20 minute power nap second best option, go
for a walk outside, ideally in nature. The
alternative to this is to take some time hanging
out with some houseplants and the third best
option is actually just making a good old
fashioned phone call to a friend And this actually
brings me to one of the biggest productivity
killers when you're working remotely. And it
doesn't just impact your productivity, it
influences your visibility at work, you need to
effectively communicate with the people that
you're working with. And most people are on one
side of this or the other. On one side, there is
the chronic over communication, where there's just
socks and emails and text messages and phone calls
and meetings. And it's way too much communication.
And it is so cluttering your productivity at work
on the other end of the spectrum is there is no
communication, you have no idea what's going on,
no one's talking to each other. The left hand
doesn't know what the right hand is doing a little
on the feet, especially when entire teams and
companies are working remotely. One of the things
that I do generally suggest you lean towards
though, is to the over communication end of the
spectrum, which sounds weird, because it's not
very productive. But it can help to prevent
miscommunication and duplication of work. Maybe
avoid dropping some balls, what I do suggest you
focus on especially this year to make sure that
you're maximizing your productivity is to find the
mode and the medium that works best for you as the
people that you're working with. Ideally, you want
to do this without contributing to the number of
useless meetings that you're having every single
day. Now if you are kind of in this over
communication side, one tip I also want to give
you as well is that you can actually schedule time
for checking your inbox, checking your slack and
things like that. It can help you avoid some of
the constant distractions that a lot of people are
having to deal with while they're working from
home that are stopping them from being productive
as they possibly could be. And this brings me to
my last tip on how to be productive at work when
you're working from home. And that is to master
your schedule. It is so important that I actually
made a whole video on it and you can find it right
here so you can go watch that now but first if
this video was helpful, give it a thumbs up it
really does help my channel and it makes you one
of my favorite people. As always my friend thank
you so much for watching. I will see you in the
next video. Bye for now.