- And I get to decide what I do
and I get to decide to say no to things.
It's taken a long time to get to that point,
but part of it has to do with how I've managed my time
while working from home.
I'm trying to be efficient
and somebody was a little bit too antsy.
♪ Vlog like a boss ♪
♪ Vlog like a boss, you ♪
♪ Vlog like a boss ♪
♪ Vlog like a boss, you ♪
♪ Vlog like a boss, ♪
♪ Vlog like a boss, you ♪
♪ You can vlog like me too 'cause it's easy ♪
(soft music)
Good morning, good life, everybody.
I'm leveraging the fact that my lights are on
and so are my lashes.
Okay.
I just got done filming a video,
you've probably seen it.
If you haven't, make sure you go watch it.
And I just thought it was a vloggy type of day.
Why, because it's snowing outside.
What else is there to do?
The other thing I wanted to talk about in this video
is the fact that I work from home
and that's something that I've kind of had to have master
over a number of years, nearly 10 I think,
almost 10, almost 10 at this point.
And so a lot of people have been asking me about that
and there have been so many things
that I wish I knew before I started working from home
that would've really helped a long time ago.
This is part of the reason why I've kind of nerded out
about productivity, and efficiency, and calendar blocking,
and all this kind of stuff over the years
because I'm in complete control of my life
and my calendar, and I get to decide what I do,
and I get to decide to say no to things.
It's taken a long time to get to that point,
but part of it has to do with how I've managed my time
while working from home.
So I want to share five things that I wish I would've known
before I started this whole work-from-home venture
and we'll get to that at some point.
But first, let me show you one thing I had to do.
So while I was filming,
Lucy was not interested in chilling out,
so this is where Lucy goes when we are not at home
or if Mommy is getting impatient
when she's trying to get work done.
I'm trying to batch my time,
I'm trying to be efficient,
and somebody was a little bit too antsy.
So we'll let her out.
These are for her spite pees.
She likes to spite pee when she's not happy
with the fact that I've put her in here.
Sorry for this site, but I'm just being real.
This room is such a mess, but before we have a chat,
I wanted to share that I got a package.
And this actually has a lot to do
with my work from home motivations.
So let's dive in.
(plastic crinkling)
Okay so,
this is a shipment from Fabletics.
And I think I mentioned this to you guys before
how much I love their workout gear.
And so I'm gonna do a quick try-on because,
oh my gosh, I have so much here and I cannot wait.
("Hands on Your Body" by Basixx)
It feels so good to have new options in my workout wardrobe.
Just so you know these leggings are two for 24.
Link's in the Description but I'm gonna tell you more
about why these matter to me so much in just a second.
Whoo, okay I've really been looking to that,
glad that's done.
She finally chilling back there?
Luc, are you finally relaxed.
Definitely the first thing that I wish I would have known
before I started working from home
was how much every single thing can be a distraction.
I love Lucy so much, I love her so much, but the thing is
she is very high maintenance, like her mother.
She always needs my attention for something so it's like,
going to the bathroom, eating,
and then she's like barking for various reasons,
and sometimes when she walks around the house and I hear her
tapping, and tapping, and tapping, a tapping,
that's a distraction.
And I'm just like, can you just lay down,
can you just lay down, can you just lay down?
And she's a dog.
Think about like you phone, and people who live with you,
or the mail comes, and that's always really exciting.
We drop everything for the mail.
It's so easy to get distracted and so if I had to go back
and really prep myself a lot better
I probably would have read a book about working from home,
or try to look to somebody to give me advice
on how to do it well because I would've liked to know,
okay, you need to prepare yourself
for these types of things.
Part of the reason this is such a struggle for me
is that I can't often usually just like
leave the house for no reason.
And when I say no reason I mean a reason
that would be lovely to me.
If I have to go meet someone for coffee,
if I have to go to a meeting,
if I have to go to -- and meet with the team,
if I have to go do these things these are all
time periods I have to be away from Lucy,
and with Lucy being a little bit older
and just a lot more to take care of these days,
just leaving the house for a couple of hours
is a bigger decision for me.
So I can't just go to a coffee shop
and just like start working on a blog post.
I don't feel good about it, I feel guilty, I'm thinking,
is Lucy okay, does she have anxiety right now,
is she peeing in my house?
That's annoying to think about and I'm distracted there
instead of getting away from the distraction.
There's a number of things that I do in this case,
it's usually if Vin's taking a day to work from home,
then I will leave and do something someplace else.
I'll have Lucy go to the groomer
and I'll go work out of a coffee shop at that point.
So just the number of distractions is a big deal.
The next thing I wish I would have known
was that working out in the morning
is still a very good idea even if you work from home,
please do it, just take my advice and do it.
One of the hardest things for me is getting motivated
to go to the gym, and I go through waves.
Right now I'm motivated to go every day,
I'm working with a trainer, there's a plan,
and because there's a plan and there's accountability,
I'm there, like I'm totally in.
But the other thing is that if you genuinely feel like crap
or you feel you look like crap when you go to the gym
it's often not going to help you get your butt there.
I've always felt the dress for success model
and I feel for me to dress for success
in a corporate situation
or dress for success in a video situation is the same
as dress for success at the gym.
If I want to work out my hardest, feel my best,
then I wanna feel good in what I'm wearing.
So that's why I wanted to tell you about Fabletics
and I will tell you more about them later
'cause they're offering an amazing special.
But I'm telling you, I have never seen my butt
look so good, ever.
I think I told you this before,
I always think a celebrity brand is gonna be terrible.
I always think, oh great, they slap their name
on some terrible thing and everyone's just hyping about it
because it's a celebrity thing,
but it's not gonna be that good.
I have never work leggings I love so much.
I've tried the other brands,
I've tried a lot of really expensive yoga clothing,
and they still sometimes cut me off in the mid-center here,
so it looks like my butt isn't as cute
and it certainly doesn't make what's going on
in the middle look any better, okay?
So dress for success and putting it on the calendar,
blocking out that time, I feel much more intentional going,
especially in a work-at-home environment.
Even this morning, I was thinking like,
well I don't have to go at 7:30.
I could go at 7:30 'cause I go at 7:30,
but I'm not gonna go, maybe today I go at 8:30.
And then it turns out like yesterday
when I didn't go to the gym until 5:00 pm
and that was because me and Vin looked at each other
and we were like, what have we done,
we should've gone this morning.
We didn't, we could have, and we didn't.
We are in situations where we can go whenever we want
and that is both amazing, and dangerous.
Very dangerous.
So having your gym outfit ready
just like you would have any other outfit ready
and going at that time in the morning that is right for you,
whether it means you have to wake up at an ungodly hour
because you have to be somewhere else to clock in,
or you just get to decide,
like a work-at-home situation like me, go in the morning,
just get it over with, you'll be so much happier
when you're checking out of work in your home office
and then you're walking around the corner
to your living room to watch a little bit of Housewives.
Oh, I went to the gym and I can have this champagne
and Atlanta episode, mm-hmm.
Another thing I wish I would have known,
and I have dealt with this in so many ways,
working from home I've always had someone else
that lived in my space while I was there.
So, with Vin, of course, here in this house,
and then I lived with my parents while I was waiting
to move to this building at one point before we got engaged.
And so it's funny how when you work from home
the people who are also in that area but home is home,
like home is only home to them, it's not necessarily work,
they will not even intentionally,
but they will make you feel as though you are out of place
rather than you getting work done, or you being productive.
I don't think people mean to do this, I just mean like,
hey you want something to eat?
Hey, you ready to watch this?
Hey, you wanna go to dinner with so and so?
And it's like, it's still a work day for me.
How do I tell you gently that I ain't got no time for that.
That is something that I never really grasped
and I wish I would have because it can become
a point of contention in addition
to any other points of contention
that you would have with people in your relationships.
It's clarifying I need boundaries here
because for me to be the most efficient.
So really communicating that,
finding out how to best communicate that
to different people, depending on what
their work life situation is,
and also how they pick up information and get it,
like really get it.
I wish I would have done a better job of that
at the very beginning because I just think it caused issues
where they didn't need to be.
And then you're making yourself feel bad
for trying to be better,
or for trying to hustle at what you want.
Another thing I wish I would have known
about working from home was just how much of a sand trap
wearing yoga pants all day is.
Ah, this just feels amazing, especially being somebody
who makes video for a living from home.
When somebody's like, oh, we're gonna get on a Zoom call,
we're gonna get on Skype, and it's just like,
okay, great, audio or video,
because today may not be a video kind of day,
you get my drift?
Finally in 2019 we've come to an acceptable situation
where it's like a woman can tell a man,
"We're audio only, correct?"
And that could also pertain to men too
in a situation of, I'm not in a visually appropriate area.
Maybe I'm in a Starbucks, or maybe my office is dimly lit,
or it's also my bedroom and doing business
out of your bedroom is kind of mortifying.
Trust me, I know, we had to do that
when we were in the one-bedroom apartment.
Vin would have to take calls sometimes in the bedroom
and I was embarrassed for him, I don't think he cared.
But you don't wanna get on Skype
and have a bed in the background,
like that's not professional.
So I think I never realized that was gonna be something
that I had to think about every day,
I have to think about it every day.
I think about, okay if I move my office around,
where's my webcam gonna be facing?
Is it gonna look good?
My assistant has to specifically mark appointments
on my calendar that say,
"You're on camera for this interview,"
and it's just like, oh gosh.
I don't know if that's relatable to you
but that is something I wish I would have known.
And I think the last thing I wish I would've known,
which may be something you experience at some point,
it kind of falls into that judgemental box
that I was talking about.
When you surround yourself with incredible people,
high achievers, which I have tried very hard to do,
which happens both from networking
and from just doing excellent work,
working from home to certain high achievers
can look like amateur to them.
And I think I wish I would have known that sooner,
not because I would've been different,
but because I would've emotionally prepared
for that a little bit because when you surround yourself
with incredible people, they sometimes get to a point
where they're like, you should be doing this,
you should be doing this, you should be doing this,
and I hate the word should and anyone who says should to me
I basically turn them off no matter how much I respect them.
My husband thinks it's just him, it's not just him.
Anyone that says the phrase, "You should do this,"
I'm must like, "Tell me, have you ever been in my shoes?
Why should I do that?"
I specifically built the life I want to be
so that I can work from home, I enjoy this very much.
I know the value of being able to leave
and getting more done efficiently in certain environments.
Trust me, I get that, 'cause I have my obstacles here.
But I don't think it's fair for somebody to be like,
well if you were legit at this point
you would have an office,
or you would get into a fancy car and drive somewhere,
or you would just take the train and go into the city,
or you would live in New York, that's a big one.
Why don't you live in New York and LA?
Why do you work from home?
Why are you in Ohio?
Like they all kind of go together
and it's just sort of like, it's my business,
it's my business, it's not yours.
Why is this bothering you?
I don't understand.
At no point in time, at no point in time
have I ever said to somebody, "Uh, you know what sucks?
I am really not productive at home, and also,
I can't get connected with anyone important
because I live in the Midwest."
Never have I said that, I never complain about these things.
I maybe complain to Lucy a little bit
when she's got more energy than I would like
at certain points of the day,
but I do not complain about where I live.
I love where I live.
I try really hard to advocate for where I live.
But other people decide that's not right.
I love working from home.
There are obstacles with working from home,
just like there are in an office with other people.
I find that they are easier here,
'cause I may be talking to a brick wall which is also a dog,
but that's a little bit easier
than free will in human beings, I'm just sayin'.
I really wish I would've known that there
was gonna become a point where I was successful enough
that people were like, you should go get an office,
you should go back to your law firm days
and put on black slacks and a nice outfit every day,
or at least get dressed to leave.
I don't want to, I don't want to.
Half the time I'm editing video
because I enjoy the art form,
and I love that I don't have to have anything
but my skin on my face, and my glasses, and a T-shirt on
with leggings that make my butt look good
just in case I see myself in the mirror at some point.
These are things you're gonna have to deal with.
Judgements, and distractions, and motivation,
and doing the things that work for you.
So that's just been my experience,
I'd love to hear from you if you work from home
or if you don't, some of the things you think about.
Whether you do work from home
and you've had some things that you've struggled with,
or if you don't and you're like,
uh, what about this, or, how do you deal with this,
just leave those in the Comments below.
Let's talk more about this because man,
in 2019 working from home is a thing,
working remotely is a thing,
it's incredible to see where we are in this internet age,
and what we can do, and how we can really
go after the life that we want from the comfort of our pjs
in an Ikea furniture-filled guest bedroom.
Let's check in with Lucy, shall we?
Listen, if I'm going to tell you
when it's not working for me,
I'm also going to tell you when it is.
Lucy, thank you for sleeping through
this little period of my vlog
so that I could get my thoughts out.
I appreciate it.
And if it weren't snowing outside I would take you out.
But you and I both know you hate that.
P.S., I talked about this on my Instagram,
this is my new meditation pillow.
I've been meditating every morning for,
I think, 12 mornings now?
Oh my God, I lost track, that's huge.
And this helps me so much with posture, I love it.
Alright, that's it for today.
I'm off for some more content creation,
which does not include talking to the camera,
so I need to go do that
and I also need to take tags off all my new Fabletics,
I'm so excited about this.
How cute, it's like a midi and I'm not a midi kind of girl
but I am doing it because of Fabletics.
Anyway, you have to go check them out.
Big thank you to them for sponsoring this episode of AmyTV
and what they're offering you in return is
two pair of leggings for $24.
I'm telling you right now that is the most insane deal ever,
it's the reason that I started ordering from them at all,
and the reason I continue to is because
I'm telling you, your butt will never look this good.
It's incredible, I promise.
At least try them out, if you don't like them,
then it's totally your prerogative,
but two for 24 is a massive deal.
So go and check out the link in the Description
so that you can get that special deal
for being a friend of AmyTV.
That's all for today, thank you so much for tuning in,
I appreciate it as always.
Make sure you subscribe for good vibes,
kiss the ones you love,
and remember go after the life you want
whether you wanna work from home or not.
Cheers.