CBP S3E4: Advice from Veteran Remote Workers to the Newly Remote

If you’re one of the millions of people being asked to work from home, you might be struggling with some of the challenges that working remotely can present. Or maybe you’re just looking for some tips to make your work-from-home life a little bit easier! Either way, never fear, because us three veteran remote workers are here to share some of the challenges, benefits, and our best advice for working from home. 

Whether you’re working from home or not, I hope you’re staying safe and healthy, in both body and mind. Be well. 

Referenced in this episode:

• CBP S1E8: 5 Tips to Build Stronger Relationships
• Home Office Ideas Pinterest Board

Additional Resources:

• 20 Tips for Working From Home | PCMag
• 32 Working From Home Tips You Can Do Right Now | Nextiva Blog

Key Takeaways

There are benefits to working from home:

• More flexibility to handle things like kids school appointments, doctor’s appointments, and more
• Wearing pajama pants (but be careful!)
• Save money due to reduced travel/commuting costs
• Being able to better care for pets
• Being more productive!

There are also some challenges:

• Perception that you’re “not working as hard”
• Letting work take over your life
• Focusing on work and not housework
• Forgetting to eat or the temptation to graze or snack on unhealthy options
• Having kids or others heard in the background
• Having to work harder to develop close relationships
• Not making healthy choices in food or exercise
• Being able to motivate your team or coworkers and communicate your energy

Here’s some things you can do to help maintain your balance and be more effective as you work from home:

• Set up a work station or dedicated workspace
• Set aside time for you – and protect it
• Protect your time in general – keep your normal working hours and resist the urge to start early or stay late
• Develop a routine and stick to it
• Break your time out into 2-minute tasks
• Avoid multi-tasking with work, and try multitasking with a walk or with household tasks
• Communicate (maybe over-communicate) with your manager
• Make yourself accessible during your working hours
• Establish a routine that allows you to shut down for the day

Transcript

Dianne (00:00): Hey everybody, this is Dianne Whitford with Coffee, Grit, and Inspiration, and this is your weekly Coffee Break podcast where we are making personal development accessible, one episode at a time. Today we’re talking about working remotely. So when you’re not able to go into the office, you’re not able to be around people. How do you still get your work done that maybe you’re used to doing while you’re in an office or something like that. And I have two wonderful guests here today to help me do that. I have Emily from Delaware that I think you guys know from before. She was in another episode with me about minimizing and over apologizing. So I wanted to say hi Emily.

Emily (00:43): Hello. Good day Dianne.

Dianne (00:45): And next I have John from Florida. Hi John.

John (00:48): Hey, 89 and sunny here.

Dianne (00:51): It is not 89 and sunny in Washington state. I can tell you that immediately.

Dianne (00:56): So as all of you out there are painfully aware, probably, there is unprecedented times in the world and not just in the country that you live, but everywhere. And there’s more and more people are being asked to work from home. And not go into offices, not be in large crowds, not be around people. And that’s resulting in a thing called remote working. So people are actually working from their homes or not from offices where they can be alone and kind of self self isolate or distance themselves from everybody else. And that introduces a whole set of challenges. But there’s also some really cool things about that. And I’ve worked from home for about 10 years now and Emily and John both also work from home and have for many years. And so what we wanted to do today is talk a little bit about the things that are really awesome about working from home, some of the challenges that you might find, maybe a little bit about what to expect when you kind of start working from home.

Dianne (01:47): And then, our best tips. So over the years we’ve assembled a big list of tips of things that you can do to make your work from home experiment a little bit more successful and we wanted to share that. So first we wanted to start with what is awesome about working from home. And for me, working from home is like a benefit for, it’s like one of my benefits. It’s a part, it’s part of the reason why I love my job so much. It’s one of those things that I look at as a benefit. So something that helps me do what I do and still enjoy it.

Dianne (02:17): So the first thing that I wanted to talk about a little bit is that you have, you have more freedom to get stuff done. So flexibility, being able to do little things like laundry or dishes or tidy up or something like that throughout the day can be really good.

Dianne (02:33): It can also be a drawback. But you, if you have to duck out for 30 minutes and go to the post office or something down the street, that’s possible. If you want to go take a quick walk around your neighborhood, you can do that. If you need to, you know, walk the dog or whatever, you have a little bit more flexibility to do that.

Emily (02:49): Yeah Dianne, along those same lines, I think with that flexibility and freedom to get stuff done, you oftentimes are a lot more productive. In other words, you don’t have a lot of the common distractions that you do as when you would go into an office where you have other teammates or employees where you may gather around the water cooler or get enjoy a nice conversation. I shouldn’t say get stuck in a conversation, but enjoy a nice conversation.

Dianne (03:15): They get stuck in a conversation. I don’t know about you, but I get stuck in a conversation.

Emily (03:21): So let’s be honest, we can get stuck in conversations where it sucks up a lot of our time. So yes, not having a lot of those distractions or a lot of those, a lot of those elements which take up unnecessary, unproductive time, they may be good emotionally for the soul and for our relationships. I think I heard a wonderful podcaster talk about making connections and building relationships. I’m not sure where I heard that, but uh, but I do know that they can take up, it can take up a lot of time. So it does give you the opportunity to be more productive. For sure.

Dianne (03:53): I totally find that that’s true. Totally find that.

John (03:56): Yeah, I think I echo the same sentiments. So I’m a, I’m kind of prior to our current set of circumstances, I was 50 50 so I was in the office about 50% of the time and home 50% of the time. And so I know that for me the, my commute was about 45 minutes each way and getting that hour and a half back to actually work on things definitely lends itself to kind of that increased productivity. So you know, we, you know, whether it’s project related stuff or, or budget forecasting or things like that, you know, an additional 90 minutes during the day to get those things done kind of has a cascading effect, right? So you’re, you’re not carrying that work home, it’s not bleeding into the next day. So that hour and a half really really helps me.

Dianne (04:40): Oh, that’s so true. Plus the sleep, you get the extra sleep that you can get. I’m a sleeper, I like to sleep. Definitely a sleeper. And I guess that kind of, obviously, we want to talk about pajama pants wearing pajama pants all day long. Like for some people they’re probably breaking out in hives at that idea. But for me, total benefit, I can spend most of the day in my pajama pants. Even if I have to be all business from the waist up, it can be pajama pants from the waist down.

Emily (05:05): Well and I think you don’t have to restrict yourself to pajama pants, right? You can be in whatever makes me comfortable. So if it’s yoga pants, or it’s jeans…

Dianne (05:11): Well, I mean be careful though. Don’t stand up on the webcam if you…

John (05:20): Are those polka dots?

Dianne (05:20): No, no, they’re not, thanks for asking though. I’m just imagining right now you guys, I’m just imagining being on a conference call on webcam and have somebody stand up and you know.

Emily (05:32): Definitely gives new meaning to the word opening, opening up, opening up the kimono…

Dianne (05:39): Opening up the kimono with your coworkers. Oh. Sorry, go ahead Emily. You were making a point and I keep interrupting you.

Emily (05:49): Deep breaths if I get through the snot. Okay. All right. The point I was trying to make was that while pajamas, may be the preferred…this is going nowhere.

John (06:04): Yeah right? Going down a rabbit hole.

Emily (06:05): Yeah. We’ll just wrap it up and say that pajama pants and other comfortable apparel could be worn from home successfully.

John (06:13): Just make sure your webcam’s off.

Dianne (06:14): Yeah. Just be careful with the webcam. Just be careful with the webcam. I’ll just leave it at that. In general, but we’ll put that under the advice and the tips. Well, one thing that’s also helpful, I, I, and maybe John, you can speak to this more than me, but the, cause I haven’t driven into the office, but I will tell you that I only drive my car for way limited amounts of time every single day. And so I spend way less in gas because I’m not leaving the house.

Dianne (06:40): I’m eating what I have here. Then it’s typically a lot less than I’m spending in meals and other things related to having to get up and travel to the office every day. I just spend less, which is also a benefit.

John (06:52): Yeah I think it all adds up. I have a truck and working from home it’s…filling that tank up is quite a bit of money. And so you know, it’s actually working from home kind of adds back to your kind of personal bottom line. I know that I definitely see an impact in my bank account by working from home. And I think that, you know, the, the other thing too is all those little bits add up, like going out to lunch, grabbing breakfast on the way in. I mean that’s, you know, you’re talking about, you know, an additional $20 a day. I wish I had the discipline not to do that, but I don’t, you know, it’s, it’s convenient.

John (07:25): It’s on the way. And so I ended up kind of pulling that money out of my wallet as well. So working from home definitely, is a, is a money saver.

Dianne (07:34): And pets, I mean, when, if you have pets. I remember when I first got my dog, he was a puppy puppy, like maybe three months old and puppies take a lot of work at that time. And I really felt like I was better able to, without sacrificing getting work done, I was able to take him out on a regular schedule. I was able to make sure that he didn’t make a lot of messes in the house. You know, a lot of that stuff. And because we were together for the whole beginning part of his life, every day, all day we created…you know, it created kind of a bond. So I feel like I can better take care of my pets. I know, I know you have a pet, John. Emily, do you have a pet? Oh, you have kids. Emily has kids, which are not pets, but feel like pets sometimes. More complicated pets. Pets, pets and kids. Same thing, right? Emily?

Emily (08:20): Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. You feed them, feed them a couple of times a day, let them out. I’m going to put them in a fenced in yard, they’ll be fine. They’re fine. Yeah. No, I mean I think the, the ability to be, I think it goes back to that flexibility, right? The ability to be available to pets, and kids, to be able to have the flexibility to pick them up from school or take them to school or go to those parent-teacher conferences during the day so you’re not there late at night. That kind of thing is definitely advantageous and definitely one of the benefits of working from home for sure.

John (08:53): Yeah. If I can, if I can just dovetail on that. I think the other thing I was just thinking about is the, the ability to work kind of right up until when you need to work and then bail from the house and like go to…My kids are in high school. And so they have like their functions after school. So, you know, it’s only takes me five minutes to get there and I, I, I know that I’m always going to be on time. I’m not going to miss some of their events due to the commute, you know, traffic being blocked on the way home, or whatever. But that’s kind of another perk that I think I’d probably take for granted. You know that I just, I know that I can always be there.

Dianne (09:30): That is really true. Like, and you get used to doing business from your phone. Right? That’s, I mean that’s kind of like where I’m at is, it doesn’t stress me out to be away from my computer as much as it might have in the past because I’m kind of used to doing business from my phone.

Dianne (09:45): All right. So all of that stuff is really awesome and I’m sure each of you might have your own more personal reasons or things that you’re excited about when working from home, but there are some challenges and some of the things, and you know, I think we should be honest about that, that working from home is not easy for everybody. It’s not, you know, especially for folks that are used to being around other people, people that have difficulty managing their time, a hard time staying focused. You know, there’s a lot of things that can be pretty challenging about working from home. And I know that for me and some others on this podcast I could name, there is sometimes the challenge in overworking yourself. So forgetting to take good care of yourself and maybe staying, staying online longer than you should be, working longer than you should, forgetting to take care of yourself, that is a big challenge and you have to be intentional about it.

John (10:31): Yeah. I think the people on this podcast, right, we do a pretty good job of taking care of each other. You know of, you know, when we’re, when we are working together of saying, you know what, you need to, you need to go home or I can cover this meeting. You don’t need to be there. And so, we actually take probably extra care and kind of reinforcing that self care with each other. And that’s always a good support network to have.

Dianne (10:55): That’s really true.

Emily (10:56): Yeah. And sometimes we’re better at doing that with each other than ourselves. So to that point, it is creating the balance and the boundaries around, okay, it is time to, it is time to step back. It is time to step away. So we’re really good about seeing it in others and supporting each other, but when it comes to ourselves recognizing that, okay, I need to shut this down, I need to go take care of this at seven, eight nine 10 o’clock at night. It is one of the advantages, right? We talked about the flexibility of scheduling somewhat. You know, of course you want to be mindful of the expectations of your organization and of your manager and ensure that you’re having those types of communication. So there’s the advantage of having, you know, being able to maybe work flexible hours, but there is that need to definitely be aware of the impact to your personal life when you don’t kind of balance that out. When you don’t balance the personal and the work.

Emily (11:53): So just make sure, you know, while you’re, while you’re supporting others and we do a really good job of that, that you’re self-reflecting and say – Oh, maybe even do your own little timecard at the end of each day. “I’m going to put in X amount of hours,” and ensure that you stick with that for the day to create some of that balance.

Dianne (12:10): That is a really, really good point. And I think, I think that’s true in life, right? I think a lot of us are very, very good at taking care of other people and making sure that everybody else has what they need and they, and we forget about taking care of ourselves and enforcing the same kind of support for ourselves.

John (12:25): Yeah, I know one of the challenges for me, whenever I take a work-from-home day or it’s my kids being in the house as well, like I don’t, I think the concept of working from home is lost on them or people that haven’t maybe been in the workforce yet because they identify with, okay, you’re at home, you’re at home on the weekends, so you must not really be working, you know? And so that that infringement on your work time can be challenging. Right? Like, dad, can you, can you bring this up to me at school or whatever. No, I’m in the middle of meetings right now. So those are the types of things that I think that I, that I struggle with at times. It’s not prevalent, but the kids seeing that you’re there and don’t understand that work-level commitment.

Dianne (13:12): Mhm. Mhm. I remember when I first started working from home, my son was a lot younger than he is now and he, he wouldn’t understand. Or friends over or roommates or whatever where you have to kind of be like, Hey, if I’m, if I’m in my office and I’m working, then I need you to pretend like I’m not here.

John (13:29): One of the things that I see with my son being here cause he’s in college and he goes to school for half the day and then he comes home is the Xbox in the other room. Right. And so I’m on calls and I’m having professional conversations and my son is screaming at the Xbox because somebody in Modern Warfare, Grand Theft Auto is just done something that they’re not supposed to do. And he’s freaking out. And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve hit, I’ve hit the mute button on the conference call and I’ve walked in there and I’m like, dude, give me a break, you’re killing me right now.

Dianne (14:02): For real, for real! Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. That has happened so many times and I’m sometimes not quick enough with the mute button and the people on the phone will start just…thank goodness most of the times that’s happened, people have just kind of started cracking up a little bit, cause they get it, you know, people get it.

Dianne (14:19): But I think that’s another thing too that, kind of going along with what you were just saying, is there is a perception that if you’re at home and you’re working, that you’re not really working, that you don’t work as hard as everybody else. And that that’s something that I’ve run into in my, in my family and my friends, you know, they’re like, Oh you have it easy. You know? And I’m like, I work just as hard, if not harder, than a lot of the people that I know that work in an office. You know, I work really hard. Just cause I’m at home, I spend most of my time glued to my computer, it doesn’t mean I’m not working hard. So that’s a perception that you may have to fight as well. Although I’m hoping with this being so widespread right now in the times that we’re living in right now, that that perception may change a little bit.

Emily (14:57): You know I’m thinking that one of the things that is oftentimes a disadvantage, or maybe more difficult for some folks along those same lines, Dianne, is someone who really, when you talked about working harder, right? I work, have to work 10 times harder, I feel, in order to build relationships and make connections with people. Whereas someone that works in an office who is working with those same people every day has maybe an easier time in, in the same physical location to make those same types of relationships and connections. So I feel like working from home, right requires you to almost exert more emotional energy and, and effort and intentionality around building relationships and making connections, being on Jabber or instant messenger or whatever you’re on, having the, the cameras on. So you’re making those connections, having the phone calls and not just everything be electronic, not everything being text. Right. I often have dealt with that as well. I don’t think my family really recognizes or friends recognize what it means to work from home and the amount of extra work you actually have to put in. It’s, it’s kind of taxing sometimes I think and definitely one of those areas that when challenged with, well do you really have it that hard work?

Dianne (16:12): Yeah, it is hard. That is so true. Like it is, you have to be intentional about which is a good thing. Right? But it’s also hard. You have to work I think a lot harder than someone who is in the office. Another thing that you have to get good at, I think, is to be able to speak in a way that conveys your emotion and your feelings about something without having the, the facial cues. Right. Cause when you’re, when you’re with somebody, you can be like, this is so important and let’s really move quickly on this and whatever. And if people can’t see your face or if you’re doing it over an email, it just doesn’t have quite that impact. And so motivating people, communicating your enthusiasm and your energy, getting people energized can be difficult. If you are not in…you know, you have to just get good at that, that thing. That can be really tough.

Emily (17:04): How do you guys, how do you guys deal with the pile of laundry in the corner? Dishes that are in the sink. Right? Cause I know that I, if those things are there and I’m working from home, I feel compelled to get up and take care of them and I’ve actually had to talk myself out of doing that because I know that once I go down that rabbit hole, I’m going to be in there for 30, 45 minutes.

Dianne (17:26): Yup. It is dealing with distractions. You know, I get like, I walk into the kitchen to grab another cup of coffee and I’m like, Oh there’s dishes in the sink. Maybe I should just do them. And then like you said, next thing I know I’ve been in here for an hour. It is, that is definitely a challenge to deal with. What I try to do that seems to work pretty well is when I go to get a coffee or lunch or a glass of water or whatever from the kitchen, I take like one minute, two minutes, what can I do in two minutes? To…can I load the dishwasher? Can I unload the dishwasher? Can I take out some of the dishwasher and leave the rest for later? That way I feel like I did something but it only took me a couple of minutes and I try to limit myself to that, but it is a challenge. Laundry is actually a little bit easier because you could take two minutes, go through a load in the washer, throw a load in the dryer, run back to your desk and you can, you can sometimes do that between meetings. You just have to be careful not to get sucked up in it.

John (18:19): Nobody folds laundry anyway.

Emily (18:19): I was going to say, I have been known to fold laundry while on calls. Yep. Yeah. One of the things that I find is we can get super distracted, especially when we’re working from home and not locked into a face to face conversation when we’re over the phones or just on the computers. We can get distracted with IMs and emails. And so not even the home distractions, but just not having that personal connection being face to face. You can get super distracted with just other work that’s going on. And so you become less productive in the work that you’re doing because you’re trying to multitask and it just starts a whole slippery slope that can be highly ineffective. So one of the things to that point, John, that I would offer to you is that oftentimes when I’m doing one on ones with some of my teammates or with my boss, I will actually walk away from my computer.

Emily (19:06): And so I’ll walk around my house, I might unload the dishwasher, I might, and I’ll tell them like, I’m walking around my yard or I’m picking weeds while talking to you because it keeps my mind focused on the specific task at hand, talking to that person and being in that moment with them. And so, it’s something to keep my hands busy cause I feel like in this day and age we feel like we’ve constantly gotta be moving. So it satisfies that need to move. But it’s mindless so that I can focus on the actual conversation with the person. So John, we probably have spoken and Dianne, you too, while I’m folding laundry or putting dishes away or, or something to that effect.

Dianne (19:44): Walking on the treadmill. I’ve done that too. Like walking on the treadmill or, like you said, walking around the house. I know John and I had a conversation the other day where I was making my lunch and eating my lunch. You know, it’s, it’s, you have to figure out how to multitask in a way that doesn’t detract from what you’re really supposed to be doing right then.

Dianne (20:01): One more thing that I wanted to bring up is about your manager. So, a lot of our managers, I know if you think about the pre-COVID world, it was hard to get to work from home because your manager wants to know what you’re doing and what you’re working on. And in this world here where you have to work from home, there’s no choices, a lot of managers are struggling with making sure they know what their teammates are doing. And so for you to manage up to manage to your manager or likewise, if you are a manager, to understand what’s going on with your team and not be one of those micro-managers. That can be really challenging as well as establishing what’s the right amount of contact for when I’m not in the office with these people.

Emily (20:37): I’ve noticed that’s one of the larger struggles that people have had in moving from the in-office to work from home is not really knowing what information needs to be cascaded up or what statuses need to be cascaded up to their manager. So for those folks that are managers, please be, please be lenient and flexible with with folks newly working from home so that they can, they can figure that out, give them some advice and direction.

Dianne (21:01): Yes. That’s a really good point. That is a really good point. And I think the last thing before we move on, maybe may be about people that are introverted versus extroverted. So I think we think about introverts and extroverts as where do you get your energy? Does stimulus make you excited or does it drain you and make you tired? And when you’re working from home, you don’t have all the stimulus that you might have in an office. And if that’s where you get your energy, you might find that you’re bored, having a hard time keeping, keeping still, you know, that can be a challenge and it’s something to think about when you are preparing, or if you are already are working from home that that’s something to focus on. Introverts, I think, are like super excited right now.

John (21:41): Like this is the best!

Dianne (21:42): “I’ve prepared my whole life for this. I’m so ready.”

Dianne (21:48): All right, so tips, tips, tips. We’ve got a whole list of tips that we wanted to talk about. There’s a lot of things that are good about working from home, a lot of things that are challenging, but there are little things that you can do that will help you. And so what I wanted to start with was, was really about keeping to your regular routine. So what I mean by that is, if you’re the person that gets up, takes a shower, gets ready, puts on your makeup, puts out, you know, does your hair, color-coordinates all of your outfits or whatever, if that’s who you are, and that’s how you normally get ready for a day, I encourage you to continue doing that because it can be super difficult to feel like things are every-day as normal. To put yourself in that work mentality, if you’re not doing whatever little habits that you normally do to prepare yourself for your work day.

Dianne (22:37): So if you, whatever you do in the morning, if you do yoga, if you sit and enjoy your coffee, if you do all of that stuff, keep doing that. Because another thing that you’re going to have to think about, as we’re going to talk about in a minute is, protecting your time. And so when you’re working from home, it’s very easy to be like, Oh, I’m just at home. I’ll take that 6:00 AM call or you know, it’s not too bad. I’m already up at that time anyway. And then before you know it, none of the stuff that you normally do to kind of mentally prepare for your day was able to get done because you filled it up with work because it was so easy.

John (23:10): Yeah. On the same, on the same line of like keeping that regular kind of morning routine. I know that for the most part, like when you do go into the office, most offices you don’t have the advantage of parking up, you know, next to a window. So one of the things I do, um, that helps me during the day and that morning routine is the first thing I do when I get up. As I walk through the house, and I open up all the blinds and the windows and get that natural light in and things like that. It does energize me versus keeping everything shut down and so again, it’s just one of those perks. Take advantage of opening up the windows and getting that light. All that to say is it just makes that work from home environment that much more appealing.

Dianne (23:50): Yeah, it’s like your opportunity to have a corner office with a view, right? Sorta.

Emily (23:54): You can even decorate it. You can, you can add your own touches like fountains or essential oil diffusers.

John (23:58): Oh, here it is.

Dianne (24:02): You don’t have to worry about your perfume irritating all your office mates!

Emily (24:06): Like you know. The other thing I would say, going back to to what John, you were talking about with the laundry, is as I’ve transitioned over the many years in offices, out of offices and offices, out of offices, redefining what that daily routine looks like. And I wouldn’t necessarily encourage everyone to do that, but for folks that may be transitioning, not just temporarily, to a work from home situation, but maybe on a more permanent basis, redefine what that morning routine looks like for you. So to your point, Dianne, if you’re somebody who gets up, does the hair, does the, you know, the whole nine, you know, while I was that person at one time, I’ve redefined what that looks like. So now to John’s point, my morning routine, when I’m in my, my home office, I do not want to walk past and see that pile of laundry.

Emily (24:52): I do not want to walk past and see the dishes in the sink. So my morning routine consists of tidying up to your, you know, again, to your point, John, opening up the windows, opening up the blinds. If it’s nice outside, I open the windows, get the fresh air, going, get the diffusers going, whatever it is, but get the laundry put away, get the house tidied up, get my office organized and ready to go, to maximize my productivity for the day and get me in a mindset that is going to help me to, to accomplish what I’ve set out to do. So you, there is that option or that opportunity to redefine what that morning routine looks like for you? And one last thing I will say is I was a big kind of using that drive time in going into offices and coming home from offices to decompress, either prepare for the day while going in or decompressing when coming home.

Emily (25:43): And so, sometimes when I drop my kids off at school, which we haven’t done for the last week, but hopefully soon they will be back there again. But taking like just circling the block once or twice just to get that extra time, listen to one more song or two more songs on my way home or going to pick up my kids. It then becomes that, you know, that way to, to signify the beginning of the day and the end of the day, you know? So there’s those again that there’s that routine that, that signal that that shows you the beginning and the end and the boundaries if you will.

Dianne (26:21): Emily, I think you’re exactly right and I think I should have stated my routine advice that way. Is not necessarily keep with your normal routine because nothing, if you’re not normally working from home, then this is not a normal situation for you. And so you need to, you need to create or deliberately craft that morning routine that will help you prepare for your day mentally. And then you have have an afternoon, evening routine to help you decompress and end at the end of the day. Because protecting your time is, is gotta be super important. When you’re working from home. You may be tempted, like I said earlier, take that 6:00 AM call because you’re already at home. You know, what a big deal. But the more you do that, the more you’re giving away all of your own personal space. And before you know it, you’re going to wake up and start working and then stop working and go to sleep. And that is going to be your day every single day.

Dianne (27:07): That’s at least that’s been my experience. Another thing I have too is to set yourself up with a workstation. So I think a lot of people think like, Oh, I’m working from home to sit on my couch and with my laptop, on my lap. And while that does work, sometimes like you know, I will tell you that sometimes in the summertime I really do enjoy going out and sitting on my back porch, maybe for an hour or a meeting or whatever to just kind of soak up the sun. But I don’t believe that you can truly focus on work and focus on what you need to get done when you’re sitting on the couch with your laptop on your lap. So I would say find a corner of your house, if it’s a room, great with a door, excellent. If not, a relatively quiet area of your home that is not maybe in a high traffic area where you can have a little desk or a table with your laptop, or if you want to get super fancy that has your monitor and your other stuff so that it feels like, “I’m going to my work, I’m sitting down at my desk and I’m going to focus on work right now.”

Dianne (27:58): Because when you’re in a different setting, you’ve got your couch in your laptop and there’s a TV right in front of you or whatever. It’s really easy to get distracted. So having that workstation, that kind of that office vibe, even if it’s not in an office, can really help you.

John (28:12): Yeah. I think you can, you can jazz it up too, right? So even though you have a workstation, you know, personalizing it, you know, it’s something that maybe adds to that focus that you’re looking for. Having fun with that as well, so that it’s not so stale and unappealing.

Dianne (28:29): Yeah! Because you don’t have to worry about offending your office mates with your choice of decor anymore either. So, you know, go crazy. Just make sure it’s not in the, behind you, where the people in the webcam can see it. And be tasteful. I mean the same thing about standing up while you’re on a webcam.

Dianne (28:44): Nobody wants to see that.

John (28:46): I mean…

Dianne (28:46): Most people don’t want to see that. I guess.

John (28:50): Anyway.

Emily (28:50): It’s a whole different podcast.

Dianne (28:53): That’s a whole different podcast!

Emily (28:54): It’s a whole different website, a whole different podcast.

Dianne (28:58): I don’t even know if we could mark this that as a…yeah, that would not be G-rated.

Dianne (29:03): Kind of going along with starting when you normally would, so if, if your day normally starts at eight, really try hard not to, just like you would if you were going into an office all that time, up until 8:00 AM, is your personal time. It’s your time to get ready for the day. It’s your time to sleep. If you want to sleep a little longer, that is your time to get ready for the day. Try not to start before your normal time that you would if you were going into the office. And just like that, leaving at your normal time of the day.

Dianne (29:27): And if that means shutting down your laptop, closing it, putting it in a bag somewhere, or if you have an office leaving your office, shutting the door and walking away, you have to be intentional about that. Because like I said, the first, the first time might not be a deal. And maybe doing it every so often isn’t a big deal. But if you do it over and over again, before you know it, it’s going to be wake up, go to go to work, wake up, start working, stop working, go to sleep. And you won’t have any time to do anything else and your life will become nothing but work. And I don’t think…in times like this, we cannot have that. In regular times, we can’t have that. Especially now. You gotta be doing the self care, you gotta be spending the time with your family. You gotta be enjoying what life has to offer outside of work.

Emily (30:05): If I could, if I could share the consequences of that advice and having the computer on constantly in the past and even having the sound on. So I would hear the ding, ding, ding, and my office is actually off and it’s off my bedroom. So yes, I have French doors that I can shut that will muffle the noise slightly, but I was so…

Dianne (30:28): You still hear it.

Emily (30:28): Yeah. I was so intense on work and so just disproportionate in there. I think there are many people who may hear this podcast or even be partnering with me on this podcast right now. That would say you still are. But nonetheless, there was a time where it would just, it would be on and I would hear it and I was like, Pavlov’s dogs would begin to salivate and have to go look in the, Oh, who was it?

Dianne (30:52): Who was it that emailed me? Was it that email that I was waiting for? Yes. As much as you can, you know, shut that down. Very intentionally. Turn the laptops off, turn the sounds off, disconnect them so that they’re, you know, there’s no way that they’re transmitting anything. And even your phones, you know, I have a work phone where I gotta be careful. I get emails on my phone, I get texts from, from business people. Turning that off, I don’t do it. So I, I’m going to give advice that I don’t actually follow, but I, because I know the consequences that it has on my life and is definitely one in which I would like to achieve more consistency around that. So I’ll maybe I’ll mark that as my goal: by the end of the year to be more consistent in, in disconnecting, uh, with intentionality.

Dianne (31:38): Yeah, that’s really true. You gotta be able to disconnect. You have to. You have to. You have to. Otherwise you, your entire life is sucked up by work. And while that might work for a short term or an emergency situation and won’t work long term, it won’t work. Oh, you know, and while we’re on that topic of making yourself accessible by technology: during your hours of working, so if you’ve said I’m going to, I’m going to be available for work from 8:00 AM until 5:00 PM or 6:00 PM or whatever, then in order to help your other teammates who are working remotely now, maybe for the first time, or your manager who is wondering what the hell is going on with you? What, what’s being worked on? Are you working? Are you doing your thing? It can really help to make yourself more accessible during those hours. So don’t forget to sign in to things like IM if you’re joining conferences, turn on your webcam.

Dianne (32:26): If you’re, if you have a phone, keep it next to you for text messages. Your goal and what I’ve had over the years, both for myself and for people that work for me. Cause I’m remote from my entire team. I’m always wondering what they’re working on, whether they’re in the office or not. I’m always wondering what’s happening, what’s going on? Cause it’s hard when you’re, when you’re not around everybody else, you want to make sure that everybody’s, and I have a lot of trust in my team. And so I feel very fortunate in that that they are out there getting their shit done like they should be doing. Part of the reason why I feel that way is because they are keeping me in the loop. They’re always on IM. They’re always sharing their face with me when we’re on calls together, they’re making sure that they’re emailing me regularly, they’re…I have all their text numbers, they can text me, I can text them. It feels like we’re a lot closer, distance-wise, than we actually are. So I’d say use technology to your advantage. Make sure that during those hours of work that you are extra accessible. And then if you’re reaching out to others, be sensitive to their hours of work. You know, try not to text them at 4:45 PM just like you might want to not walk into their office at 4:45 PM and ask them to do something.

John (33:32): So I think one of the things for me is having the endless supply of snacks about eight feet away from my workstation. So, having the discipline to not go in and grab three Oreos every time I pass the pantry door is, is a daily challenge. So I don’t know if you guys run into that same situation, but I try and stick to my regular eating routine, like just, you know, breakfast, lunch, dinner and not graze because it’s so easy to do.

Dianne (34:04): Yes. And you know, going along with that is remembering to eat right? Like I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve been on, on calls starting early in the morning or whatever, and pretty soon it’s three o’clock in the afternoon and I haven’t even taken a break to go get lunch or something. And I know that happens to people in the office. You guys will have to tell me if it happens as often when you’re in the office as it does when you’re working from home. But for me, I have to like set aside and say, go get something to eat. Otherwise three o’clock comes, I’m super hungry, I’m hangry, yelling at people, and then I go and stuff my face with stuff that’s probably not even really very healthy for me because I’m so hungry.

John (34:41): I think it’s easy to put off, right? Like so okay there’s the pantry, right? And I know I can get up at any point and make myself a sandwich, but then you just don’t do it right. Because it is so easy. You’re like, Oh, I’ll get it after this call. And then you get into something else and you know,

Emily (34:56): You know, you’ve got, you’ve got back to back calls. I feel like we’re, especially now in this day and age where pretty much everyone’s working remotely. You know, you’ve got back to back to back to back calls. You know, I think one of the things just to combat some of the issues that, that I have specifically related to eating, which is I’m just going to grab the easiest, most convenient thing that’s there. And typically that’s not the healthiest thing. Right? So, so allowing, you know, another just kind of piece of advice in order to combat the, the eating piece would be, you know, setting aside time between meetings. So I know you, Dianne, you said being intentional about setting that time aside to eat. But even, I know one of the groups within our organization does this really well and really consistently, and it drives me crazy a lot of the times, but it’s these times that I actually appreciate it, where they start meetings five minutes late and end meetings five minutes early. So they would start on the five and end on the, on the 55 or the 25. So while it’s super frustrating because I’m like, I need to get on there and I need to get this meeting started…

Dianne (36:01): I always forget, I always forget, and I’m sitting there for five minutes.

Emily (36:08): They’re, they’re really consistent about it and it’s, it’s very helpful, especially bio-breaks, you know, which is become a lot easier when you’re working from home because it’s not, you’re not having to walk across the building or down, you know, going up a floor down a floor to get to a restroom or, or fight with others. You know, other teammates or employees to get to the restroom. So it’s relatively easy. And that five minutes can mean the difference of making, you know, a healthy choice versus an unhealthy choice while you’re, you know, trying to run and shove something in your mouth while you’re on a call.

Dianne (36:39): That is true. That is true.

Emily (36:41): So schedule that time, you know, be, try new things with time scheduling and even just scheduling the time to eat, scheduling the time to exercise, scheduling the time to get outside, putting that time in your calendar, communicating with your manager, Hey, I’m going to do this.

Emily (36:57): And it’s a nonnegotiable. That’s the other thing. When you schedule that time, you gotta stick with that time, right? You can’t, you can’t schedule it, and then just when somebody asks, well, can you make this one? Don’t give it away.

Dianne (37:07): You have to protect it.

Emily (37:09): So schedule that time, and I have had nothing but support from my managers when I’ve said, look, I need the, I need the sanity check. I need the hour today to just step away so I can maintain that sanity. And I’ve had zero pushback from my managers when I’ve asked for them to help empower me to do that. So yeah, just be transparent and talk to them about that. And again, just hold it very non-negotiable. And people don’t need to know why you’re declining a meeting or why you know that it’s your, you don’t have to say, well its my my one on one time or it’s my meditation time. You don’t, you don’t have to…you don’t have to justify it to anybody. Just do it.

Dianne (37:51): I have a conflict.

Emily (37:52): I have a conflict, I can’t make it. Sorry, you know, own, take back your time. That is one of the great things about working from home. So take back the time.

Dianne (38:01): Take back your time and protect it. That’s a really good one. All right. I think we’ll wrap up today. This has been, hopefully, hopefully this was really helpful for you guys, especially those that are new to working at home or maybe those that have struggled working from home in the past or working remotely, I think, is the proper term. This was really fun. I want to thank Emily and John. Thank you guys so much for joining me today.

John (38:25): Thanks for including me.

Emily (38:26): Thank you.

Dianne (38:26): Awesome. I’ll put some links in the description maybe to some sites with advice or maybe even a Pinterest board with some home office ideas. I have a couple Pinterest boards. Those of you that follow me on Pinterest, know that. Please don’t hesitate to reach out. If you have questions, comments, something that you’d like to hear more about. If you just need some encouragement or just need, you know, to hear a friendly voice or something like that, or a friendly email, I guess. Please don’t hesitate to reach out. My email is dianne@coffeegritandinspiration.com. You can sign up for our mailing list and get emails for every post as well as a newsletter if you’d like. You can opt out at any time, and that address is www.coffeegritandinspiration.com/subscription. I hope you’re able to have a wonderful, wonderful, productive week and I’ll talk to you next time. Bye now.