Six Tips for Working from Home

Hi Loves! It’s Shannon of Ana Olivette, today I decided to talk about something many of us have been living through this year with working from home because of Covid. It has been a year since I began teaching my First Graders from my kitchen desk area. The setup has changed many times throughout the year to tailor to the needs of my students and most importantly my youngest son (William, 4). Since, not only was I teaching over the computer (something I never had done before) but my children were home learning from computers (Andrew, 17, Mimi, 11) and I had a preschooler to teach. Therefore, my kitchen eating nook area became my makeshift classroom for the year. It has been wonderful to be home with the kids and to be able to homeschool William. We have done many fun projects relating to what he was learning at the time. Also, thankfully William has always been at a higher level in terms of academic learning, so he was not very far behind my students which also gave him a great advantage for next year as he starts Kindergarten this upcoming Fall. Oh my! Where has the time gone! Oh yeah stuck inside our homes for a year 😊.

Today I decided to speak about the things that I did to make working from home easier for me as a mother and teacher. There are many types of routines and tips that you probably have read or heard over the past year so if some of them seem repetitive at least I'm on the right track. You can use my tips and tailor it to your needs for what works best for you.

Tip #1 -

The start of your day is the most important thing to focus on because it's what sets you up for success or failure. In the morning make sure to set a habit of making sure you don't pick up your phone first thing in the morning. When we do this, we rob ourselves of our creative potential. Also, we give into our addiction to other people's drama, nonsense ideas and conspiracies. Staying disconnected in the morning helps you to connect to creative ideas. instead, begin your day with something positive like yoga, journaling, prayer or anything that makes you feel connected to yourself and makes you ease into a great day.

Tip #2 -

Find a routine and setup that doesn't stress you out and make you feel overwhelmed. Find one that helps you focus on priority tasks in the beginning of the day and then doing all the other things that you need to do later in the day. There are so many different things that you can do to organize yourself while working from home. I use a combination of Evernote (https://evernote.com/compare-plans). Evernote is a project management tool which helps to keep you more organized. I also use a daily To Do List as well as my Calendar. Those are the three things that I use and you can watch more about Evernote on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjKq3eTAhlg). I'm sure there are many videos about organizing out there as well. It doesn't matter what method you use, just find one that works for you and that you actually enjoy. I really love the quote “Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail,” because it’s absolutely true. If you don't have a way to organize your thoughts and your tasks you're probably going to end up with procrastination and scrolling on social media.

Tip#3 -

Create a space every single day for soul-fueling energy-moving activities in your life. For me, that's writing a blog, being a teacher and starting a small business . I make space every single day for these types of activities because its not only a part of my job but it's also my creative passion and it gives me energy. We're all tired and drained much of the time and it can be really hard when you're working at home because you're in your natural comfy environment. It's really hard to maintain those energy levels for so many people. It's not going to be the food that you eat or the sleep that you get that's going to help you feel motivated. It will definitely give you energy, but it's not going help you feel motivated. The thing that's going to help you feel motivated is making sure that you're creating space and time for your passion. It's better if of course your passions can align with your business activities. Even if they can't try to make time to add it into your schedule. Maybe your passion is working out make time and space for that. If your passion is nature, painting, reading fashion magazines etc., make sure that you are dedicating time for those things that light and fill you up because that's just going to give you so much more energy.

Tip #4 -

Make sure that you are standing up regularly throughout the day because humans are not supposed to sit down for 8 hours a day every single day. It's terrible for your hips, it's terrible for your joints. I often do wiggle breaks with my students throughout the school day which is fun and helps me overall. I get to be silly for a couple of minutes with my kiddos. They really do bring so much light into my life. I also stretch in the morning and do yoga in the evening. Making sure to keep your blood flow moving is very important.

Tip#5 -

Make sure that you get out of your house as often as possible. Staying inside can be really detrimental to your health. There were times that I would stay inside for 2-3 days at a time without going outside for some fresh air or to move around or to see different scenery. Face to face interaction is important when possible. Really get a conversation going with someone where you can be totally open and vulnerable at least once a day. This helps you interact with people around you but also it creates a non-working space for you to be yourself sometimes. Call someone that you can have a conversation with outside just your work or home relationships. This switch up, allows you to have a different dynamic in a different conversation that may not only spark creativity but it allows you to see you as a human being and it really allows you to open up. Please make sure that you’re surrounding yourself with people who lift you up and inspire you as regularly as possible.

Tip#6 –

Make sure that you have a regular start and finish time. I work 8:30am to 4:30pm and I really love that it allows me the time I need in the morning to do my morning routine, get ready and do a bit of my self-development. Then it allows me the time in the evening to make sure I have my evening routines in place.

These are the tips that have helped me be successful and maintain a healthy flow at while working at home. What kind of things do you do to help your work productivity? Drop a few lines and let me know. Until next time, thanks again for reading my blog and I’ll see you soon.