Podcast Transcript:
These are my Five Success Strategies and best practices for working from home. Hey there, I’m Jillian Kendrick and welcome to the Momentum Marketing Podcast, I’m a mama, a wife, an entrepreneur, and a three time best selling co author. In each episode you’ll get real world practical advice and strategies and maybe a parenting tip or two along the way. If you’re ready to create a business that supports your family and your lifestyle, then you’re in the right place.
Hey there, it’s Jillian Kendrick. Welcome back to the Momentum Marketing Podcast. I am so glad you’re here. And on deck today we are talking about my five success strategies for successfully working from home in the most productive and best way that you possibly can.
But before we get into that it would also mean the world to me if you have gotten any value, if you like this podcast that you go ahead and give it a rating. Of course I would love five stars, but whatever is in your heart would make me so so happy and any feedback that you have is always can go to hello@jilliankendrick.com.
Alright now we’re talking about my five success strategies for working from home in the most productive best environment for you and for the type of work that you’re doing. So let’s dive right in.
My success secret number one, set a specific work schedule.
I cannot even tell you how impactful keeping a calendar and time blocking on that calendar was for me when I started out as a virtual assistant all the way up to becoming a business owner, and it’s still something that I do today. Everything that needs to get done, I tell you if it’s not in my calendar, it’s not going to get done.
Even personal things like we’re going to go to Disney World on the weekend, or I need to run to Walgreens and pick up photos, or we have a playdate with our moms club, whatever it is, time block it, put it into your calendar and make sure that you’re accountable. What’s great about the calendars is that you can also set up desktop notifications, browser notifications and email notifications so that it keeps you accountable and keeps you on task even if a task is going to take longer than what you initially expect. At least you’ve time blocked like that hour, or that hour and a half, or even 10 minutes, whatever it is, time blocking is just so crucial and so important. It has helped me immensely. So make sure that you have a calendar and that your time blocking in that calendar for everything that you need to do and I promise you it will help you be so much more productive.
Now, speaking of a specific work schedule, I suppose this is like 1.1 point a or 1.1 but have a designated time that you are working. Whether it’s working in your business, on your business, visionary time, set a specific work schedule. So if you work Monday to Friday 9 to 5, if you work like me, Monday to Thursday from, I don’t know from whenever my son’s done with breakfast until a certain hour of the day. Whatever that looks like for you, set the intention, right? Set your work schedule and make sure that your team knows, and your clients know, or whoever is working with you, your virtual assistants know, that that is the time that you’re available and that it’s not okay to reach out to you after hours. Or maybe it is okay. Like for us, it’s not okay that our clients reach out to us after hours unless it’s absolutely an emergency, and we charge them for that. But it is okay if my team needs something, and they can reach out to me after hours. Of course if they’re working on something, I always want to be there to support them. And this really goes back to setting boundaries, setting a work schedule, putting it on your calendar time, blocking all of that. It just goes back to having really healthy boundaries and your business as well as your personal life is no exception to that. And it’s been incredibly impactful for me to set those boundaries and to keep myself accountable to.
Success strategy number two eliminate distractions.
So figure out how you work best, what type of environment, do you need to work really, really well. Can you work well in clutter? Do you have to Marie Kondo your desk? Whatever that looks like for you, where you work best, where you’re most productive, eliminate those distractions. I know that when I really really need to focus I can’t listen to music, and I have to shut down all of my browser tabs. I have to literally close everything and only look at one screen. I have two screens open on my desk right now a laptop and then like an external screen that I use to look at like bigger stuff. But when I really really really want to focus I need to only look at this screen, the small screen and I will shut down everything else. And that helps me just get in the zone and stay focused when I really really need that time. So whatever environment you need, however you work best, whatever ticks you might have figured that out and eliminate as many distractions as possible. Now look, working from home, having a toddler, I can’t eliminate the distraction of him screaming or you know tripping and crying. And we have those situations every single day and that would exist whether I own a business or not right? So that one I can’t necessarily eliminate, but in my mind I know that he’s safe, and that somebody is with him. And that I don’t have to run out the door and stop working every single time he falls, or every single time something happens. So however you can eliminate as many distractions as possible so that you can stay focused and be productive do that.
Success strategy number three is to set realistic expectations for yourself.
This also goes back to having those strong boundaries that we talked about in your work schedule and calendar and time blocking. Here’s what I want you to do. In order to set realistic expectations for yourself, spend a week, maybe 3 to 4 days, five days, whatever you’ve got. Spend at least at least three days, if not more, if not a week, working like you normally were. But the difference is I want you to actually write down the things that you accomplished or maybe you have a task management software, Asauna, or Teamwork, or something like that, that you can use to track your progress or clock it off. Do those time blocks in your calendar, so that at the end of the week you can look back at what you worked on in your calendar, and you can see what you accomplished. But write down everything that you a car accomplish within each of those days. And then at the end of those three days or the end of that week, go back and look at what you’ve accomplished and say, “Okay, in a given day, I can realistically get done one big thing and two little things.” or “I can get done five little things, and one medium thing,” you know what I’m saying? Because if you understand how you work, what your productivity level, and how you can maximize your time, then you can repeat that process, and you can become more efficient. Because in any given day, you know, okay I can only accomplish one big thing and two little things or one medium thing and five little things, whatever that looks like for you and how you work best. Then you know what you can get done in a day and you can better plan, you can better plan for when clients ask you for stuff, you can better plan launching new programs and products, but you need to figure it out for yourself. Which is why I recommend don’t just write down one day, give yourself multiple days, give yourself at least three days. If not a week like I said, so that you have an opportunity to include those distractions and include the busy days or include the more productive days and then look back and say okay in any given week on any given day on an average this is what I can accomplish and get done. And then you’re setting realistic expectations for yourself of what you can get done in a day and then you can pass those on to other people. If you want to get more done, you hire a team. And they can take over those things for you. And truly it really does just come down to setting healthy boundaries within our business.
Success strategy number four, don’t forget to move to take breaks.
You know how when you’re on an airplane, if you’ve ever done like a transcontinental flight, they tell you to like move your legs, get up and walk, kind of pump your calves, stuff like that,? Make sure that you get the blood flowing and that you keep the blood flowing. Even though I’m here on the podcast, I’m still talking with my hands, like I normally do, I’m still smiling because you can hear that come through in my voice. I’m still moving. I’m still engaging my body in everything that I do and I’m taking breaks. Obviously I’m taking a break to go see my son. I’m taking a lunch break, I’m getting water, but make sure that you take breaks, get up, whatever it looks like if you have to go for a walk, go change around some laundry, make sure that you’re getting up moving and taking breaks on a regular basis. And again, you can add those breaks into your time block in your calendar.
Success strategy number five is to dress the part.
So look, I know we’ve all gone through the zoom era of Covid, you know what I mean? Where we only had to be dressed from like the waist up. Not to say that that’s going anywhere. And there’s definitely days where I have yoga pants on the bottom and a nice dress shirt on top. I totally get it.
I do the same thing. But I really want to encourage you don’t work in your pajamas. Even if you could, even if it’s late at night, don’t work in your pajamas. Dress the part when you wake up. Prepare for this work as though you’re going to an office to see other people. Like my girl Lindsay says, look good, feel good, do good. I promise you it will be a complete game changer for the way that you approach your work, the way that you approach life and when you look good, you will feel good. When you feel good, you will do good and when you do good, it will make you that much better, that much more productive.m
Thank you so much for joining me on this episode of the Momentum Marketing Podcast. If listening to this has brought you value, improved your life or given you any insight to help you build your own momentum, then please share this with a friend and I’ll see you on the next episode.
The Momentum Marketing Podcast
By Jillian Kendrick
Episode: #3
Topic: 5 Success Stragegies for WFH
Contact: hello@jilliankendrick.com
Follow IG: instagram.com/automatedmama
