Being proactive while working from home takes time and practice to get into the right mindset and routine.
I have been working from home for a few months now and I honestly really enjoy it. It allows me the time to focus on my work and during breaks, I get to spend it with my family either hanging out at home or going for walks around our beautiful neighbourhood.
I would like to say that I was proactive every single day and I had an excellent routine. That I completed all my work, housework, payed full attention to everyone, fit in all my exercise…
But it didn’t quite happen like that. Well, not every day.
There were days I’d run around trying to fit in a shower, feeding my one year old her breakfast, getting dressed, putting on some makeup, putting on the laundry and making a mental note to turn on the dryer, eating my own breakfast, brushing my teeth while sometimes holding my daughter, taking her to daycare a few times per week, and then rushing back to get to my computer, plopping myself down on my chair and starting my team meeting each morning. Phew.
And then there were other days when things worked really well and I was able to calmly do everything I had to get done to get prepared for the day.
I feel like I had to go through a cycle.
At the end of some days I felt frustrated that I didn’t achieve all that I had I wanted to. I consider myself someone who needs to be productive each day. Since having a child I value every single second I have available even more. Just see my post on how I spent my year of maternity leave here. Not getting something done would really bother me. And I’m talking getting myself down, thinking I’m not achieving anything, ever, and yes, losing sleep.
Proactive mindset
In order to make a start at being proactive while working from home, I made the decision at the end of that frustrating day that I needed to do that thing I didn’t get around to doing. The annoyance I felt gave me a drive to take action the next day. Sometimes I had to put things in place like asking for help to have additional time to do the things I wanted done.
Other times I would really have to force myself to stop procrastinating and just start on getting something done! I took the approach that would work best for me in that moment. It’s ok to adapt to whatever style you need when you need it.
Achievable goals
I also had to do a bit of a reality check and make sure my goals were achievable. I do have a tendency to want to do a little too many things in the hours that are available in a day. This would lead to nothing but more frustration!
Be fair to yourself and make those daily goals achievable – especially if there is a big task you are working towards. Those small wins each day will get you there, I promise!
Be organised – plan ahead and write it down in your diary
Sometimes I was too busy to plan and then when the time came for action, I would think to myself “ok, I have time now, what do I do first?”. I would get so overwhelmed with the tasks I had to do I wouldn’t know where to start! You can probably tell where this would lead…
Once I started writing down all the tasks I needed to do in my backlog, I would take out a couple of achievable things from that list into my To Do tasks for the next day. This helped me better achieve the things I needed to.
Be flexible
Other times things don’t go to plan and you need to change what you had set out to do. Being able to adapt and change my schedule for the rest of the day was key to still being productive. By having my backlog of things I need to do would let me easily take things from this list and alter my to do list to my new schedule.
Productivity train begins
Once I completed one of the things I wanted to, I felt calm as well as energised to take on the next job. Then my productivity cycle began and I was in the right headspace to keep going and ticking off those things on my list! The more I did, the better I felt and on went this cycle.
Don’t be hard on yourself
My key takeaway is not to be too harsh on yourself for not getting everything done that you had planned to. Things happen and your plans may need to change and sometimes nothing happens yet you still didn’t achieve all you had planned. Its ok.
Its fine to go through the cycle of feeling frustrated. It means it will give you that poke to do more tomorrow. When you do more, you feel energised to do even more. That positive reinforcement will drive you into that proactiveness that you were after.
And yes, there will be days when you again get frustrated and don’t achieve all that you wanted to achieve. This can come even after you have had a set of great days. Just relax. Tomorrow is another day. The key is to start doing…doing anything…to break you out of that cycle and onto the road of being proactive again.
Do remember it is also ok to take some time off. This is something that I still find hard doing myself. Even more so now that the line between when work ends and my personal life begins can be blurred quite easily when working from home. Personally, I have tried to relax myself in this space by taking time out to go for walks, sitting down to have my tea or coffee, or listening to a meditation. As you might be able to tell I’m a big introvert.
Remember, nothing stays the same forever. If you are working from home, enjoy the opportunity because you never know what might happen next week. Especially in current times! Things could change at any moment, even if you can’t see it yet. The past has gone and the future isn’t here yet. Enjoy the moment you are in now.
Please share any tips that you have about being proactive while working from home below!
