5 Tips for Productively Working from Home from a Series of CEOs

It’s no news that 2020 has been a year unlike any other.

With COVID-19 creating a worldwide pandemic, our daily lives have been altered in numerous ways.

One way that COVID-19 has created a shift in our everyday lives in Colorado Springs and all over the world is by moving a mass of the population to remote work. With every company still trying to figure out how best to handle their employees working from home, here are the top 5 work from home tips from top CEOs as discussed with Elisette Carlson from Entrepreneur.

5 Work From Home Tips from CEO’s

Plan or Remove Distractions

Pre-Covid, if you worked from home you were likely to be working by yourself as your significant other went to work and your kids went to school.

As more people move to a work-from-home environment and even kids start learning remotely, working at home is no longer as manageable as it once was. Dealing with overlapping family member activities, work and schedules can be exhausting.

Founder of Momentum Millionaire Network & Certified Professional Organizer in Chronic Disorganization, Nettie Owens, advises us to “think about these distractions and plan your work around them”

One important takeaway from Owens is setting a schedule for yourself.

Whether this is letting your family know what your plans are for the day or setting up a schedule for yourself to adhere to; schedules can create structure when working from home. Letting your family know what times of the day you’ll be busy and when you’ll have a break can ensure some peace and quiet for yourself. Creating a schedule also gives you a guideline for your day therefore making it easier to accomplish tasks.

Move Your Commute Time to Relaxation Time

Possibly one of the best benefits to working from home is eliminating a commuting time to your daily schedule.

No longer are you stuck in your car to and from work. Your computer is simply a few steps away from you.

However, this can lead us to being too sucked into work or not taking the time for ourselves in the morning that we otherwise would.

Co-authors of the Time Off Book, John Fitch && Max Frenzel, advise us to calculate the amount of time we would normally spend on our commute and change it to our “rest” allowance.

Think about it, in a pre-covid world, you’d take the time on your commute to work to fully wake-up while listening to a podcast, the radio, a book, drinking your coffee, etc. and allow your mind a period of time to simply relax. Now, you wake up and the first thing you do is walk over to your computer.

Instead of over stimulating yourself first thing in the morning, wake up at the usual time you would have before and take those couple of minutes to yourself and start off your day on the right foot.

Implement a Zero-Based Calendar

Similar to setting up a schedule and making sure you have some relaxation time, a zero-based calendar concept allows you to complete your work while also doing the things you want to do.

CEO and Co-founder of BestSelf CO, a planner and productivity tool company, Cathryn Lavery knows that managing your time is essential to success. This is why she believes that a zero-based remote work concept is the way to go.

Zero-based remote management entails budgeting every minute of your day to help you stay on track of your to-do list. In an interview with Well + Good, Lavery explains that you don’t need to skip out on your favorite activities to implement a zero-based calendar system, you simply need to ensure that you schedule those activities with a specific time in mind.

In essence, managing your time and remaining productive doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t enjoy yourself. Working from home allows you to have flexibility with your schedule that you otherwise wouldn’t, so it’s important to make the most out of your time.

Create a Fun Work Environment

Working from home can leave you feeling isolated and alone as you no longer see people everyday or even verbally communicate with anyone.

That’s why Prime Minister of Design and CEO of Haddad & Partners, DJ Haddad, believes you should never take yourself too seriously.

In his conversation with Entrepreneur he states “I am lucky to work with the greatest team on the planet, and somehow we have all become friends and created this amazing chemistry remotely over Microsoft Teams. Just like in a real office environment, we joke around, we make fun of each other, we make stupid GIFs of each other, we share high school prom photos, vacation photos, we live-chat while watching the Oscars, etc. We have Team chats for everything — book club, employees with kids, employees without kids, competitions, etc. It makes it easy for us to still have fun and have ‘water cooler talk’ throughout the day.”

Make your workplace more fun by incorporating things that you would do in a regular office. For example, have an ugly christmas sweater party over Google Hangouts, Zoom or whatever platform you use.

Though it’s important to use your time wisely, part of working in an office is the friendships and camaraderie you make with your coworkers. Create that same environment with some of Haddad’s ideas.

The ROMWE Mindset – Accomplishments Over Hours

Wondering what ROMWE stands for? It means a results-only work environment.

CEO of Precision Nutrition, Tim Jones, encourages and stands behind the ROMWE mindset. Why is that? In his conversation with Entrepreneur, Jones explains that at Precision Nutrition they don’t track hours or care about how their employees do their work, as long as you’re getting the results.

In fact, Jones stated to Entrepreneur that “By focusing on goals and metrics, the old-school idea of how much time was spent sitting at a desk quickly goes out the door.”

Though this may be a hard concept for many to get behind, as the primary fundamentals to a productive business team has always lead with 40-hour work weeks, accomplishing goals in a timely manner is becoming more common for companies to integrate into their cultures.

When you and your clients want to see goals and results, the hours it takes someone who has been doing this job for years vs. a new hire is inevitable if the end results are goal accomplishments in a timely manner. If the end results are the same on a project that goes into a 20 hour work week vs. a 40 hour work week, the metrics show the worth.

Start Being More Productive While Working From Home

Working from home as the new “office norm” has surely changed many of our lives and we hope that some of these tips from powerful CEOs can help you in some way.

If you’re looking to implement some of these helpful tips while streamlining your workflow we can help. As a marketing company, our primary goal is to give you a breath of fresh air especially when it comes to your business/work-life.

Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed by taking on everything yourself, contact us for a consultation on your marketing needs today!