My Top 10 Working from Home Hit List Part 2

Hi Coach,

Last week I shared the first 5 work habits out of 10 that have helped me get work done, no matter if I am at home or in the office.  This week, I have 5 more ideas to share with you that help keep me on my A game while at home.  If you missed part one, go here to read it. 

#6 Interruption Rules

When are your people okay to interrupt you and how should they go about it? Have you established that?

I believe that you get what you tolerate.  Now, with your kids, I know it’s difficult at different times of their lives.  But, should your older kid just be allowed to diverse in the room and interrupt you anytime that they want?  I know some of you would say, well of course, that’s what kids do. And other coaches though, have figured out a way to set up those boundaries.

I want you to put in the time to teach the people you are working at home with how should they engage with you when they’re interrupting you.

For example, if the door to my office is shut, mom is on a call.  Please wait to come in.  If you come in and I am on a call, you need to be really quiet until I can speak with you.  I also have learned that mostly my kids come in when they are hungry, so I try have food and water out for my kids when my husband is at the office.  You need to set simple rules and stick to them otherwise you are never going to get anything done.

As you know, you can’t say it once. You can’t say it twice. You have to teach people 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 times before they absolutely get it. Teaching interruption rules is so worth it once you have it working.

#7 Meal Prep.

In my opinion, when you get your diet and sleep right as you are working from home, everything will change.

For college coaches, you’re not working at some company where they provide lunches every day.  You might get a lunch hour at your school, but it’s scheduled, and it’s expected so you will eat. When you are at home, when you get busy watching game film, or emailing recruits, or having zoom calls with your team all of a sudden, it’s like two, three, four in the afternoon and you haven’t eaten any lunch or you haven’t eaten anything, you might tend to get something fast and easy (junk).

Or you finally get up to go to the fridge and if there’s nothing, you eat the crap in the pantry or go out and get fast food.

That is where meal prep can save you. If you don’t plan ahead to have healthy snacks and food in your fridge, you might be more prone to eat like crap. When you eat like crap you are going to feel like crap. And then you will lose your ability to work in a productive and focused way.

What I recommend to you is to make sure that as you are planning out your week, you go to the grocery store and you stock up on groceries so that you’re ready to go for the week. I’m not saying that you have to prepare every meal. I’m saying to have the groceries that you need that will support you throughout the day and help you survive the week.

#8 Scheduling Social Media

Social media at home kills people. When you’re at the office, you can’t just sit at your desk on your phone, checking social media all day.  Your coworkers are going to be like, hey do something.

But at home, it is much easier to get away with that nonsense. Since no one’s seeing your screen or phone, you tend to abuse those things at home.

Even if you spend just spend 30 minutes browsing social media during the day, that time adds up and ends up being almost a full month of workdays gone throughout the year. You literally lose that much time.

You have got to be very careful about it and so that’s why I recommend to schedule it. Maybe allow yourself to do 15 minutes of social media before lunch, or 15 minutes before dinner each day. If you know when you are allowing yourself to browse, what’s happening the rest of the day? Work!  Getting things done that will help move your career forward.

#9 Take a Significant Afternoon Break to Recharge.

When coaches work from home, they tend to work later because throughout the day you might’ve done some laundry, or done some meal prep, or played with your kids, or had to run some errands.   Working late one day here and there might be fine, but it will wear on you if you are not careful.

I have found it to be very important if I want to stay consistent with my energy throughout the week to get a significant afternoon break.  These breaks can last from 30 minutes to an hour.

For me, I take a long walk in the afternoon with my kids and dog to get my eyes away from the computer or phone. Or I will go to the gym for a workout, read a book, or take a quick nap.

These afternoon break sessions can be a complete reset and they will allow you go to back in and work for a little longer with more focus and energy.

#10 Do Everything You Can to Schedule Less Meetings.

I get that you have had to have more team, staff, and recruiting zoom meetings because of Covid.

But, what I found is that meetings at home lead to drifting the rest of the day. It’s like, okay, I did that meeting.  That task is done. And then, you feel you might need a break so you wander.  You go and watch a show, or consume social media, or clean some stuff up versus saying what are the needle moving tasks to get done next?

When you know you have a meeting, plan what you are going to do immediately after the meeting is over so you don’t lose a lot of time trying to figure out what to do next. Ask yourself, what are the outputs that matter today that I could work on? Maybe it’s an email to your recruits. Maybe it’s a zoom call with a top prospect you could set up. Maybe it’s the processes you have been meaning to document that you know will save you a lot of time and effort later on. Whatever it is, this something that you have got to complete. Decide this before you do your meeting and you will be more likely to do it than if you just go looking for the next thing.

I hope this information provides a friendly reminder of the key work habits you need to be establishing to produce significant outputs during the week whether you are working from home or in the office.

Would you please post your favorite things that are helpful for you while working from home? What else am I missing? What types of exercise are you doing from home? Do you take certain supplements? Do you manage your work meetings or your team in a certain way?  What tools do you love to use? I would love to hear all of your recommendations.

I wish you and your family safety, health, strength, and optimism during these chaotic times.  I feel this is such a great opportunity for us coaches to show leadership in the world, to demonstrate a good attitude, to show up and serve with love, heart, excellence, kindness, and patience at a time when a lot of people have lost that.

For those interested in social media recruiting, check out my new program for coaches called social story recruiting.

To your success,

Mandy Green