Remote Working Secrets to Survive and Thrive the Home Office

Do you enjoy waking up with no alarm clock, no appointments and no need to be anywhere or do anything?

That’s how I feel when I wake up on a Sunday morning imagine living your life like it was Sunday everyday. Do you think you would accomplish as much as you do if the reality was, every day is Sunday?

I’ve been self-employed for over 25 years and I’ve always said I don’t really feel like I’m working because I’m doing stuff I’m passionate about. That is what it’s all about really, when you find yourself working on a Sunday, not realising you actually are being productive and making money. There’s no such thing as Sunday-itis in my life!

Covid has certainly made us think differently, especially in the way that we work. A high percentage of us are now working from our homes, so distinguishing the difference between work and life is becoming more and more difficult. We all learn from each, other some people struggle with working from home, but I struggle working from an office.

Some of the advantages of working from home:

• You don’t need to pre-prepare lunch
• You save money on office rental
• You can claim some of your expenses
• You can justify a coffee machine
• The office commute is merely footsteps

Some of the disadvantages of working from home:

• Cabin fever
• Motivation
• No sense of direction
• Human contact
• Working all hours

Well, let me discuss some of the things that I’ve learnt from working from home over the years that has helped keep me productive and accountable.

Of course I could give you a lecture about setting goals and making sure you’re accountable to others to achieve your task. I’m pretty sure you could download an audiobook and learn all about that. However in saying that, I set goals for myself every day and the only real goal I have is to finish one task each day. When I go to bed at night, I sleep better knowing I have finished one of my goals.

I believe you need to move forward because if you stay in the same place, you haven’t actually accomplished anything.

I work from my living room rather than a spare bedroom. I feel like there’s more energy in the living room than there is in a bedroom with the four walls and a window. My partner also works for herself and we work from the same living space, so this is where I get my human contact from.

If you follow us on social media you would probably think Helen Oakes and I spent all day long eating out and visiting cafes around town. However the reality is, when working from home you need a change of scenery. We take our laptops and work until our batteries run dry. The reason this works for us, we save a lot of administration tasks that you need to do when running your business. We get admin done when out and about and leave the big tasks for when we are back in the office. Like producing workshops, doing podcasting and accessing hard drives when editing photos. Those tasks involve a lot of tech gear that you can’t drag to a cafe.

When you’re a small to medium sized business and live life as a serial entrepreneur, you need a good mindset. Thoughts and ideas flow into the brain at unusual times and I find I am most creative when working from a cafe or my living room without interruptions from my office colleagues and I feel I can express myself more freely.

Working with your partner may not be everyone’s cup of tea. We do other activities that we are both passionate about, we both enjoy health and fitness. At least two or three times each week we both go out for a 5K run and 10k hike. This keeps us sane. Working for yourself is all about mindset and to be honest, this has to be a number one priority. If we are not in the right frame of mind we simply cannot perform, health and fitness is the best thing we have done to achieve this.

We’ve had to reinvent ourselves recently and it is not as easy as it sounds. It’s a miracle we’ve made it through to the end of the year. I have to laugh and give myself and my partner a pat on the back, we’ve actually made it and we’ve done reasonably well for a couple that have had to rethink our whole business structure.

I truly believe it is madness hoping for different results, when you continue doing the same old thing. I believe that you need to embrace change, you need to think different and you need to apply yourself, set goals and make yourself accountable to your friends and family.

Right now more than ever we need to have good relationships in our lives, we need to be empathetic, we need to be open-minded and of course love each other.

Snippet

I composed this blog using voice recognition and it’s now 12:34pm, Sunday afternoon. I have just jumped out of the shower and thought to myself I love Sundays. I had to share this with others, so I grabbed my iPhone and wrote this blog. I shall now get dressed, go downstairs and make Helen and myself gluten-free, plant-based pancakes. Enjoy every day as Sunday!

My goal is to inspire someone who found this blog on Google or our social media. They may check out our websites and they just may invest in one of my online workshops, or hire Helen for some personal branding photography.

I provide educational training to help you survive and thrive in business. I am continuously producing WORKSHOPS of value to people who want to get the best out of technology.