Organizing Your Life: An Insider's Guide to the Working from Home

Hey, my name is Teresa Hildebrand and this is Organized Chaos. We take a deep dive into living with intentionality, focusing on what's important in our lives so we can truly feel our best. It may feel chaotic at times, but with a little organization, the right mindset and a ton of self-love, we can still thrive. Join me as we talk to other busy moms and experts who will share tips and strategies to help you reach your goals. Hope you enjoy this episode of Organized Chaos. Now on to the show. Hey everyone, welcome back to the show. So today we're going to talk about organizing your life when working from home. I think this is an overdue topic because so many of us are working from home now, and I want to give you my best tips, systems, routines on how you can work from home, organize your life so that you don't feel stressed when you're working from home and really enjoy it. So, whether you're working remotely or you have an online business, this is going to be the episode for you, because if you're feeling like you don't really have the time, the space or the energy to do your best work, I'm going to give you a lot of tips. I'm going to help you with that. So I used to work outside of the home for a long time. I would get up really early, I would get ready, put on my business casual clothes, I would drive to work, I had my own space at work and I would drive home and get comfortable and I left my work at work. But then I left my work and I thought, you know, this is going to be the best thing ever. We had new goals and retiring from my full-time job was really something super exciting. But I had a reality check. It didn't turn out the way that I expected and I thought I was going to do whatever I want whenever I want, and it was great. I mean, I didn't have anybody to report to. But it was also a curse. It was a blessing and a curse because I didn't have anybody to report to and I could do whatever I want. So there was no structure whatsoever. And there was a period of time where I just became more stressed because I not only didn't have priorities or structure or a routine around my online work that I was doing, I was also surrounded by clutter and laundry piling up and just cleaning. So there was a different type of stress that I was not anticipating. So it did take some time to get used to creating a schedule that was going to work for me, so that I could have some dedicated work to do and do it in a way where I wasn't procrastinating, where I felt inspired and I felt like I could do my best work. Now I did have the advantage of my kids going to school during the day, so that made things a whole lot better. But if your mom right now who, let's say, is working remotely or has an online business or trying to work while they have small children at home, I will give you some tips as well, because they're slightly different but if, let's say, you do have several hours where you are maybe home alone and you need some structure around that. This is what we're going to talk about first. First, we're going to tackle your schedule. You're going to have to identify the number of hours you're going to work per day and the specific hours you're going to be working per day. Now you may have to split it up. I actually do this as well, so I will have a specific time in the morning, like earlier in the morning, where I do some work, and then later when the kids are at school. Then I have another block of time where I do some dedicated work. But you have to identify your hours first, because you do not want to be working all the time. So if you decide you're going to work two hours a day, then you identify what time of the day you're gonna be doing that. So what I do is I split it up. So I probably work anywhere between three and four hours a day, probably no more than four hours a day. So I wake up super early in the morning, before my kids get up, because part of that time is me time, my self-care time. So I write in my journal at that time, I read, sometimes I do meditation and then I do some work. It's probably dedicated work one hour and then I go work out, which is still technically part of my work, I guess, but then after that it's only kids time and getting them ready for school. If it's during the summer, we have a specific schedule and I'll talk a little bit about that later on. But then, once the kids are at school, I have another specific time that I work. So this is another thing or another tip that I can give you, and this is regarding energy. So there is a period of time for me personally when I have the most energy, and it's normally around 10 o'clock in the morning, and this is what's called your biological prime time. And this is from a book from Chris Bailey. It's called the Productivity Project and if you want to be like super productive and get a lot of tips on that, I highly recommend that book. But he talks about this biological prime time where there are there may be more than one, but normally we have a time frame in the day where we have the most mental energy and physical energy. So for me it's around 10 to 10 am to 12 pm. So if I have a project, if I have something that is going to require a lot of my focus or a lot of my creativity, I will schedule that work during that time. Because what I was doing before was I was using that time to do stuff around the house, which you should not do. If you have energy mental energy, you have creativity and you're you feel inspired do some work, then Don't do laundry, don't pick stuff up around the house. I mean, right now it's kind of driving me crazy because there is the kids just started school. There's stuff all over the place. It looks like a frat house because there's tons of blankets downstairs in the living room. I can picture it all in my head because if I'm walking around I notice that there's clothes on the floor. I know it by the hamper. It's not in the hamper, it's right next to the hamper. The beds are not made. Something needs to be clean. I mean, the house is kind of a mess right now, but I am doing a podcast right now because it's that time of the day and I have the most energy and I can do my best work. So find out what that is for you. When do you have the most energy so you can do your best work in that time frame? And then you know when you create your schedule and your routine. You can identify another time during the day so you can actually do maintenance work, you know, like cleaning the bathroom or doing the laundry or even just going out and running errands. It doesn't need a lot of brain power. You don't need to feel inspired or energized or creative when you're, you know, doing laundry. So make sure that you identify that biological prime time for you. This took some time and it took some tracking, so I would you know track to see when it was that I felt the way that I wanted to feel to do my best work. So that is one of my biggest tips regarding energy. Okay, now let's move on to space, creating an environment where you can do your best work. So identify a place in your home where you can have, you know, whatever you need for your work. So if that's a laptop, if that's books, binders, files, have it in a dedicated space. Don't have just a little corner in your on your dining room table. That's not going to work, because that's usually something where you'll just be distracted. Because if, especially if you're like us, the kitchen and the dining room area is where we spend a lot of our time and you want to make sure you have a space for yourself where it's quiet, where you can actually close the door and you can have some privacy. So for us, we have a dedicated space in our bedroom. Unfortunately, when we moved, we lost our office, so we had to just make do. So we do have a space. It's not ideal, but we have a space where we have our desk, we have our computers and we have everything that we need to do our work. You also want to make it inviting. You want to make sure you declutter. You don't want to have a bunch of files and papers and books all over the place. You want to make sure it's a place where you're going to feel you're not going to feel distracted because you're seeing, oh, I need to clean this up or you know, you're going to have squirrel syndrome and just be like, oh wait, I forgot I needed to fill this form out. So just make sure that you, your space, your workspace, is clean and decluttered. I sometimes make the mistake of either using my laptop on my bed or on the couch and, yeah, sometimes there's something really quick that you just have to do and that's fine. But long term, you don't want to do that. First off, it's not great for your posture because you know you're not sitting well. You're probably curving your back when you're sitting on the couch or on your bed, especially. So if it's going to be something quick, yeah, you know you do what you got to do, but you always want to have, like, a really comfortable chair. I mean, you're probably going to be sitting in it for hours, especially if you're working remotely. You're going to be working eight hours, so you want to make sure that your, your chair is comfortable. So let's talk about time now. So one mistake that I made when I was actually I still do this. I'm still working progress, as you can tell. But when it comes to time and this goes back to, you know, creating that schedule and making sure that you identify the work hours that you're going to work, make sure it's not a long period of time I did this at the beginning, where, okay, the kids are at school from 8am to 3pm, like that's so much time I can do so much work. But what ended up happening was I was giving myself five hours to do work that I can do in one and a half to two hours. So I'm not going to be the most productive. I'm going to, you know, expand that work into five hours rather than condensing that. So then, those extra three hours that I get when I do my most productive work, I can use for something else. I can use it to do the laundry, or I can use it to just get it have a break, have a long lunch and just go and do whatever I want. So I'm just going to feel so much better that way. So I had to learn to go through that make sure that you know what. I'm going to work just three hours a day, which is super awesome, right? So being able to say I'm just going to work three hours, but actually working those three hours and not doing something else, so that I don't stretch it out where you know, I look at the clock and it's like, oh man, it's time to go pick up the kids and I didn't do anything. My other tip is have a dress code. Now, one of the perks of working from home, depending on what you're doing, is you can wear whatever you want. I mean, if you want to work in your PJs, have at it. If you want to work in, you know, your workout clothes, cool, I mean, nobody's going to tell you anything, but there's something psychological about that where you don't really Do productive work when you're in your PJs. So, you know, just pretend that. There's like address coding you. You know you wear jeans and a nice top or something. Or you know, wear something comfortable, but that you wouldn't mind going out to run errands. You know wearing that. So Getting out of your PJs or getting out of super comfortable clothes to do your work is going to help you do good work. All right, let's talk about breaks, because we all need breaks and I think even in between your work hours you should be having breaks. First off, it's it's good for you because you should be getting up from your seat at least Once every hour just to get your your blood flowing, because when you're sitting down you don't have a lot of circulation going on. And it's it's good for you to get up and move around and, you know, do whatever, taking a mental break. Sometimes we are working so hard that we can't even think straight because maybe we have been working a really long hours and Taking just, you know, five, ten minute break and then, coming back, you'll feel a little bit more refreshed and You'll get your body moving. Now, if you're a mom working from home and it is not the school year, it's during summer here are some tips that I have. It's really the same tips that I have for any other time of the year, but there's a little tweak to it. So, for me and the kids, the best way for me to work when they are here is For them to have a schedule. So I will work their schedule around mine so, for example, they wake up at a specific time and they will have, you know, certain things to do in the morning, like they'll watch some TV, they'll eat breakfast, they'll just hang out for a little bit and then they'll do some type of activity, whether, depending on the day, it's crafts or it's. We have like these little summer books where they can do some activities, some school activities, so they can keep their brains going, or It'll be something else, but then at a specific time they'll want to play. They'll either want to play video games or on their iPad. So when they start doing that, then that's my time to come into my room. I close my door and I can do this. I could do podcasts, I can do whatever other work that I still have to do that I didn't get to do in the morning before they got up. So when I'm done with that and they're done playing, we could actually spend some time together. We usually have lunch together and then we'll do something. We'll go get out of the house or whatever, but that has worked best for me. But I tried to keep them on a routine and on a schedule, even during the summer, and it doesn't mean they're not gonna have fun. They obviously do, because they're still playing, they're still doing stuff, but they still have a routine, so it's not a shock to go back into school for them and for me, all right. So, to recap, I went over a ton of things. I just want to go over them really quickly again. So we talked about creating a schedule. Identifying your work hours is really important before you do anything else. Then you want to have a good workspace, so having an environment for you to have not only your space, but some quiet and Having everything that you need right there in that space. You don't want to spread out your work in Too much time. You want to make yourself more productive by shortening that time so you can be really focused. You want to have the energy to do your best work, so identify your biological prime time. So what is that time during the day when you are going to be most productive, have the most energy, the most creativity and feel most inspired. Take breaks and Dress up a little bit. You don't want to be working in your PJs. You're not going to do your best work in your PJs unless you're, you know, pajama model. I don't know. All right, and that's all I have for you. So I hope that was helpful. I hope you can take some of these tips and create the best work environment for yourself from home, so that you can, you know, feel good about working at home and, you know, make it so that you're not working all the time, so that you can have time for work but then also have time for play. Thank you so much for listening. I really do appreciate you guys for tuning in every week to listen to me ranting about random stuff, but I do really hope they're helpful for you. I, you know, really love to share my tips on how to be more intentional and this is being really intentional about doing work from home, and I hope that you take some of this and apply it in your life and you know it does great for you. So take care and I'll see you next week.