5 Simple Strategies to Slay Your Schedule

by | May 6, 2019 | Entrepreneurship, Productivity, Time Management

I’ve been talking to a lot of people that work at home either for their jobs or as business owners lately that all seem to have the same challenge. Finding a groove to get things done and be productive. If you’ve always worked in the office and have transitioned to working from home, that’s a huge shift!

So many people dream about getting to work from home (WFH) and having the freedom to set your own schedule. You don’t have anyone looking over your shoulder all day. You can work in your pajamas. You don’t even have to shower!

But, it’s not always that easy, is it?

There are also all the temptations at home. There’s Wendy, HGTV, The Housewives. Maybe I’ll get a workout in. And I probably should do the laundry. And you look up, it’s time to pick up the kids, and the day is gone.

Trust me. I’ve worked at home for most of my adult life. I know the struggle — pre and post kids

I’m going to share with you what I have learned from over a decade of WFH.  I’ve created a guide to help you focus on what’s most important each day and to allocate your time to those things.  You can even see the tools that I personally use to master my day.

>>Get your FREE GUIDE to SLAY YOUR DAY!!<<

So without further ado, here my best tips for How to Get Stuff Done Like a Boss While Working From Home: 

  1. Protect your Prime Productive Hours. What time of day are you most energetic and creative? Is there a 2-3 hour window that you find, if left undisturbed, you can get in the zone and produce your best work? Those are your Prime Productive Hours. Be sure to block these off each day like you would any appointment and stick to it. Plan to do whatever requires your highest level thinking during this time.
  2. Don’t trust your memory. Our brains are on serious overload with all of the information we dump into it today. Between all of the kids’ schedules, our to-dos, what we take in online and on social media, and where did I put my keys again? That’s why it’s so important first to get it all out of our heads. When you get a thought of something you don’t want to forget, write it down. Or better yet, use a productivity tool that helps you keep up with your notes or you projects and tasks. My two favorites for these are Evernote (affiliate) and Todoist (affiliate – by using my link you get 2 free months of Todoist Premium). Both are free and have an option for a premium version if you want additional features.
  3. Eat the steak not the cow. It’s easy to overestimate how much we think we can get done in a day. I’m speaking to my list makers here. Especially once you start writing things down and using Todoist. It has some great tutorials on how to schedule your tasks and move them around if you don’t compete something when you schedule it. But word to the wise, try to schedule no more than 3 major tasks/projects (depending on the size) per day. If you can finish those and say to yourself and the end of the day that it was a good day, that’s a win!
  4. Leave breathing room. I highly recommend actually scheduling your day in a planner. I personally love the Smart Life PUSH Journal.  I block my day out with appointments, tasks, and projects. I even block my lunch so that I remember to eat. You know we forget to do that sometimes when we get in a groove. But that’s also my down time. That’s when I catch up on my Wendy Williams, Housewives, The Profit and HGTV on the DVR. One episode, skipping the commercials. That’s my timer. Then back to work. I also don’t schedule my work blocks too tightly together. I leave 15-30 minutes of white space between them to give myself breathing room in case I run over or just need creative or email catch up time.

5.  Give yourself grace. Working from home definitely takes discipline. The great thing is you don’t have someone looking over your shoulder to make sure you’re getting stuff done, but the bad part is you don’t have someone looking over your shoulder to make sure you’re getting stuff done. So there will be days when you will totally rock it and be amazed at how much you’ve accomplished in such short time. And there will be others when you’ll get stuck on one thing far longer than you expected. Cut yourself some slack. The goal is forward motion.

So there you have it — My Top 5 Ways to Simply Slay Your Schedule!  You can do this.  You can take control of your day.  And when you have a plan and everything floating around in your head has a place to go for when you’ll get it done, your brain can relax.  And guess what that brings you…

PEACE.  FREEDOM.  CREATIVITY.  FLOW.

And that’s when we do our best work.  That’s what I want for you.

So, go ahead and start taking control of your day.  To get started,

>>Get your FREE GUIDE to SLAY YOUR DAY!!<<

And if you’d like some help figuring out who you are as a brand and telling your brand story to attract and keep the perfect customers, let’s schedule a chat today.