What Works

Do what works.

More importantly, do what works for you.

Case Study on myself: I do not succeed when I try to do a little bit of everything, which working from home has tempted more than once.  This idea that I can work out for a little, then pivot to cleaning and starting some laundry,  then hop on some emails, then go back to working out, then try to clean up a bit more before a meeting - ick. I can feel the anxiety rising in me as I write this.

I’m harried when I do this.  I’m irritable and feel like I did nothing but run in place all day. Nothing seems to be quite finished.  Laundry is almost folded but not put away.  A workout was half done because I’m able to pause my instructor, and I spent half the day with no makeup on and my hair shoved into a bun.  Breakfast was made but not cleaned up.  And emails were responded to but larger projects were stared at but not started.  

I fail when I try to do a little bit of everything.  This does not work for me. 

What works for me is scheduling and completion.  A workout is done in the morning, after coffee is made; I workout, take a shower, get ready for the day.  I am ready and move to emails and morning meetings, giving each thing their respected energy and needed time to finish.  If I have larger ideas to work out, I write them down on a post it note and don’t open my Outlook until they are completed.  I take large breaks for breakfast  and lunch.  Country and I go to the dog park for an hour.  When the workday is winding down, I focus on the house.  

My assistant was feeling overwhelmed a few weeks ago to the point that she wrote out an SOP for herself to follow - scheduling throughout the week the most important priorities she knows she must get done before she does anything else.  

And I realized by talking to her that so much has changed this past year.  We are both working out of our houses and our offices now live with us.  If I don’t schedule myself, it is the first place I go after I start the coffee and the last place I leave.  Without even thinking about it, I am now starting work at 6:45am and don’t truly stop until about 7:30 or 8.  The lack of being scheduled or “at an office” has blurred the lines of time and space.  

We both talked about needing to schedule work hours for ourselves; focused and intent on our role within that time so we can free the rest of the day up for all the other things we are wanting to do.  

Like me, trying to do everything all at the same time was not working for her.  She was dropping the ball and  forgetting projects and instead of feeling free with her lack of commute and ability to work from her bedroom, she felt more confined  to her desk and less accomplished.  She was spending  more time “working” than  she had before yet was doing “less”.  Inefficiency had become a by-product of working from home.

My son, who is in third grade, is his class representative in the Student Council.  The first Wednesday of every month is their Zoom meeting, full of information that my son needs to remember and present to his class that day.  I prepped him with what works for me - note taking.  I am an  AVID note taker.  

The Zoom came on and I watched as my normally attentive son was so plagued with the stress of note taking that he broke down halfway through the meeting.  For him, note taking was like dictation - he was literally trying to write every single word spoken, and  was falling behind the conversation.  Note taking for him was an absolute burden.  It didn’t work for him.

The next month, we changed it up.  No note taking, just listening.  Be present.  Ask questions.  That meeting he not only remembered every detail, he was constantly asking questions  and coming up with ideas for the month’s events and fun dress up days.  Listening works for him.  If he had continued to try note taking, he would have continued to fail.  One small tweak out of something that didn’t work into something that did changed the  results exponentially.  

Do what works for YOU.  Take a step back and think about last week, last month, this past year.  What has worked that you will keep?  What hasn’t worked  that you can thank and let go of?  What works - keep doing.

What doesn’t work - stop doing.

It’s a liberating idea, really, when you think of it.