Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to celebrate what you've done, Especially when
Speaker 1: you're working from home and not commuting anywhere. It can
Speaker 1: be easy to feel like you haven't done much of anything,
Speaker 1: but you probably have so best to notice that. When
Speaker 1: I first began working from home almost twenty years ago,
Speaker 1: I found the switch from an office job disorienting. I
Speaker 1: was used to getting up and getting into fancy clothes
Speaker 1: and then taking a train and two buses to get
Speaker 1: to work. As you might imagine, that process had to
Speaker 1: be reversed to get home. Moving myself around so much
Speaker 1: meant that by evening, whatever else had happened that day,
Speaker 1: I'd feel like I'd done a lot, and then suddenly
Speaker 1: I wasn't going much of anywhere. Not only that, no
Speaker 1: one was monitoring when I started working or when I stopped.
Speaker 1: If I didn't get much done on any particular day,
Speaker 1: there was absolutely no hiding that fact from myself. Eventually
Speaker 1: I got better at the rhythms of daily life, but
Speaker 1: one thing that helped me feel productive is learning to
Speaker 1: make challenging but doable task lists for each day and
Speaker 1: then making sure I ended the day with everything crossed off.
Speaker 1: If I did something that wasn't on the task list,
Speaker 1: I'd write it after doing it, and then I'd cross
Speaker 1: it off. I know that sounds silly, and yes it
Speaker 1: is kind of silly, but the crossing off was important
Speaker 1: for me mentally. It was my way of celebrating what
Speaker 1: I'd done. Crossing items off a list is one approach,
Speaker 1: but you can also just go straight to the celebration
Speaker 1: part at the end of the day. Get in the
Speaker 1: habit of listing the tasks you've accomplished. You might call
Speaker 1: this your done lists, or even if you want to
Speaker 1: be cute, a two done list, not just a to
Speaker 1: do list. If you've got a supervisor, this would make
Speaker 1: a great end of day email. Your supervisor can't read
Speaker 1: your mind, and it's harder to keep tabs on things
Speaker 1: with remote workers. This done list keeps you accountable. Let's
Speaker 1: your manager give you feedback and let's be honest. Will
Speaker 1: likely lead to a great job note that will help
Speaker 1: you in the day well too. You can share your
Speaker 1: list with team members as well, not so much for
Speaker 1: seeking validation as just to keep everyone up to date.
Speaker 1: They'll probably share what they've done with you, which you
Speaker 1: can applaud. If you've got direct reports, you might ask
Speaker 1: them to send you a done list so you can
Speaker 1: keep tabs on what's going on and give them lots
Speaker 1: of high fives as well. This habit does a couple
Speaker 1: of good things. First, it keeps everyone focused on what's
Speaker 1: getting done. Sometimes we can measure work days and hours,
Speaker 1: as in I put in my eight, but honestly, who
Speaker 1: cares about the time. What usually matters is what you
Speaker 1: did with it. A done list keeps you accountable for results.
Speaker 1: It can also make you feel really good. There are
Speaker 1: always things you've done, even if it's not necessarily what
Speaker 1: you intended to do at the beginning of the day.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we can get derailed from our to do lists,
Speaker 1: but we never get derailed from our done list because well,
Speaker 1: it's in the past. If you are supposed to do
Speaker 1: eight things and you did five of them but did
Speaker 1: five other things, well you may need to work on
Speaker 1: your to do list making skills, but there is no
Speaker 1: reason not to celebrate the ten things that did happen.
Speaker 1: And finally, creating a done list is a great way
Speaker 1: to end the day. Once you've listed what you've done.
Speaker 1: You can actually be done when you work from home
Speaker 1: and don't have an end of day commute, creating a
Speaker 1: boundary around work. This can be a smart way to
Speaker 1: create such a boundary. You think back over the day,
Speaker 1: you celebrate all the good stuff you made happen, and
Speaker 1: then you can shut down your laptop and move on
Speaker 1: to the rest of your life. So, if you are
Speaker 1: looking for a way to make work from home days
Speaker 1: feel more productive, try making a done list. You just
Speaker 1: might surprise yourself with how good it feels. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. M m Hey everybody, I'd
Speaker 1: love to hear from you. You can send me your tips,
Speaker 1: your questions, or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook,
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod that's b the number four,
Speaker 1: then breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me
Speaker 1: an email at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media
Speaker 1: dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all
Speaker 1: the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward to staying
Speaker 1: in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I
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