1 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:06,840 Speaker 1: Welcome to How I Work, a show about the tactics 2 00:00:06,920 --> 00:00:09,280 Speaker 1: used by the world's most successful people to get so 3 00:00:09,440 --> 00:00:10,560 Speaker 1: much out of their day. 4 00:00:11,039 --> 00:00:12,800 Speaker 2: I'm your host, Doctor Amantha. 5 00:00:12,560 --> 00:00:17,760 Speaker 1: I'm an organizational psychologist, a founder of behavioral science consultancy Infantium, 6 00:00:18,079 --> 00:00:21,480 Speaker 1: and I'm obsessed with ways to optimize my work day. 7 00:00:22,280 --> 00:00:26,800 Speaker 1: Today's episode is another How I Work from Home episode, 8 00:00:26,880 --> 00:00:30,400 Speaker 1: and I imagine most listeners are probably a few weeks 9 00:00:30,440 --> 00:00:32,400 Speaker 1: into working from home now. 10 00:00:32,520 --> 00:00:35,680 Speaker 2: I know I am. At my company Inventium. 11 00:00:35,720 --> 00:00:39,200 Speaker 1: I think we're about three weeks into working one hundred 12 00:00:39,240 --> 00:00:44,239 Speaker 1: percent from home, which personally I'm loving. But what I 13 00:00:44,479 --> 00:00:47,559 Speaker 1: find a lot of people say, and what I experience myself, 14 00:00:47,640 --> 00:00:50,960 Speaker 1: is that maintaining boundaries between your work and non work 15 00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:54,160 Speaker 1: life can be so much harder when you work from home, 16 00:00:54,440 --> 00:00:57,440 Speaker 1: especially if your home office is in a space used 17 00:00:57,440 --> 00:01:00,960 Speaker 1: for non work activities like the kit or a living 18 00:01:01,040 --> 00:01:05,000 Speaker 1: room or bedroom. And at the end of your traditional 19 00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:08,440 Speaker 1: work day, it's so easy to leave your computer open, 20 00:01:08,760 --> 00:01:11,440 Speaker 1: grab some dinner, and then shuffle back to your laptop 21 00:01:11,560 --> 00:01:13,880 Speaker 1: because there's always one more. 22 00:01:13,800 --> 00:01:17,000 Speaker 2: Thing that you can be doing. But here's the thing 23 00:01:17,440 --> 00:01:19,680 Speaker 2: to do. Lists never end. 24 00:01:20,280 --> 00:01:23,520 Speaker 1: You will never have finished everything that there is to do, 25 00:01:23,600 --> 00:01:28,200 Speaker 1: because that's simply not how work works. There is always 26 00:01:28,280 --> 00:01:31,240 Speaker 1: another email to respond to, another report to complete, another 27 00:01:31,280 --> 00:01:36,080 Speaker 1: phone call to return. So to maintain boundaries between work 28 00:01:36,120 --> 00:01:39,080 Speaker 1: and home life when working from home, it's critical that 29 00:01:39,160 --> 00:01:43,679 Speaker 1: we deliberately shut down our day. Creating a shutdown ritual 30 00:01:43,680 --> 00:01:46,800 Speaker 1: for yourself makes it easier to create a clear distinction 31 00:01:46,920 --> 00:01:50,520 Speaker 1: between when your workday ends and when your non workday 32 00:01:50,640 --> 00:01:54,280 Speaker 1: or evening starts, and shutting down your date doesn't have 33 00:01:54,360 --> 00:01:57,080 Speaker 1: to take long, and in fact, the shorter your shutdown 34 00:01:57,160 --> 00:01:58,840 Speaker 1: ritual is, the more. 35 00:01:58,800 --> 00:01:59,960 Speaker 2: Likely it is to stick. 36 00:02:01,080 --> 00:02:03,880 Speaker 1: So an effective way to shut down your day is 37 00:02:03,920 --> 00:02:09,160 Speaker 1: to write two simple but very specific sentences. The first 38 00:02:09,200 --> 00:02:13,200 Speaker 1: sentence I recommend writing is today I made. 39 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:15,000 Speaker 2: Progress on dot dot dot. 40 00:02:15,360 --> 00:02:18,080 Speaker 1: And then simply write down the things that you made 41 00:02:18,120 --> 00:02:23,359 Speaker 1: meaningful progress on. It might be a report, a presentation, strategy, work, anything, really. 42 00:02:24,320 --> 00:02:28,880 Speaker 1: Research from Harvard professor Teresa Amarblay shows that making progress 43 00:02:28,880 --> 00:02:32,040 Speaker 1: on projects that matter is the biggest contributor to our 44 00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:33,840 Speaker 1: motivation and engagement at work. 45 00:02:34,280 --> 00:02:35,080 Speaker 2: But here's the thing. 46 00:02:35,680 --> 00:02:39,040 Speaker 1: When our at home workdays all blur together as they 47 00:02:39,080 --> 00:02:42,640 Speaker 1: have a habit of doing, we don't naturally stop and 48 00:02:42,680 --> 00:02:46,919 Speaker 1: reflect on the progress we've made. Asking yourself to deliberately 49 00:02:46,919 --> 00:02:49,960 Speaker 1: reflect on your daily progress will make you significantly happier 50 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:55,240 Speaker 1: at work. The second sentence to write is if I 51 00:02:55,800 --> 00:02:58,160 Speaker 1: get X done tomorrow. 52 00:02:57,760 --> 00:02:58,880 Speaker 2: It will be a great day. 53 00:03:00,120 --> 00:03:02,520 Speaker 1: It helps you focus on the most important thing you 54 00:03:02,560 --> 00:03:06,639 Speaker 1: need to achieve to make meaningful progress. It also eliminates 55 00:03:06,680 --> 00:03:09,720 Speaker 1: the overwhelm that can often characterize our day when we 56 00:03:09,760 --> 00:03:12,600 Speaker 1: have a million things we feel like we need to achieve. 57 00:03:13,639 --> 00:03:17,040 Speaker 1: So once you've identified this one thing, put it in 58 00:03:17,080 --> 00:03:21,080 Speaker 1: your diary for tomorrow, using a technique called timeboxing, which 59 00:03:21,160 --> 00:03:24,200 Speaker 1: basically means schedule a meeting with yourself in your diary 60 00:03:24,240 --> 00:03:27,919 Speaker 1: to do this activity. Because by scheduling in your diary, 61 00:03:27,919 --> 00:03:31,079 Speaker 1: it prevents coworkers from blocking out your time with their 62 00:03:31,200 --> 00:03:34,359 Speaker 1: needs and ensures that you can prioritize the most important 63 00:03:34,400 --> 00:03:37,640 Speaker 1: thing that you need to get done. So, to summarize 64 00:03:37,680 --> 00:03:41,760 Speaker 1: your shutdown ritual, complete these two sentences. Today I made 65 00:03:41,800 --> 00:03:44,440 Speaker 1: progress on and if I get EX on tomorrow, it 66 00:03:44,440 --> 00:03:47,640 Speaker 1: will be a great day. And by doing so, you'll 67 00:03:47,680 --> 00:03:50,400 Speaker 1: be well on the way to setting clear boundaries for 68 00:03:50,440 --> 00:03:53,600 Speaker 1: yourself and feeling a whole lot happier and focused during 69 00:03:53,720 --> 00:04:00,360 Speaker 1: your workdays. So that is it for today's show. I 70 00:04:00,360 --> 00:04:04,480 Speaker 1: hope that maybe you might try it with your workday today, 71 00:04:04,480 --> 00:04:06,240 Speaker 1: if you are listening to this episode and you're. 72 00:04:06,160 --> 00:04:08,200 Speaker 2: Right in the middle of your workday, perhaps and I 73 00:04:08,240 --> 00:04:09,120 Speaker 2: hope it helps you. 74 00:04:09,800 --> 00:04:13,560 Speaker 1: And of course, as usual, if you know somebody that 75 00:04:13,600 --> 00:04:17,160 Speaker 1: you think would enjoy this episode or enjoy how I work, 76 00:04:17,920 --> 00:04:20,800 Speaker 1: why not share it with them. That is one of 77 00:04:20,800 --> 00:04:24,520 Speaker 1: the ways that this podcast has grown, and we are 78 00:04:24,560 --> 00:04:28,359 Speaker 1: now really close to hitting almost one million downloads, which 79 00:04:28,360 --> 00:04:32,760 Speaker 1: blows my little mind. So that is it for today 80 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:35,160 Speaker 1: and I will see you next time.