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Fran Stephenson March 19, 2020 Leave a Comment

Work From Home: Sharing Our Virtual Team’s Daily Tips

New to working from home? We’re not! Our team is virtual and geographically dispersed across three time zones! And we have spouses, kids and fur babies in the mix too!  Earlier this week, we shared our top tips on Working from Home on our Facebook page . We got a lot of positive feedback on them, so we have combined them here into a brief bulleted list.  Questions? Ask away and we’ll do our best to help.

Fran Stephenson, Texas

10 years in a Home Office

  • Use the time chunking method
  • Minimize distractions like answering the door, picking up mail, etc.
  • Be aware of how much you are sitting and change position/location frequently
  • Don’t forget to eat lunch.

Jennifer Hatton, Colorado

9 Years in a Home Office

  • Prep family lunches and snacks the night before
  • Use an app like boomerang for reminders
  • Be realistic about “to do” lists
  • Use a planner for “All the Things”
  • Set time blocks for working and schedule things for my kids.
  • Be flexible to change up kids activities as needed
  • Your pets will tell you when it’s time to take breaks!
  • Set up a place to work, even if it’s small. Make it pretty!

Brittany Perry, Texas

5 Years in a Home Office

  • Shower and get dressed every morning, even if you’re not going anywhere
  • Make your work station personal – candles and an awesome playlist are my faves.
  • Take breaks and spend intentional time with your family.
  • Family communication is important too. Check in with everyone.

Claire Larson, Maine

6 Years in a Home Office

  • Doors are your friends. Everyone needs some space. 
  • If you can, get your kids outside in the yard or driveway, in a space where you can still see them. Set rules for when yard time is up.
  • Be creative with phone meeting locations – I’ve used the shower and a closet in a pinch.
  • Use an online calendar to help structure your day and schedule your tasks into time blocks.
  • Give yourself a start and end time to your work – you now live in your office and have to create boundaries for yourself (and others)

Most Valuable Takeaways

  • A space with a door, but improvising works too
  • Routines but with flexibility
  • Organize, organize, organize

Final Thoughts

Our virtual team is amazingly productive and so flexible. We cover for each other when someone has a sick child, a family emergency or just needs down time.  When your team is this fabulous, it’s easy to take them for granted. I try to find unique ways to connect with these three valuable women. We’ve sent care packages with themes like “it’s time for Fiesta” and “Summer Survival Kits” and check in via text and call.  Memes keep us laughing too.

Are these coworkers amazing or what?

Filed Under: Professional Life, Project Management

Fran Stephenson April 12, 2019 Leave a Comment

Time for Digital Spring Cleaning

Are you a digital hoarder? I know I am.  I save news stories to read in Facebook later (and never do), I have an RSS reader with dozens of blogs rolling up just waiting for me to read it and yet, I can never find anything.  I just got a new laptop, so it was a great time to do some digital clean up.   

Here are 5 things I’ve done this month to free myself from the digital clutter.

Purge Client Files

It’s so rare to go back to a former client files to retrieve anything, so get them off your desktop and file them in Dropbox or somewhere else in the cloud under one folder called Archive.  I usually save all work from clients for a year, but delete the email folder for that client after three months.

Save the Good Stuff

Before you go crazy and start deleting, is there one thing or a couple of things that you might use as a sample later on or as a guide to format another clients’ communication need? File it on your desktop in a new file called Samples. I started this about a year ago and it’s made building new powerpoint presentations and sharing templates for editorial calendars or other work so much easier.

Filter Content

I am overwhelmed with the number of stories I should be reading to keep current in my field. For the digital stuff, I roll blogs and news feeds into Feedly into categories that are important to my client work and to my learning.  The trick is, to go in and purge the feeds out when you no longer need them.  Done with the client in a specific industry? Trim it down.

And all those newsletter subscriptions? If you’re not already using Unroll.me, you’re missing out. IT’s an add on that puts every newsletter to which you subscribe into ONE. DAILY. EMAIL.  Since I’m now getting a thousand or more of these things, it’s the only way to get your head above water.

If they are so valuable that you want to save it for later, start a Diigo library and keep them all in one place.

Update your Profiles

Now is a good time to check your Twitter Bio, your “about” section on Facebook and your Linked In headline.  I would recommend you get new headshots too, but that would just be crazy talk! (It takes me forever to change out headshots. No good reason)

Check Your Privacy Settings

I almost never do this, but this recent story in the Washington Post with EXACT Instructions on a couple of things made it easy. Took me five minutes. Do it now to clear advertising clutter out of your feeds!

Filed Under: Project Management, Uncategorized

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