Welcome to the world of working remotely. How’s it working out for you?
I’ve been working remotely for quite a while now and it’s been interesting to watch people trying to do it. It is a bigger challenge than you think. It takes more discipline than first expected.
The bottom line is you have to have the mindset of: “I’m going to work every morning.”
The three things that should be your mantra:
- Get up!
- Dress up!
- Show up!
By now, you’ve probably seen plenty of social media posts of people dressed from the waist up, keeping their shorts or pajama bottoms on.
Funny.
However, here’s the problem with that: your self-image and your attitude are influenced by how you are dressed. You should really be dressed for the occasion. Maybe one level above what your audience expects, whether they are in person or online.
Personally, if I know I don’t have any meetings scheduled, it’s easy for me to dress casually or truthfully super casual for the day. Meaning, weekend clothes and that might even mean yard working or outdoor hobby clothes. But, if I know I’ve got meetings or even a serious working agenda for the day, I’m dressing up for it. It’s what I call “doing the Full Monty” in the morning. Meaning shower, shave, and appropriately dressed, ready for meeting anyone. No shorts, flip flops or sloppy clothes. I’ll admit that this is pretty easy for me because I’ve been doing it for so long. Let me encourage you to get into this habit. Keeping your professional hat on so to speak is going to help keep up your attitude and focus.
Next thing is to have a dedicated work space. Make it look like a dedicated working space, even if it’s just a corner in your dining room. Figure this out. As it is right now, we’ll all be in our home working space for another four to eight weeks. Don’t be sloppy. There are some benefits of doing this:
- It is a space that when you walk into it, you’ll be mentally preparing yourself for work.
- When you walk out of it, you’ll be able to leave that work behind.
- If it’s a space you can close the door on, you can really close the door on it – both when you’re inside it and when you leave it.
Get in the habit of this. Oh, and don’t bring your cereal bowl to work with you in the morning. Go eat, brush your teeth, check your hair one more time, and come to work.
Finally, if you’re anticipating doing more online, face-to-face meetings on Zoom, FaceTime, or other similar platforms, then, for goodness sake, be conscious of your surroundings, especially your background. There have already been so many social media posts of some pretty funny incidents of people doing their online meetings. There has even been one where a lady took her phone into the bathroom and, well, you get the point. They’re all funny or a bit tragic in this lady’s case. The point is you don’t want to be “YouTube Famous.” Be conscious of your surroundings when you’re doing these calls and meetings.
We’re all going to be working like this for the next while. Let’s make the best of it and do our best at it.
Let me know how you’re doing.
Dave