Facing Challenges While Working From Home

We are now living in a time where working from home is becoming the norm and for those entrepreneurs who have ventured into this space years ago, we know the freedom as well as the challenges that come with it.

Do you have a winning mindset to succeed as an entrepreneur who works from home?

While working from home is a bonus but it comes with many distractions there was a time where getting out of the house to go to your favorite coffee shop was a bonus, but our current state of life has brought us into our homes for work as well as play.

The first thing in overcoming challenges and staying productive is to have a schedule, not just any schedule you have to know how you are wired. I’ve tried so many different calendar apps and management tools and for me some of them just don’t work, regardless of how they may have all of the bells and whistles.

So the first step to getting productive is to find out what part of your day or evening are you the most productive. Is it early in the morning around 6 or 7 am before the rest of the house gets up, or is it late at night when everyone is sound asleep.

The era that we are now living in is you have to find what works for you and your schedule so you’re not burnt out and overwhelmed. One of the tools I use is Trello. I love this tool for creating boards based on my projects and what I am working on. Take a look by viewing the video below.

Here is a list of productivity tools to choose from pick the ones that work for you.

PromoRepublic is a tool that I utilize for scheduling all of my social media accounts in one place, with this tool I am able to create the perfect social media post from their design editor or choose from thousands of premade templates.
Acuity Scheduler is a tool that I use to schedule my podcast guest or potential clients for coaching or website design projects.
Trello a tool that utilizes boards for project work and much more.
Canva is a tool for those who don’t have design experience and want to have a professional look to their social media platforms, Canva has a free and Premium service that has loads of options to assist that your social media content stands out.
Freedcamp is a tool that gives unlimited storage for any number of projects to your whole team for free.
Slack is a collaboration hub that can replace email to help you and your team work together seamlessly. It’s designed to support the way people naturally work together, so you can collaborate with people online as efficiently as you do face-to-face.
Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars

Time To Organize

Now that you have some tools in place the next thing you need to do is set your schedule when will you work:

Morning
Afternoon
Evening
Late Night
What project will you be working on?
How many components to the project?
How will it take to complete the project?
Do you need your team or va to be involved in the process?
What will be the direct goal of completing the project?
Increase leads
Increase awareness of your brand
Increase engagement
Increase signups
Increase views (that have a CTA (call to action)

Putting Your Plan In Place

Now that you have some idea of what you need to work on and the goals attached to it, the next thing is getting it scheduled on your editorial calendar. I must say this again if you try to follow a method just because it’s popular but it doesn’t work for you. What you are doing is wasting time and slowing down your productivity.

If you know you need to knock out some video content, begin to plan it out so when you’re ready to record you have your plan all written out the same with podcasting.

Topic of video or podcast
Who the content is for
What the content will help the end user with
Why should they take your advice (ex….because you’ve gone through the hurdles and found the solution and now you want to help them through their journey.
Where they can find more of your content (website, social media platform)

Creating Your Social Media Calendar

The next thing is to create your social media calendar, you have to create structure around your daily work tasks or you won’t be motivated and you will get easily distracted.

One of the challenges I faced in the beginning of work at home was try to think of what to post on social media every day, it became exhausting and overwhelming to say the least. What I determined for myself and my business is:

What type of content do I want to provide to my audience
How often do I want to provide it
Will I be satisfied with putting out subpar content mon-fri
Will I pride myself on putting out great content on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.

One thing I learned about myself and some entrepreneurs who I follow, some of them are not posting everyday on social media or putting out a Youtube videos everyday or writing a blog post everyday, however when they do put out content it’s fresh it’s relevant and it’s something I can save to go back to because it is so filled with key points that I want to bookmark it.

That’s what will separate you from those who are killing themselves trying to make their business relatable.

Being an entrepreneur is about sharing your experiences and what has helped you in getting over hurdles in your life as well as sharing your expertise, skill set, design savvy, or whatever that maybe.

When I wanted to start a business from home it was because I wanted to have more time with my family and have an income to enjoy my life. Not become frustrated trying to grow a business and be so overwhelmed with the process that I wanted to go back to a 9-5.

You and I are now living in an era where that may become the new norm and you need to know your working style so you can see your business grow and see your productivity increase in the process.

Turning off Notifications

When you were your job depending on your occupation you weren’t distracted by the gadgets you have at your home, you probably worked within a software where you served clients or filled orders so the distractions were limited.

Now that your home you’re going to have to strategize in how to keep those distractions at bay so you can get your work done and meet your business goals and objectives.

Turn off all phone & desktop notifications use Slack when working on projects with clients or teams/va so you don’t get distracted by your emails.

If working online, work within one tab unless you are doing research and need more than one tab open.

Put on some upbeat jazz or instrumental music on (this helps me to get really focused and I get a good amount of work done)

Work in a clean work space, not everyone has the luxury to have a dedicated home office, wherever that work space is make sure it is organized so you can get into the mindset of being productive, put a plant in that area, plants give off oxygen and gives a nice aesthetic, I love the smell of a clean cotton candle it just put me into work mode.

Whatever motivates you be sure to put it around your workspace and you will be amazed at how productive you will become.

But Everyone’s Home

I know the family is home and a new challenge presents itself, especially for those parents who are new to homeschooling and this is where organization comes into play. I know it’s challenging especially with the quarantine being in place. Depending on the age group of your children try and plan some activities into their school work schedule.

If you have a backyard utilize this space for exercise and outdoor activities, for those who live in an apartment building find exercise or dance videos on youtube to give the kids a break.

Also incorporate art time and home ec activities, teach the kids how to bake bread or muffins and have them to go with dinner.

There are many things you can do to prepare your home to be a place of productivity for yourself as well as your family. It just takes some preparation and sticktoitness to get the job done.

Stay safe, take care of yourself and your family as you build a business that equips others along their journey.

Michele