Why your work from home routine might not be working

The new ‘normal’

I’ll be honest. I never thought I’d see the day when society as a whole would be forced to work from home. It was something I fought for many years ago for myself and my team. But today, under extreme and unfortunate reasons, everyone is adjusting to having work and personal lives collide.

I started working from home 5 years ago. I left a full-time job for contract and freelance work while I travelled. Among the number of reasons why I quit corporate work, having the flexibility to work wherever I wanted to was a big factor. I’m fortunate enough that my line of work allows me to have this choice. And even then it wasn’t widely accepted.

But now there are lots of tips out there as to how to adjust or to stay focus when transitioning to a work-from-home (WFH) set-up, of which I have my own.

But the lessons I learned on how to adjust aren’t lessons people typically talk about. It’s not always sunshine on a beach while relaxing with a mai tai (truth: no one is productive this way no matter how well you hold your liquors. No one.). No matter where you are working from — in your own home or an Airbnb — the best tips, tricks and hacks in the world might still have you facing some difficulties.

Here’s what I learned working from home is really about.

A practice of discipline and a real test of your level of procrastination

Let’s start with procrastination.

Let’s not leave it for later and tackle it head on, right now.

See, if there was an award for Best Procrastinator, I’d probably win, or at least be nominated every year. I am your classic procrastinator. Extension on a paper? Great! More reading time. Project delayed? Super! Let’s take a look at another one. Have one more drop of milk for that cup of tea? Awesome — let’s go to the shops tomorrow.

I’ve got this award in the bag.

The thing is, being in the office setting actually perpetuated procrastination for me. I was the fixer and the fireman – it was ‘stop, drop and roll’ when something went wrong and things often went wrong. But I was used to it. I even enjoyed the quick pace of it but it helped me justify and feed the Procrastination Beast inside of me because whenever I could, I chose anything else over the work.

Working from home made me face that beast. Why? Because work doesn’t flow the same way when you work at home. Neither does time. You may not notice it at first, but it will come. Work time, family time and your own private time begin to mix and mingle.

Then you’ll suddenly realize that you have to set boundaries. Some good hard boundaries and clearly drawn lines. And you know Procrastination can mess that up real good, real fast.

So, who do you call?

Discipline — procrastination’s arch-nemesis.

There are so many tips, tricks and apps out there to help you build a great and effective routine – to help you to stay focused throughout the day. But a classic procrastinator would know, and in the words of Jack Sparrow, ‘They’re more like guidelines.’ So long as I get what I need to get done, it’s all ok!

It’s all ok until you realize you have to stay up ’til 2AM to finish that one thing that you didn’t get to.

And that’s the rub. The only one that suffers from a lack of discipline is you. You compromise on your sleep, your mental wellness and your self-care. The one who takes the biggest hit is you.

Building the best routine or creating the nicest bullet journal layout only helps you to maintain the day-to-day but the one in control of its sustainability and success is looking back at you in the glow of your computer screen light.

So discipline isn’t just about your work, productivity or doing things that you don’t want to do. It’s very much tied to your health and wellbeing – to set boundaries that help you to take care of yourself, including your success, and to take care of others.

Now, discipline isn’t necessarily a word that conjures up sweet memories or make it into your list of goals. More often than not it’s used negatively to discipline a child or someone at work encountered disciplinary action.

But self-discipline — same species. Different animal.

What self-discipline leads to

Besides helping you to stick to your routine, there are some amazing side effects that discipline gives you.

Confidence.

Proving to yourself that you can accomplish so much stops you from getting off at Procrastination Station and detouring into Candyland for the Guilty (we’ve all been there).

At the end of the day when you realize that you’ve completed your work, finished laundry (folding included), baked those cookies with your kids, cooked dinner, worked out and watched an episode of The Witcher, you’ll feel like Wonder Woman. There’s nothing you can’t do!

Because…

Freedom.

That’s right. Freedom.

Working from home affords you certain freebies that the office doesn’t.

• You only need to be dressed to impress from the waist up.
• No one is peeking into your cubicle wondering if you’re done the report that was asked of you 5 minutes ago.
• Communicating over Slack means you get to go to the washroom whenever you want instead of being stopped in the hall with Chatty Cathy for an update when you’ve really gotta go.
• You can finally take that 20 min nap after lunch comfortably at your desk on your couch.

These definitely belong in the pros column.

But true freedom isn’t any of these things or the ability to choose what is on your to-do list or what you feel like doing right now. We all have responsibilities.

True freedom is going to sleep at night knowing you’ve done all you can for the day — you’ve kept your promises to others and more importantly, you’ve kept your promises to yourself.

Then comes…

Clarity.

And who doesn’t need a little clarity now and then? Transitioning from contract work to starting my own business, clarity was – and still is – so important. It helps me to stay on track and choose the right things to be doing each day to contribute to growing my business.

Once I started to really honour the schedule I made, I:

• Stayed on track with my goals.
• Understood more of what motivates me – the work I do and why I do it.
• Identified the work that was valuable and eliminated the work that wasn’t.

This just made my day go smoother and it became more enjoyable. And if I do decide that I’m going to shift my schedule around or stop working an hour earlier, I know I’m not falling behind. Because I choose what I do and how I spend my time intentionally.

That’s what working from home has given me – time to understand what I do and why I do it.

Believing you’re worth it.

‘I did my best,’ said no procrastinator ever. Let’s be real. If you did say it, deep down you know you’re lying to yourself. Then over time you really start to believe that’s about all you can do and you can never improve.

And I’m here to say, ‘Hogwash!’ (keepin’ it PG-13).

Look, I’m no self-discipline guru. Goodness knows I’m scratching the surface. It’s a conscious learning process every day. But I do know that a little bit of discipline goes a long way. It’s not just the confidence you build, but the mental toughness that comes with it.

It’s the will to not give in when something is hard. The will to forego that chocolate bar or to not open that new tab just to get sucked into the vortex called YouTube. The will to sit your butt down to get the work done so that you can spend guilt-free, stress-free time with whomever you want. Read that book in bed because you chose to!

Because ultimately, you’re worth the effort. Being productive, wanting to do more, knocking things off on your list – it’s not just about how and when you do them. It’s about why you’re doing them in the first place.

Discipline doesn’t seem like such a bad thing when serving yourself means you’re also serving others better.

Your turn!

What might your work from home routine not be working and how could you make it more effective for you? I welcome you to share it with me below.