Step by Step Guide of How to Love Where you Work
As a boss lady, most likely, you don’t have a place to call your “Work Home”. You probably work from your kitchen table, your bed, or your couch (hey, that’s where I am, right now!). While it’s really fun for the first week to be curled up and comfy in your top knot and stretchy yoga pants, you also start to wonder how it would feel to go out and look like your hot business self.
Turns out, when you feel good about how you look, you actually feel great about other parts of your life too! Some of the other effects of you feeling awesome are that you’re more productive, more confident, more inspired. Who doesn’t want more of that!?
Step 1. Get glammed.
This one has NOTHING to do with your work space but an important one none-the-less. When you work for yourself, it’s easy to pretend that the rest of the world doesn’t exist and you can just look like you don’t associate with other humans. But if you do this day in and day out, you begin to internalize it and it can change the way you feel about yourself and your self-worth. It’s possible to counteract this with some easy steps of making sure you have a routine. For example, take a shower. Get your hair cut. Wear clothes that you feel great in. Maybe add a touch of makeup, or not. And if you’re really up for the challenge, have a FaceTime chat instead of a regular phone call. Prove to your peers that you’re dressed for success!
Step 2. Clean up your work space.
Straighten up where you work. Find a place for your things and put them where they belong. Knowing that you can access things when you need them gives you peace of mind that you don’t have to dig around to find things. This also goes for your computer files as well. And remember to put things back in their homes after you finish using them!
Add things to your work space that give you reprieve and joy. Look for art that fits in your space or place fresh flowers on your desk. Remember, you work in your home so you need to maintain ways to love it and not resent being there. Having a few special items to make you smile will help you enjoy your work space. After all, you’re spending a lot of time there – might as well love it!
Step 3. Leave home.
Get out of your house. Whether it be to go for a walk or to go work from a different location, moving is a simple way to shift your perspective. If you’re feeling lonely at home and cranking out work, being in a place like a local coffee shop or a co-working space will allow you to be among people. Being around other productive people can have a positive impact on your own productivity. And hey, at least you had a good excuse to treat yourself to some coffee!
Step 4. Set up a Work Date
You have got to know somebody who is local to you and is also an entrepreneur or somebody who works from home. Set up a time to meet up at a coffee shop for a work date. The purpose of this kind of meeting is to get together and share a space, share a coffee and maybe a brief update on how each of you is doing, then spend the majority of the time working on independent projects. If you have things to work on together, set up meetings during the work date to address those things. It works well because you’ll be in the company of another person who you know and if you need to chat for a moment, you can. It’s the best of entrepreneurship and having an office colleague who you like!
With these few suggestions, you can create a functional mindset and home-office which will allow for optimum productivity and success. And remember, just because you work from home, doesn’t mean you can’t have a lunch date to break up the monotony. Be creative with your work space and schedule! After all, creativity is how you got to be where you are!
