WORKBOOK

Working Productively from Home

April 2020

FACILITATOR
Louise Mc Namara
WORKING PRODUCTIVELY FROM HOMW
2.5 hours

Learn how to manage yourself to achieve all the things you never seem to have time for,
With the added complication of working from homw

PROGRAMME OBJECTIVES
At the end of this programme, participants will be able to recognise and manage their relationship with time and
productivity, prioritise tasks and develop a personal action plan to manage their time more successfully.

PROGRAMME CONTENT
Working from Home
- The challenge and opportunity
- Your experiences
- Minds set & techniques

Prioritising and Planning

Prioritising using the urgent/important matrix

Planning cascade system
Key areas of responsibility
Weekly schedule
Daily to do list

Time Eaters
Time stealers
Interruptions
Chasing other people

Time management tips

30 ways to save more time
Tips for remote meetings
Technology tips (email, internet, smart phones, apps, calendar, address book contacts)
Solutions to time eaters

Personal action plan

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 INTRODUCTION
THE HARD FACTS ABOUT TIME:

FACTS

Cannot buy time

Cannot stop it flying by

When it’s gone … it’s gone forever!

We all have the same 1440 minutes in a day

Greatest Benefit Exercise

List below all the things that if you did do them, would give you the biggest pay off
In your personal life
In your business life

PERSONAL LIFE WORK LIFE

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PRIORITY MATRIX

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YOUR PRIORITY MATRIX

“The things that matter most must not be at the mercy

of the things that matter least.”

- Goethe

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PLANNING CASCADE

“By failing to plan … we are planning to fail.”

“Proper Prior Planning Prevents Poor

Performance”

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SETTING & ACHIEVING EFFECTIVE GOALS:
Often they fail because they are not SMART!

S
M
A
R
T
A
S
Goals should also be:
Individual, when individual performance is to be measured
Shared when a Team Effort is required
Agreed – and where possible SELF SET

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7 KEY AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY

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DAILY TO DO LIST
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday (circle one)

Key tasks Calls

! "

! "

! "

! "

! "

! "

! Emails / Texts

! #

! #

! #

! #

Other tasks

! !

! !

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SCHEDULE REAL TIME FOR HIGH-PRIORITY INITIATIVES
From Harvard Business Review Management Tip of the Day
If your calendar is like most, it is packed to the gills. Between regular, mandatory meetings, meetings you or
your boss calls, and interactions with customers, there can be little time to think or plan. This means that
high-priority projects often end up getting the short shrift. Instead of figuring out what on your calendar
can go, start over, and build your schedule from the ground up. Figure out how much time the most
important projects need and block it off. You may not know now how you will use that time now but if you
don't save it, you'll lose it. Then, add in mandatory meetings that have value, such as decision-making
meetings or customer visits. For those recurring meetings that don't make the cut, ask yourself whether
they need to happen, and you have to be there.
Adapted from "Is Your Calendar Managing You?" by Ron Ashkenas.
Find Your Extra Time
Crises and special events force us to find "extra" time in our day for crucial tasks. In an ordinary week,
however, those hours are buried in unnecessary meetings, interruptions, and inefficiency. Don't wait for the
next emergency. Here are two ways to regain wasted time:
Analyse your calendar. Look back at the last month. Which meetings were truly needed to
advance your goals? Then look forward at the coming month and eliminate ones that you can
bypass without any consequence.
Ask for feedback. Our worst time-wasting activities are often invisible to us. Ask direct reports
and peers to identify tasks that you could do less often or stop altogether.
Adapted from "Add an Hour to Your Day" by Ron Ashkenas.

Four Tips for Managing Your Energy, Not Your Time

With organisations demanding more and more from their people these days, time-pressed employees have
to scramble to keep up. You may not be able to make the day any longer, but you can replenish your
energy. Use these four simple tips to help you work smarter and prevent burn out:
1. Take brief but regular breaks. Step away from your desk every 90 to 120 minutes. Take a walk,
get a drink, or just stretch your legs.
2. Say thank you. Being positive boosts your energy level. Regularly express appreciation to others.
3. Reduce interruptions. Perform tasks that need concentration away from phones and email.
Instead, designate specific times in your day to respond to messages.
4. Do what you love. Understand where your strengths lie and what you enjoy doing. Find ways to
do more of those things and less of what tires you out.
Adapted from HBR's 10 Must Reads on Managing Yourself.

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Three Tips to Avoid Wasting Time Online
If you are like most internet users, you've probably chastised yourself for wasting time on the web.
Research has shown that our brains enjoy being distracted and that the internet feeds that distraction
happily. To avoid wasting time online, try these three things:
1. Stay healthy. Getting rest and eating right makes your brain less prone to distraction.
2. Avoid known time wasters. If you've wasted too much time already on a blog or forum, don't go
there again. Or, set limits on your time there.
3. Work smart. Working long hours can tire your brain and make you more likely to seek out
distraction. If you have to put in a long day, schedule breaks in advance and know what you will do
with that time.
Adapted from "Why the Internet Is So Distracting (And What You Can Do About It)" by Jeff Stibel.

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FINDING TIME FOR QUADRANT 2
Time Eaters:

PART ONE 5 minutes

List below your personal Time Management problems.
Some typical ‘time eaters’ or ‘wasters’ are?

Interruptions - unnecessary meetings - on the telephone - visitors -

the boss - staff problems - shortage of staff - personnel
disorganisation - chasing people - poor resources - poor
communication - changing priorities and deadlines - day dreaming -
procrastination.

PART TWO 10 minutes

Compare notes with other members of your group and produce a syndicate list on a flipchart of
the 6 most common points.

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HIGH LEVERAGE TASKS

TRAINING
What training could be carried out which would release more time for you?

PLANNING
What aspects of your job could benefit from more effective planning?

‘Planning is of no use at all unless it eventually degenerates into work’

SYSTEMS
What personal/organisation systems relating to your position need reviewing?

BUILDING AND MAINTAINING RELATIONSHIPS

Where should relationships be forged/maintained/improved with a view to improved efficiency?
(Customers, suppliers, colleagues, team/staff members)

SETTING/AGREEING OBJECTIVES
How effective are your own objectives and those that you set for your team/staff members?

DELEGATING
What aspects of your job can be delegated?

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WAYS TO MAKE MORE TIME
Tick any that are applicable to you in your current job and possible action to rectify.
Tick if
Comment/Action to Take
Applicable

Preparation and Organisation

Keep a tidy desk.

Use a master list rather than post-it

notes or pieces of paper to write down
to-dos, file papers away that you need
to work on later but not before you’ve
noted them on your master to do list

Be conscious of time.

Keep a daily to-do list.

Delegate where you can.

Question relevance of jobs that are not

yours.

Be assertive - but stay positive.

Set realistic deadlines.

Interruptions

Give yourself private time.

Decide who really needs access to you

at all times.

Turn off ‘new message’ notifications in

your email.

Ask why the person has come to see

you.

Encourage your people to suggest

solutions to their own problems.

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 Try standing up when someone comes
in to your office.

Keep some to-do’s ready to give to

someone who habitually drops in to
your office for a chat

Be ruthless with time and gracious with

people.

Suggest a later meeting.

16. Meet in their office.

Perch on the edge of the desk.

Save small talk for later.

Do not waste other people’s time.

Meetings

If holding meetings - plan set

objectives, agendas - stick to time

Do not allow interruptions.

The Telephone

Use voicemail and call forwarding

Make calls in blocks.

Prepare for your calls.

Be aware of time passing. Set your

phone to show the duration of the call.

Office Systems

Finish one job before you start the

next.

Spend 5 minutes planning your day.

Handle each piece of paper once.

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 Put a clock where everyone can see it.

Technology

In the morning, only check your email

after you have set your priorities for
the day

Write succinct email messages with

clear subject lines and encourage
others to do the same.

Use your email software features to

set up smart rules and filters.

Clear out your inbox and keep it clean

Use these 3 steps:

Delete, respond (if <2 mins) or file
(with flags)

Don’t send unnecessary emails to

others—you’ll probably receive fewer
in return

Use your Contacts or Address Book

software to manage your contacts and
keep notes of important meetings or
phone calls

Check your emails several times a

day—but not all the time

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SOLUTIONS TO ‘TIME EATING’ PROBLEMS
In your syndicate groups, identify possible solutions to the time management problems listed on the
flipchart.

1. 2.

3. 4.

5. 6.

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HANDLING INTERRUPTIONS
96 Minutes of Daily Interruptions
A diary study of employees at a multinational company found that just 73% of R&D engineers' planned
tasks, on average, were completed by the end of the work day. 58% of the engineers cited interruptions as
the reason for leaving tasks incomplete, and their reported daily interruptions (such as colleagues asking
questions) averaged 96 minutes. Although urgent tasks tended to be completed, the researchers, led by
Brigitte J.C. Claessens of Technische Universiteit Eindhoven in the Netherlands, found that less-important
tasks were somewhat more likely to be completed than more-important tasks.
Source: Things to Do Today...: A Daily Diary Study on Task Completion at Work

Why are interruptions a problem?

disrupt concentration
stop you achieving deadlines
Once you have identified the causes, the solutions may become apparent.
Technical Expertise - The Problem Solver
It may be easier for people to come to you rather than solve their own problems. Consider passing on your
knowledge and expertise through training. Also, be more assertive as you may be thought of as “the soft
touch”.
Seeking Clarification
It is important people can ask for clarification of instructions and information given. Look at ways of
improving communications. A little extra time spent preparing a memo can save lots of time later.
Reporting Structures
When dealing with a lot of people it may be necessary to delegate certain responsibilities and review the
lines of communication to reduce the amount of people reporting directly to you.
Colour Code System
Dividing your time into two or three parts can enable you to handle interruptions more effectively.
Red time - No interruptions
Amber time Urgent interruptions only
Green time - Available for interruptions

The system can only work if sufficient time is allowed for ‘Green time’ so that people can consult you on a
regular basis. It may be that only two hours a day can be Red or Amber time but at least this would allow
for demanding tasks to be tackled during this period.
Schedule your most important work first thing in the morning, when you have more energy and are more
alert. This is a good time for ‘red’ time – no interruptions.
How can you achieve this?

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INTERRUPTIONS LOG
Logging interruptions over a period of two or three days can
identify the cause of many lost hours. This can be the first step in
deciding a strategy for eliminating or reducing unnecessary
interruptions.

TIME AND
WHO SUBJECT APPROPRIATENESS ACTION
DURATION

It is impossible to eradicate all interruptions but working time can be improved by controlling them.

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CHASING FOR INFORMATION – WHO HOLDS YOU UP?
How to handle people who always hold up your jobs
Here are some options to consider:
Involve them in setting joint objectives. This should increase their commitment.
Let them see you write down agreed objectives, time spans.
Send them reminder notes or make courtesy reminder calls.
Discuss consequences to the organisation if the deadline is missed.
Send a memo to them stating the direction you in to take unless you receive the information requested.
If it is part of their responsibility, they may now take action.
Remember whenever dealing with colleagues: Be Ruthless with time, Gracious with People

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TECHNOLOGY
Tips for Controlling Email

For you as an individual

Decide when to check your email
Check your email periodically rather than continually (this is more efficient)
How often will depend on your job
Switch off the “new email” alert
Manage your emails using the ‘3D’ rule
Delete anything that is irrelevant or not needed
Deal - take action if you can deal with the email in less than 2 minutes
Delay - add email to a follow up action folder if it will take more time – don’t forget to check this folder
regularly – and add it to your to do list
Attach only if necessary
Use hyperlinks to documents if they are on a shared network drive rather than attaching them
Use rules
Set up rules to automatically move incoming emails to appropriate folders by subject matter or sender
Use abbreviations
FYI = for your information
FYA = for your action
RES = a response to something previous
QM = just a quick message - this could be limited to just the subject line
EOM = end of message – type this at end of message if just the subject line

For when you are responsible for other people

Train staff in good practice
It’s easy to assume that everyone knows how to use email, so it may not even appear on the induction
checklist for new starters
Ensure people know how to set up new folders so they can organise their emails systematically
Email and electronic calendars or diaries should be integrated so the emailed agenda and relevant
papers are saved with the appointment reminder
Decide who is responsible for email training – HR, IT, or both? It’s more cost-effective to host a
workshop for 12-20 people with an external trainer than send staff on external courses

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Provide on-going support
Initial training is good but make sure follow-up help and support is available, either through refresher
courses (30 minutes after lunch can make significant changes to email stress levels) or by offering at
desk support.
It’s worth identifying an email champion or “guru” for each team to provide peer support, rather than
relying on HR or IT staff. You often find that someone in a team has learnt some good habits for
managing their own email. Encourage them to share their knowledge and make sure their line manager
supports them in this role.
Establish email protocol
Develop brief guidelines on when to use email. Sometimes a phone call or face-to-face discussion is
more appropriate, knowing how easily an email can be misinterpreted. Include information on when and
who to copy in.
Limit group emails
Many inboxes get cluttered with “all staff” circular emails.
For legitimate use of the “all staff” address (such as for urgent messages), encourage people to use
expiry options for time-limited messages. That way the email is deleted before it’s even seen if people
are away, so they don’t have the frustration of ploughing through and deleting redundant messages.
Enable email archiving
One source of email stress is the fear of losing that one really important email. So, people often keep
everything “just in case”. This can mean a huge inbox or lots of separate folders.
Check that users know how to archive emails to keep them in their organised folders by date order.
Archiving also reduces the network load and the risk that your mailbox cannot accept new emails.

Key points
Resist checking emails continually (turn that message alert off!). Instead, set aside a certain time each
day and respond with the “3D” rule – delete, deal or delay.
Use your rules settings to file messages automatically and encourage everyone to use the
abbreviations FYI, FYA, RES, QM and EOM.
Don’t assume that everyone knows how to use email. Include training in your induction schedules and
encourage knowledge sharing in teams through “email gurus”.
Establish guidelines in good email practice for everyone to refer to.

Adapted from CIPD article by Peter Kenworthy, Three Dimensional Human Resources

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TIME MANAGEMENT – TECHNOLOGY TIPS
The following are some tips if you use Microsoft Outlook:

Folder Organisation
Mirror folder structure between paper files and computer files and
Outlook personal folders.
Minimise the number of ‘collection points’ you have (papers, handwritten
notes, ideas, printouts, business cards, letters, notepads, post-it notes,
email etc.). E.g. create a paper inbox, keep a paper notepad, use the Task list
in Outlook, also email and voicemail.

Calendar
Use one calendar for all your appointments or else separate calendars side by side.
Label your appointments in Calendar (e.g. Business yellow, Personal green).

Tasks
Organise your Tasks by categories (suggest: Key Tasks, Other Tasks, Phone Calls), then create a
customised view that sorts them in groups by Due Date and Category.
Right click a Task and drag it onto the Calendar to schedule a date and time to action the task.

Contacts
Use Contacts in Outlook to remember birthdays (it’s a field in the second tab) – when you put in
someone’s birthday it will appear in the calendar (tip: make the reminder a few days before).
Use notes area in your Contacts to keep notes regarding a particular contact (you can then print off a
copy if you want). E.g. driving directions, conversations.
Use categories in Contacts to later create mailing lists e.g. for Christmas cards.
Share Contacts using vCards (create one easily be dragging out of window to Desktop).

Smartphones
Use list management software such as Evernote, Things, Clean etc.

Email
Use the subject line to effectively summarise what the email is about.
Don’t forget your attachments (if applicable)!
Use the Bcc: field if mailing to a lot of recipients so you don’t reveal their identities to each other (put
your own email address in the To: field).
If you feel upset about something calm down before writing and sending an email you might regret
afterwards.
Use a smart phone and synchronise regularly.
Backup Outlook regularly.
Install and maintain up to date anti-virus software.

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HANDLING STRESS
Ten Stress Reducers
1. Breathe. Deep breathing is one of the oldest stress-busting techniques, and one of the best. Stress
can upset the normal balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in your lungs. Deep breathing corrects
this imbalance and can help you control panic thinking. Take a deep breath through your nose-hold
it for seven seconds (no more)-then let it out slowly through your mouth. Do these three to six
times.
2. Smile. You make your mood, and your mood can stress or relax you. Smiling is contagious. When
you see a colleague looking a little glum, make eye contact and smile! Ninety-nine times out of a
hundred, you'll get a smile right back.
3. Laugh. Maintaining a sense of humour is your best defence against stress. Stress psychologist
Frances Meritt Stern tells of a difficult client she had been dealing with for years. "That clown is
driving me up a wall!" she often complained. One day, she began to envision him complete with
white-face, floppy shoes, and a wide, foolish grin. With this picture tickling her funny bone, she was
able to manage her stress response and focus on doing her job.
4. Let it out. Keep your anger and frustration locked up inside and you are sure to show it on the
outside. Instead, make an appointment with yourself to think about a particularly stressful customer
later and then keep the appointment. Unacknowledged tension will eat you up but delaying your
reaction to stress-causing events can be constructive. It puts you in control.
5. Take a one-minute vacation. Imagine yourself on a beautiful white-sand beach in the Caribbean, the
sun is beaming down, you feel the heat on your body. Listen for the sound of the sea gently lapping
up against the beach. Work on a scene until you can experience being there and lose all sense of
time and place, even though your visit will last only a minute or two. Return to your "favourite
place” following a stressful call or before talking to a stress-inducing customer.
6. Relax. We tend to hold in tension by tightening our muscles. Instead, try isometrics: tensing and
relaxing specific muscles or muscle groups. Make a fist, then relax it. Tighten your stomach muscles,
then relax them. Push your palms against each other, then relax your arms
7. Do desk aerobics. Exercise is a vital component of a stress-managed life. Try these two exercises
While sitting at your desk, raise your feet until your legs are almost parallel to the floor. Hold them
there, and then let them down. Do these five times. Rotate your head forward and from side to side
(but not back-that can strain rather than stretch). Roll your shoulders forward and then lift them up
and back. This feels especially good after you've been sitting or standing for some time.
8. Organise. Organising gives you a sense of control and lessens your stress level. "I organise the top
of my desk whenever I am waiting on hold," said a telephone customer service representative.
"Before I leave for the day, I make sure everything is put away, and that I have a list of priorities
made out for the next day."
9. Talk positive. Vent your anger and frustration in positive ways. Sharing customer encounters with
co-workers helps you find the humour in the situation and gain new ideas for handling similar
situations. But constant negative talk that rehashes old ground will only re-create and reinforce, not
diminish your stress.
10. Take a health break. Make your normal breaks into stress breaks. Consider walking outside, reading
a chapter from a favourite book, or just sitting with your eyes closed for a few minutes. Bring
healthy snacks and juice to work to substitute for the standard tea and coffee

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STAYING FOCUSED WHEN YOU'RE WORKING FROM
HOME
Mindtools
Dealing With Distractions to Get Everything Done

Working from home can be highly productive, but it can also go badly wrong. Without a proper office
space, a prioritized schedule, and on-the-spot supervision, it's all too easy to be distracted, and to get very
little done . Cutting yourself off from domestic distractions can help to improve your productivity.
In this article, we explore ways to avoid the pitfalls, conquer distractions, and stay professional and
productive while you're working from home.

Benefits and Challenges of Working From Home

Increasingly, home is being seen as the most productive place to work. A 2019 survey of 1,004 full-time
employees across the U.S., including 505 remote workers, found that employees who worked from home
worked an average of 16.8 more days every year than those in an office.

The benefits of home working include:

Not suffering the distractions of office life, such as phone calls, meetings and interruptions from
colleagues.
Being able to adjust your working environment to match your preferences and needs, which can
help you to stay more relaxed and boost your morale.
Doing tasks in the way that suits you best, allowing you to work more efficiently, creatively – and
enjoyably.
Note:
In an experiment at Ctrip, a NASDAQ-listed Chinese travel agency, home working was shown to deliver a
13 percent improvement in performance. There were other positives, too, including greater job satisfaction,
and significantly less staff absence and turnover.

However, there are also several challenges to consider if you're going to work from home:

Home-based work comes with its own distractions, especially if other people – or even pets – are
nearby.
You may struggle to be productive when you're unsupervised.
Working from home can create an "always on" mindset, causing people to work too long and too
hard.
Consider whether working from home is really for you. It may provide a welcome respite from a
busy office environment, but it could lead to feelings of loneliness and isolation in the long term.
If you decide that home working is for you, the rest of this article explains how to do it well. You'll need to
create suitable conditions, and also get into the right habits, to keep focused and effective throughout
every day you work from home.

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Stay Focused at Home
The distractions of home, along with the isolation that often comes with remote working, can cause you to
lose focus and to damage your productivity.

Here are five key ways to stop that happening:

1. Motivate yourself. Self-motivation techniques can help you to boost your confidence, think
positively, and set clear goals.
2. Minimize distractions. Which distractions tend to affect you most? Maybe you get caught up doing
household chores, or suffer interruptions from family or friends. Beating these distractions could be
as simple as shutting the door!
3. Reward yourself. Find ways to make each task more enjoyable and rewarding in itself, as well as
giving yourself "treats" when they're done.
4. Control your social media. Think carefully about which notifications to keep on, and which to mute
until later. Allocate time slots for checking your phone. And, if you're still struggling, see if tools like
Freedom® or Cold Turkey Writer™ help you to control your time online.
5. Know your goals. Along with short-term, task-related goals, make sure that you're also clear about
the wider career goals and purpose you're striving to achieve. Keeping these in mind will motivate
you to do your best work, whatever your location.
Create a Workspace That Works!
Creating an effective workspace is essential if you want to stay on track and get things done.

Make it a place where you'll enjoy spending time. However, you also need to be clear that it's a place of
work. A few "office" touches might encourage you to be more productive – but you can still personalize
your workspace, with fun posters or family photos. Check you can sit comfortably. If not, you'll likely find
plenty of excuses to get up and go somewhere else! A high-quality office chair is one of the best
investments you can make. The other important piece of equipment is a door that you can close! It's almost
impossible to work effectively at home if there are other people nearby. So, be sure to have a place to go
where you can shut the door on potential distractions.

Get Organized
The next essential element of focused home working is getting organized .
Start with your desk. Is it big enough? And is it suitable for the work you do?
Next, make sure that you have everything you need within easy reach.

It's easy to lose focus if you're working on several different projects at once. Even when you're at home,
organize your work into clearly defined Action Programs , with specific deadlines to help you to stay on
track.

And keep your workspace tidy. Spend a few minutes at the end of each session sorting out things like
paperwork or empty coffee cups. Clear away as much of it as you can when you switch off for the day.

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Manage Your Time
Effective time management is essential if you want to continue hitting your deadlines when you're working
from home.
Organize and prioritize key tasks with a To-Do List . This will help you to avoid procrastinating , or losing
focus by "switch-tasking ," and add an extra layer of structure to your day.
It's also a good idea to have a list of "in between" tasks. These are relatively minor jobs that should take 10
minutes or less to complete, and which you can fit into your day when a gap opens up. And don't forget to
take breaks regularly.
Keep tabs on how much time you spend on each task by setting up an activity log . This lets your manager
know how you're spending your time. It should also help you to see when you're at your most productive,
so that you can carry out complex tasks during those parts of the day.

Take Charge of Communication

To stay focused at home, you need to be in control of communication – otherwise, it might start to control
you! Find appropriate times to "check in" with your managers and co-workers. Small problems can often be
dealt with there and then, allowing you to work uninterrupted afterward.

You likely need to experiment with communication in the early days of working from home. You'll want to
avoid distractions, but neither should you "disappear." Over time, you'll discover the right levels of
interaction that builds your manager's trust in your productivity, and so prevent micromanagement on their
part.

If possible, redirect your office phone to your personal cell, and let colleagues, customers and suppliers
know how best to reach you at home. That way, you'll be able to take important calls, but switch to your
message service when you don't want to be disturbed.

Tools like Slack™, WhatsApp™ and Skype™ may provide a more direct means for you to contact other team
members, and vice versa – and you can set your status to "busy" whenever you need to.

Balance Work and Life

If you still find yourself losing focus when you're working from home, check that you're not trying too hard!
It can be difficult to resist the urge to overcompensate for not being in the office, by working longer than
you normally would, or by missing out on breaks.
But it's essential that you continue to maintain a healthy work-life balance , and the following six tips
should help:
1. Create physical boundaries. If possible, set up a workspace that's separate from your home space.
This should make it easier to shut out the everyday distractions of home life, and to cut off from
work at the end of each day.
2. When you're working, act like it! You might find it helps to have particular clothes for working at
home. Dressing for work can set the right mental tone for the day (and avoid any awkwardness if
you get dialled in to a virtual meeting while you're still in your pyjamas!). Also, avoid going into
certain areas of the house, so that you know when you're in "work mode," and when you're not.
3. Have "no-go" zones for technology. Laptops and cell phones can be useful for staying in touch with
co-workers, but they can also leave us feeling as though we're "always on." This can lead to stress

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 and burnout . So, try to set up "no-go" zones when work devices are banned, such as mealtimes,
holidays and the two hours before bed every night, to avoid sleep disruption.
4. Set break reminders. Regular short breaks can help to keep you energized and focused. Try setting
a countdown timer while you do an hour of work. When the alarm goes off, reward yourself with a
five- or 10-minute break – to make a coffee, or get some fresh air. It's vital that you get out of your
chair during the day. See our article, Improving Health and Physical Well-Being at Work , for tips on
building activity into your routine.
5. Remind your children to let you work! Ensure that you have reliable childcare in place, and remind
your children that when you're in your office, you're not to be disturbed. However, don't be too
rigid: one of the great joys of working from home is being there when they get back from school!
6. Commute to your home office! Consider taking a short walk before starting your working day. Even
a 10-minute stroll could energize you, and help to create a break between home tasks and work
tasks.
Key Points
There are numerous advantage to working from home. But there are many challenges, too, such as staying
focused and doing your best work.
Find ways to motivate yourself to work positively and productively. Highlight things that will likely distract
you, and take steps to deal with them. Set up a workspace that's comfortable and appropriate for your job,
and do everything you can to limit interruptions.
Organize your day as clearly as you would at the office, including allowing yourself breaks. Maximize your
time by creating To-Do Lists, and by managing the distractions of home life.
Keep the lines of communication open between you and your boss and other team members, but also
make it clear when you don't want to be disturbed.

Doing too much at home can be as problematic as doing too little! So, create "no-go" zones for work
devices, take regular breaks, and have a door that you can shut on your work at the end of the day.

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A FINAL THOUGHT…
Imagine that you had won the following prize in a contest: Each morning your bank would deposit €86,400
in your private account for your use.
However, this prize has rules, just as any game has certain rules. The first set of rules would be:
Everything that you didn't spend during each day would be taken away from you.
You may not simply transfer money into some other account. You may only spend it.
Each morning upon awakening, the bank opens your account with another €86,400 for that day.
The second set of rules:
The bank can end the game without warning; at any time, it can say, “It’s over, the game is over!” It can
close the account and you will not receive a new one.
What would you personally do?
You would buy anything and everything you wanted right? Not only for yourself, but for all people you
love, right? Even for people you don't know, because you couldn't possibly spend it all on yourself, right?
You would try to spend every cent, and use it all, right?
ACTUALLY, This GAME is REALITY! Each of us is in possession of such a magical bank. We just can't seem
to see it.
The MAGICAL BANK is TIME!
Each morning we awaken to receive 86,400 seconds as a gift of life, and when we go to sleep at night, any
remaining time is NOT credited to us.
What we haven't lived up that day is forever lost. Yesterday is forever gone.
Each morning the account is refilled, but the bank can dissolve your account at any time.... WITHOUT
WARNING.
SO, what will YOU do with your 86,400 seconds? Those seconds are worth so much more than the same
amount in money. Think about that, and always think of this:
Enjoy every second of your life, because time races by so much quicker than you think. So, take care of
yourself, be Happy, Love Deeply and Enjoy Life! Here's wishing you a wonderful and beautiful day.
Start spending.

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ACTION PLAN
NOTHING CHANGES UNLESS BEHAVIOUR CHANGES

What action do you need to take as a result of this workshop? Start doing, continue doing, do differently, talk to
others about etc

WHAT HOW, WHEN, WHO TARGET DATE

CHECKLIST:
Are your actions SMART? (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound)
Have you put your action step dates in your diary?
What are you going to do to ensure you take the first step?

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OUR MISSION
UNLEASHING YOUR POTENTIAL
We unleash your team’s potential to deliver on your strategy We do this by engaging the hearts, minds and hands
of your people; developing new ways of thinking and working, leading to incredible results for you and your
organisation

Learning &
Facilitation Coaching
Development

Custom-designed, Accredited Institute of Executive coaching for

facilitated workshops for
team strategy, problem-
solving, team dynamics,
awaydays etc.
Leadership & Management leaders; team coaching to
programmes and bespoke achieve strategy; and high-
solutions for leadership performing leadership team
and teams at all levels coaching programmes.
including training
programmes, facilitator
packs and customised
training videos.

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 GET IN TOUCH

Main Office +353 45 900810 info@invisio.ie invisio.ie

linkedin.com/company/invisio-limited twitter.com/invisiolearning

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