My WFH Routine! Tips to Keep You Productive & Focused - podcast episode cover

My WFH Routine! Tips to Keep You Productive & Focused

Aug 18, 202432 minSeason 1Ep. 45
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Episode description

Our brain is fighting for its life out here. 


Working from home has so many positives - like being able to look after your kid and run errands through the day (why are post offices only open during work hours?!). But if we aren’t looking after ourselves, our space and our minds then it can be really hard to set AND maintain boundaries.


On today’s episode, I’m chatting all about the things I do when I work from home in order to stay as productive and focused as possible, but more importantly, how I switch off my work brain and allow myself to actually relax at the end of the day. It’s one thing to say “Just stop working at 5 pm” but what steps do you need to put in place to make sure you follow it?


You’ll hear:

✨ Why you might be working all day but still feel like you haven’t gotten anything done

✨ How to hack your brain to get into your flow state faster

✨ The time of day that is the MOST productive for you to be working

✨ Ways to set up your space so that you actually want to be in your office

✨ The weekly schedule I follow to make sure I stay focused on each task

… and so much more


The revamped Home and Work To Do List drops tonight so make sure you get in quick! www.stephpaseplanners.com.au


SPP is turning 5! To celebrate, we are throwing a month-long birthday party! 🎉 As a BIG thank you to all of our community, we’ll be dropping something new and exciting every week in August! Don’t miss a thing: make sure you are following us on Instagram @stephpaseplanners and @stephpase_ and head over to our website to join our mailing list for exclusive presales and news!


☎️ Feeling like a hot mess? Girl I've been there 😂 Let's talk about it! Send me your questions/thoughts/feelings/anything really over on the Stephing Up IG page @stephingup and I'll talk about it in my next episode of The Hot Mess Hotline!


Want to continue the conversation? Join the Stephing Up Community at @stephing.up and over on Facebook


And as a thank you for being part of the Stephing Up Community you can also use your exclusive code STEPHINGUP for 15% off at @stephpaseplanners. Visit stephpaseplanners.com.au


LET'S BE FRIENDS! ❤️

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephpase_

TikTok: tiktok.com/@stephpase

Blog: justanothermummyblog.com

Planners: stephpaseplanners.com.au

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Speaker 1

I'd like to begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today. Welcome to Stepping Up the podcast where we explore all things organization, mental health routines, personal.

Speaker 2

Development, motherhood and health.

Speaker 1

I'm your host, Steph Pace, and I'm the woman behind Just Another Mummy blog and also the founder of Steph Pace Planners. But I can assure you this is not just another podcast online. I'm known for my organization tips and tricks and the occasional banter, but it definitely wasn't always this way. I used to be a hot mess and occasionally still am. And I'm here as your honest and real friend each week to show you how I turn my life of chaos into clarity.

Speaker 2

Between the house, health, kids.

Speaker 1

Work, and wanting to be the best version of yourself, it can be overwhelming, and I'm here to give you the tools and tips to stop you feeling like a slave to your daily time, asks, home life, and especially the expectations you have on yourself.

Speaker 2

Join me as I share my.

Speaker 1

Journey and insights into the art of balancing at all and speak to guests who can help us all live a better life. Whether you're looking to streamline your daily routines, bish your wellbeing, achieve your fitness goals, diamond to personal development, or find inspiration to steff up into the best version of yourself, We've got you.

Speaker 2

So are you ready to step up your game? Let's go.

Speaker 1

Hello guys, and welcome back to stepping Up. I hope you are having a fantastic day wherever you're listening from. Do you, guys ever just think back randomly to COVID lockdown. I can't believe that it's literally nearly the end of twenty twenty four and the whole lockdown thing happened. And since then, you know, working from home has become such a huge thing. People who always worked in offices are now able to be more flexible and work from home.

People who even rented spaces or had their whole workplace in an office. I know a lot of business owners who decided to let everyone work from home, and that's like a normal thing. Now with technology, there's so much you can do online, you can have meetings, you.

Speaker 2

Can catch up with each other.

Speaker 1

While this is great in many different ways, it can make juggling the demands at home a bit easier.

Speaker 2

So if you need to be there with the kids, if you've got little.

Speaker 1

Ones, it's been so important and it's something that you know, we've kind of had to learn to do from day dot and for people who run their own business, they definitely know what this is like. But with all these positive come a lot of negatives. It's something that even when you try to focus on one aspect of your life such as home, or such as the kids, or just work, there's always going to be the demands of

the other areas pulling you. And you feel that the most when you are trying to work from home.

Speaker 2

Now.

Speaker 1

Granted, I work from home usually two to three days a week, and for when I'm in my deep planning and I need to really like focus on the podcast and coming up with episodes and also like marketing and all that stuff. It's a godsend. And I also obviously need a film, but I tend to get a little bit baddy by the time you know, Tuesday to noon comes, which is literally now, so I'm struggling to even speak English now, and I feel like, you know, I'm not

like an overly social person. I enjoy being around people, I love my friends all that stuff, but I'm not someone who I guess I'm trying to say is withoutstanding like an asshole, because I do.

Speaker 2

I love being around my friends.

Speaker 1

But I think for me, my cup gets filled up more when I'm at home with my family or just out with my family, like outside or something, you know what I mean, or in solitudes. Being overly social just isn't like at the top of my list, is what I'm trying to say, I guess. But when I am working from home two days straight, so Monday tuesdays, I do find my mental health can take a dive if I'm not doing the right things and if I'm not

sticking to the right routine. Working from home can be such a hard thing to navigate, and if you don't stick to your routines and rituals and rules that you need to set for yourself, the lines between work and

home can really start to blur. Because I know for me, especially because I work for myself, there's less of a sense of urgency unless there's a deadline, which yes, there's a lot, but I tend to let my work creep into my personal life and the time I'm meant to be with my family because that sense of urgency isn't there from the time I start.

Speaker 2

This episode is definitely for you if you are.

Speaker 1

Someone that works from home and you can't switch off after work has finished. You're sitting there in your loungery with your family, or with your partner, or by yourself, and you're still thinking about work. You're finding that your work is slowly but surely creeping into your personal and home life.

Speaker 2

And this is especially for you if you have been working.

Speaker 1

Home, even for a long time, and maybe you're a pro at it, but you find yourself just not as productive. I am going to be giving you the hacks and routines that I do every day that saves my sanity and my work and my business, because these are the things that not only keep my mental health in check, but they also keep me productive and really helping to

set the lines between work and home. Now, the whole reason I'm actually recording this podcast is because a few weeks ago on Steface Planners, I posted a reel that was my work from home non negotiables, and there were things both holistically and productivity wise that I have to do every day when I work from home to keep me at my best. I also wanted to record this podcast because you guys are going to be finding out for everybody else. But we tonight are launching our brand new,

revamped home and work to do list. Now, if you don't know what this baby is, this is literally the best invention ever. And this took me so long to nail it because there's nothing like it on the market. It is this beautiful, beige little booklet and when you open it, one side says home to dos and then the right side says work to dos. Now, I've revamped

this so she's looking good, she's looking fresh. And I made this at a time where you know, Stepfa's planners was really ramping up and I personally was struggling between work and home. So I loved this because it helped my brain distinguish my work to dos and my home to dos. But what I've changed about this is which to do list also has a space that says others, so you don't have to use it for home and work.

It could be for home and kids. It could be for personal and I don't know, bloody health and fitness.

Speaker 2

I don't know.

Speaker 1

It could be anything you want For someone like me. I like to use it for not only home and work, but for SPP and also my personal brands and YouTube and like the content and have them on each side. So I'm so excited that you guys get to find out about this first, and I'll be posting a real tonight, so make sure you hop on over and cheer me on and let me know if you're going to be

grabbing one. Now, let's get cracking into today's episode. Now, before I get into the routines and rituals, the first thing I want to cover that you need if you are someone that works from home is I want you to create a dedicated workspace that feels nice. Not everybody can have a home office or even a desk, and I'm very aware of that. I was definitely one of those people. But I want you to have something that tells your brain this is work time or this is

my workspace. Now I'm pure going to talk about officers for a minute, or a desk, for example. On my desk, I have things that make me feel good. So obviously you want it to be functional, you want your planners on there. But I have things on my desk that, as Marie Condo would say, spark joy.

Speaker 2

So I've got I'm literally looking at it now.

Speaker 1

I've got this bloody cloud teacup that I bought that Ryan gave me so much. It about because no, I don't use it, but I just like it.

Speaker 2

It's cute.

Speaker 1

I've got a cloud what's we mean clouds? I've got a cloud mouse pad. I've got a cloud wrist pad. I just have things that make me feel good. You guys know how important our environment is, especially the case when you are spending a lot of your time in this space and doing these activities. So even thinking about functionality, if you work on a laptop, do you have a laptop stand?

Speaker 2

Do you have a mouse?

Speaker 1

Is using an actual mouse over the little mouse pad on the laptop that's going to make you work a lot quicker. Maybe thinking about investing in that. That's the type of stuff I'm talking about. So you obviously want functionality, but you also want it to make you feel nice. Now, if you can't have a desk or an office at home, then one thing I recommend you having is a work caddy.

This can be a bag or just a normal caddy that you buy from Kmart or Ikea where you put things in there and you grab your laptop and you know you can just take it. You could take it out onto the patio, on the balcony, whatever you want to go and work. Now, in this caddy, you would have things like your planner, pens, highlighters, a timer, anything you need for work, and then also the things that make you feel good. This also extends into your actual

computer like desktop. So I have a digital vision board on my desktop as my wallpaper, and I made this on Camber did a full YouTube video on this as well, so I link that in the show notes.

Speaker 2

Because it's super easy and it's really.

Speaker 1

Nice, it's inspirational, and it reminds you why you're doing the things you're doing. Once you've created a really nice dedicated workspace or a work caddy that makes you feel good, let's move on to having set routines and rituals and rules in place so you can stop work filtering into your life and also learn how to switch off. Now, the first thing is to stick to your set working hours. Now, I'm the biggest hypocrite when it comes to this, and I'm not going to pretend that I'm not. In the

past have tried to stick to working hours. I got to a point where I have to say that whatever doesn't get done after this certain time, tough titties. Really it's too bad, too sad. And that really does help me create that sense of urgency that I need because I work well under pressure, so that helps having that kind of mindset. Now, of course I run my own business. Things come up when we have campaigns or launches, like

it's our birthday month. Things happen, but generally it helps me to really be strict with set, start and stop time. One thing that really helped me as well. If you're someone that's really bad with time management, like say you sit down to do a stin of work and the next minute the day is done, and you feel like you've done nothing because you ended up scrolling on Instagram or you got distracted with something else.

Speaker 2

Like the The Bloody Week.

Speaker 1

I ended up spending eight hours learning about automations, like I got into ZAPI.

Speaker 2

I don't know if you guys have heard about it. I should do a whole other podcasts on it because it's so cool.

Speaker 1

But I ended up spending eight hours trying to create my own automation so our notion space would automatically send files to our Google Drive and I got there in the end and it's so so so amazing and smart.

Speaker 2

But did I have time to do that? No, and that was not my intention.

Speaker 1

So my hack for helping you, I guess, be better at time management so you can understand how long until work is done. I downloaded a count down timer to my computer. So every morning, I hop on the computer and I input my work hour ending time, So I'll hop on and say maybe four pm or two pm, depending on who's getting the kids that day, and then it starts to count down. So it really helps create that sense of urgency that I wasn't feeling before because

I visually in my face. I need it to be in my face so I can remember shows me how much time I have left, so then it pushes me to work faster. You really need to have these clear bounds injuries with not only people you work with, but also yourself, because you need to have that time for yourself and your family. Now, the next thing I do is I integrate certain things into my routine that works with my brain, not against it.

Speaker 2

What I mean by that is we all are different.

Speaker 1

Some people work really well in the morning, some people work better late morning. Most people generally work best between nine am and twelve pm. That is, I think they say sixty percent of the population. But then there's some people who are more night ours, and then there's people like me who work better soon as I pretty much wake up and brush my teeth. I think it's because I have less time to get distracted, and I'm the

freshest in the morning. Honestly, even when it hits like ten o'clock in the morning, I'm kind of done by then. So I want you to find out what time of day you are at your best, and that is the time you're going to be doing your deep work.

Speaker 2

Now. I want to be getting into this a bit more later about task.

Speaker 1

Batching and time blocking. But this is so important because so many of us will use the best hours of our day doing things like emails and being in meetings that might not need as much like brain power as something as your bigger projects or something that's creative that you need to do. So that leads me on to my next point. About working with your brain, not against it is. For me, I always try to push most meetings to be after twelve because I know between morning

to lunch that is my go time. That is my time to smash through like either making content or doing my projects, my deep work, anything creative like filming, that's when I have the energy. But of course, if you have any meetings that need a lot of brain power,

definitely do that during your peak time. So for me, on a Wednesday, we have a marketing meeting, which isn't technically on my meeting day, which I'll get into later, and I have it earlier in the day because for marketing I need to have my creativity.

Speaker 2

I need to have my brain power. I need to be on for that meeting.

Speaker 1

But all the other meetings are more operations and logistics, which isn't necessarily what's one of my roles my main role at SPP, So I kind of can be a bit of a potato, to be honest, and I usually eat lunch.

Speaker 2

During that time. My poor team then, when it comes.

Speaker 1

To the parts of the day that you are still working but you're at your worst, I guess you could say use that for really easy low brain power reoccurring tasks. These are the times we're going to be doing your emails, which I am going to touch on a bit later because I'm very strict about emails and light admin tasks, what I like to call catch all tasks, all of that kind of more mindless stuff that doesn't need a whole lot of attention. That is how you're going to

work with your brain, not against it. Now, before I move on, just to do a quick recap. First thing is set up a dedicated workspace or work caddy that is functional and makes you feel good. The next thing is stick to set working hours, so set that boundary with yourself and other people of when you actually finish work, and using things like a countdown timer so you can actually feel that urgency and get things done quicker. We've

got work with your brain, not against it. So scheduling your day so your really important tasks are done when your brain is at its best, and things that aren't so heavy for your mind you do when you start to turn into a sloth. Now this leads me on to my next point about how to hack your brain to work from home, and you could actually do this anywhere, even if you work in an office for anything.

Speaker 2

It's actually amazing.

Speaker 1

I actually got this idea from speaking to my friend Rachelle Fox, and we're talking about, you know, working on projects and things like that, and she is the one who suggested this tip for me, and it has worked

incredibly for my brain. You know, when you walk past something and then you get a whiff of like a familiar smell, and it straightaway brings you back to a certain point in time or a certain memory, and it feels so real, the same as if you hear a certain song that you may have heard it like a concert. I still remember certain songs that were playing when I was bloody given birth, the Harper, not when it was like the end part where it's a real doozy, but

near the start. Like there's certain things that just bring you back to those times. And that is because our brain has some really incredible ways of shifting gears and remembering certain things by our scent, our site and things like that. Whereas I'll read something or someone will tell me something and I'll forget five minutes later. But things like that are really powerful. Now we're going to be using that power that your brain has to hack your

brain to get into a flow state quicker. You guys have probably heard of what a flow state is. It's basically when you are in such deep concentration of a particular task that time is just passing by and you don't notice, you don't notice what's going on around you.

Speaker 2

You're just solely focused.

Speaker 1

On your task and you're just so immersed in it. And that is the best state to be in for your work. The quickest way to get to this, and this is what Rachel told me is have a certain playlist. So for me, when I'm doing any type of scripting or more creative planning or writing or whatever it is to do with marketing, emails, writing captions, I will play this certain playlist that kind of taps into that creative part of my brain that says.

Speaker 2

Okay, it's time to do this.

Speaker 1

I also like to light a candle for this, and between the smell and the music, my brain shifts gears so quickly and I'm someone again. I've got ADHD. I struggle hardcore with this, but it is a freaking game changer. Now, things like deep work, I have another playlist and for both of these, whether it's anything to do deep work or creative I will always put my headphones on. They're the Apple headphones that can cancel out noises and it's bloody amazing. And if you're listening to this and you

have ADHD, I highly recommend them. So my brain knows when the headphones are on, the playlist is on, it's go time. It's the same when I'm being creative, the headphones are on, the candles lit, the music's on, it's go time. It kind of like fast tracks your brain to know like, oh, yep, I know this, this is what we're doing. You kind of need to think of your brain like a child. You need to prompt it

into doing the things. And these little things of using your scent, your smell, you're hearing and your site really does help you fast track into that flow state and get shit done quicker. I also want to add in terms of you know, doing these things like deep work or whenever you're trying to focus, the biggest and the best thing that you can do if you don't have to use your phone.

Speaker 2

Put it away.

Speaker 1

I actually physically put it in a draw. Putting it in a drawer and having that physical barrier of when you shut the draw again signals to your brain that it's go time, and the amount of times that we get distracted from our phones.

Speaker 2

We could be hopping on there just to quickly check.

Speaker 1

An email or whatever, or maybe you see it light up and you see a notification and you're trying to be working. Every time you get interrupted or switch tasks, that is thirty minutes for your brain to refocus. And that leads me into task batching. You guys know, I love productivity hacks and all of that stuff. Whatever makes my life easier, and multitasking is not for humans like that is not for us.

Speaker 2

It's for computers.

Speaker 1

And even then they struggle, like my computer hisses at me most of the time. So basically, the idea of task batching is there's grouping tasks that are similar together. So for example, one minute you're sitting there, you're being creative, you're maybe coming up.

Speaker 2

With ideas for socials.

Speaker 1

You're scrolling on there, and the next minute Bob walks in. It is like Steph, I need you to look at this financial statement and tell me how we're going to save money. Like holy shit balls, your brain will be like, excuse me, you speak English, And the amount of time it's going to take if your brain a social team, being creative to delving into numbers, and you know, using the other side of your brain is going to take you forever. So more examples of this is having meetings

and then maybe planning or being creative or doing marketing. Like, they're all such different tasks, so you need to batch them together. So your brain is a going to perform a lot better and be it's going to be a lot quicker for you to do. If you are spending your day doing very high strategy work using numbers and logistics and all that shit, and then you're going.

Speaker 2

To, oh, what am I going to post on socials tonight?

Speaker 1

And then you're going back to maybe a meeting, and then you're going back to, okay, I need to write next week's newsletter, which is more creative writing, and then you're going back to customer service or talking to your suppliers. It's just a bloody shit show, like your poor brain. Every time you switch, that's another thirty minutes. So just the ones I said just then, that's three hours of you just wasting time because you're trying to switch between tasks.

So I'm going to give you an example of how I task batch, but I actually turn this into having them days. I'm not saying you have to have theme days, but this really works for me. For example, on Mondays, I call them my death days, and on a death day, this is very much so about planning and scripting and you know, creating emails or copy or anything like that. So it's a very much head down, deep day, like

I'm just falling. Tuesdays is my creation day, and I have all of this in my planner and I also have it on my Google calendar, so if my staff are ever trying to book in a meeting, they can see, oh no, it's not.

Speaker 2

Meeting day, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1

So creation day for me looks like recording pop casts, filming for YouTube, filming for socials, filming for SPP, all of those things. Now, Wednesdays is my marketing and content day for SPP, so it technically is another creation day.

Speaker 2

But it's very specific to SPP.

Speaker 1

So this is the only day besides my actual meeting day, which is on a Thursday, that I will have one meeting, and that meeting is marketing. So I will sit down with my marketing manager who I hired a couple months ago and it's been bloody amazing, and we will go through our campaigns, what content is needed and things like that, so that means I can then plan the content coming up or change things before I then jump in and

start filming for SPP for that day. This day is also the day that I will focus on creating products, so if there's things I don't need a film, I will jump into creating products.

Speaker 2

So it's more of a creative day. Now.

Speaker 1

Thursdays, I am again at SPP, which is the warehouse, but this is my very much meeting heavy day, So all of my meetings I need for the week I will make sure I do on this day and if they finish, which they don't, the afternoon I will spend on doing like systems and anything that's like that real high level CEO tasks for the business really to make sure our processes work better. I'll look into our software

that I've been building all that stuff. God, it makes me sound like I'm a tech person, but I've been building out notion for SBP for quite a long time now, probably like six months, and it's something that has really helped with us to keep everything in the one place and things like that and then Fridays is my catch all day, and that.

Speaker 2

Can also be a bit of an editing day as well.

Speaker 1

So catch all tasks is basically anything that I didn't get done during that week that just needs to get done before the next week.

Speaker 2

That is what I do.

Speaker 1

I try to make sure I get through all my emails and any of that ADMINI stuff. Now within these theme days, I also allocate time blocks, so between say nine and.

Speaker 2

Twelve is for that focus.

Speaker 1

So for example, if it's a creation day, nine to twelve is strictly filming or recording, and then after twelve is catch all tasks. So catsual tasks is something I need to do every day. So it's checking in with the team, checking slack, checking emails, and that is because again I'm using my brain. I'm working with my brain, not against it, to let it rest firstly, and also get on top of the light at work. Honestly, when you start taskbatching or having them days or both, you

are going to just thrive. Like I can't explain to you how much relief it also brings. As someone like myself, I struggle to focus. So when I can finally just find something that works, I just want to like.

Speaker 2

Shake you guys and be like, you need to try this.

Speaker 1

You need to try this now, speaking of admin tasks, our emails run our lives. And I did not realize how bad I was with emails until I actively recorded what I did during the day. I had a notebook out because I just felt like I was not being productive and I didn't know what it was. And I realized it was because I was constantly checking in emails. So I was letting my emails run my day. I was letting well other people needed go above my deep

work and my important projects. And this is so bloody common. Like, the first two hours of your workday is so important. I cannot stress that enough, especially if you're someone like me who really needs to get things done in the morning, and if you spend those two hours on emails, that's your productivity gone for the day, you know what I mean. Think about how often you will get into work from home or whatever, and the first half of your day

is just catching up, you know. Like, that's why it's so important to have this next rule I'm about to tell you that's about to bloody change your life.

Speaker 2

And it's probably going to seem scary, but it's actually not.

Speaker 1

I want you to only be checking your emails twice a day max, once after your deep work session. Now side note, if you work for somebody else and this can't happen, then that's okay. But honestly, if you can do this, it's a life changeout. So for me, I'll check it about lunch, and then I check it again when I'm doing my catch all tasks. At the end of the day, when I check in with the team, and that is it, I'm done, and I still suck at emails, but that has honestly changed my life.

Speaker 2

Now.

Speaker 1

The next thing you need to be doing is taking brain breaks. All of this talk of me saying you need to focus, you need to have all these blocks of deep work. It sounds pretty brutal, but once you're in that flow state and you have you know, you're task batching down part, everything's going to just go way

more effortlessly. But within that you need to have brain breaks. So, for example, if you were someone that you feel like, you know, you put your phone away, you're focusing on a task, and you find that your mind starts to wander after maybe forty five minutes, maybe half an hour or even maybe two hours.

Speaker 2

Just take note of that.

Speaker 1

That is usually your signal to step away for five minutes or just do something else for five minutes. But make sure you use a timer because if you're anything like me, five minutes will turn into an hour. So having regular brain breaks, and this also includes having a mid day little mini reset, so at midday at least or some time around then, because how many of us when you work from home, you have your lunch at

your desk and you're still working. So it's really impot for your brain and for your mental health that halfway through the workday you change scenery. The best thing you can, honestly do is actually go out and go for a walk, get outside and change your scenery because when you come back, you're going to be a lot more productive as well. So you hear the Pomodoro technique things like that, where it's like forty five minutes on, five minutes off or fifty minutes.

Speaker 2

Off, whatever it is.

Speaker 1

Try things like that, so your brain is getting regular breaks to keep you awake and also means that you're going to be getting tasked done better and more efficiently as well. Now, speaking of brain breaks, when it comes down to tasks, so task between work and home, just like the home and.

Speaker 2

Work to do list that I've created.

Speaker 1

Being able to really separate the tasks that have to be done for the different areas of your life is a lot easier on your mental load. That's why my plan is each month you'll see there's my signature brain dump page. So on your brain dump you could have personal, work, kids, health, and it's your reminders to do for the month ahead, but it's in the section because can you imagine when you have a huge list of tasks for all different areas of your life and it's all mixed together, which

is what so many people do. Your brain is trying to switch between those things and that's so overwhelming. So using things like the homework to do list, which is really easy and you can have it open on your desk and you can also fold it over and just look at work, and then when that's done, you can flip it over and look at home. That's going to really help your brain break up the different areas. And lucky, last, this is probably the most requested one, so I've left

it for last, is the closed down routine. This is telling your brain and giving it signals that work is over, just like how we used it to you know, listen to playlists or light candles, these things that I want to take you through. That I do is going to tell your brain that it's personal time slash family time.

Speaker 2

Now.

Speaker 1

The first thing I do is I clean up my desktop because I take a lot of like random screenshots and things throughout the day, and files pop up on my desktop, So I just clean it up and chuck anything in the little trash on the screen.

Speaker 2

The next thing is clean up.

Speaker 1

Your desk or off of space, or pack away your caddy, so physically putting away your pens, your highlighters, checking off your planner for the next day, like ticking off your to.

Speaker 2

Do list, which bloody so therapeutic.

Speaker 1

Putting away any food or like the million cups that we have because we all have like twenty drinks that we drink a day, putting that all away and packing it up. The next thing, if you do have a home office, I want you to close the door.

Speaker 2

Again.

Speaker 1

That's giving you that physical barrier between work and home. And if you can change your scenery, and by that I don't necessarily mean just like going to another room in the house, where it can help. But for me to fully switch off, I actually need to get outside and go for a walk. I like to try and do two walks on a work day if I can at least go outside in the backyard and just kind

of reset for a second. And one of my favorite things is, and I don't know if anyone else is like this, but as soon as I finished work, I have to have a shower. I have to like wash the day off, and then I get straight into my pajamas, and that also signals to my brain that it is chill time. And with this you can even take it up a notch and have a certain playlist for worksover

or home time or whatever. Like you could literally call it home time even though you're already at home and you work from home.

Speaker 2

Like that would be really cute. Actually, I should make one. I should make a hometime playlist and we can all like listen to it.

Speaker 1

Okay, I'm going to do that. I want to make us a hometime playlist. I'm want to link it in the show notes and we can all listen to it together when we all finish work at the same time and switch off. You might be wondering I do that stuff, but you know, I'm still checking emails, I'm still getting like slack messages after hours, And this is where you really need to be setting boundaries with your team if it's something that isn't part of your role and if

it's not like a really urgent time. I know if you work in marketing, you'd understand this, but it's about having that boundaries, but also setting up your phone. So on my phone at five pm, it automatically switches over to me time, and that means any of my Slack or emails or anything do not come through as notifications. And this is also something you should be setting up for your work time. I have a focus mode that's for recording, which means even Ryan can't ring me, and

then I have a focus mode for work. Everyone can contact me, but it shuts down certain distracting apps, which unfortunately, because I work in social media, is not social media. These are the things that can really hack your brain and you can add into your routine to absolutely change how you work from home and stop feeling like you're always at work twenty.

Speaker 2

Four to seven.

Speaker 1

Now, to give you guys a bit of a recap on all of the things I just shared, because I know I just shared a lot.

Speaker 2

And one of the things I.

Speaker 1

Really actually love about our Stepping Up community is so many of you guys say that you constantly re listen to the same episodes because you always start taking away new things and you start taking notes, and it just makes me so happy that you know these are episodes that.

Speaker 2

You want to re listen to.

Speaker 1

And I really do when I script these art because, as you guys know, most of these are solo episodes, so I really try to provide as much value as I possibly can. Now, let's do a quick recap. We've got creating a dedicated workspace or caddy that makes you feel good and is functional. We've got sticking to set work hours. We've got working with your brain, not against it, so finding the times of day that you are at

your best to do the most important things first. We've got hacking your brain, so using things like music and candles and headphones to get you into the flow state much quicker. We've got your rules around deep work, like when to do it. We've got task batching and theme days, so actually batching your life task together and having theme days for different areas in.

Speaker 2

Your work or your business.

Speaker 1

We've got scheduling, catch all tasks and things like checking your emails only once or twice a day max. And then of course we have your brain breaks, which is so important to keep you alert and productive and also just for your mental health. And lastly, we're having your closed down routine, which is so important to tell your brain and you that the workday is done. Anyways, as always, please let me know how you liked this episode. I would love if you guys would leave me a review.

This podcast is independently run. I literally just do it because I want to help. That's literally it. And I'd love if you guys would tag me and stepping up Instagram page in your own work from home routines and your like closed down routines and just let us know what you're actually doing for it. And of course we have our Facebook community which is just called steph Pace Community.

We have over twenty thousand members where you guys can all chat about things that we talked about in the podcast, so you can post your own work from home rules in there as well. Anyways, I love you and I will see you on Monday.

Speaker 2

Bye.

Speaker 1

Thank you guys so much for tuning in today's episode of Stepping Up. I don't want this to be just another podcast that you listen to, you get inspiration and then you don't take action. If there's been something in this episode that will help you step up into the best version of yourself, open up your trusted planner and make a plan. And if you've loved listening to today's episode, take a screenshot and show me where you've been listening from.

Speaker 2

I love seeing it.

Speaker 1

Make sure you tag us at Stepping Up and steph Pace Underscore on Instagram so we can see it. And make sure you subscribe because you won't want to miss what's coming up next week.

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