Working From Home During Quarantine

First and foremost if you are reading this thank you, I feel for you and your family. I understand how this pandemic situation has turned our daily routines into utter chaos, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

My day job for those that don’t know is in the remodeling space, we do windows, kitchens & bath rooms. Coming into a strangers home with a mask. Hand sanitizer and a UV sanitizing wand is new norm but the job has been relatively the same. It’s the conversations I’ve had with these families that I’d like to share with you today.

Here are 10 tips to make working from home more efficient and enjoyable.

1. Routine. It may seem as a no brainer to some, but for others having trouble working from home, this can be the difference between actually getting the work done or not. Don’t have to be a robot but structure your day a little to work smarter not harder. Check out “The 4 Hr Workweek” by Tim Ferriss

2. Set Daily Tasks/Goals. I’d recommend setting daily goals for whenever you work but especially while working from home. Distractions are all around when you are home; the laundry, dishes, TV, etc. Having goals that are in place for the day will help you stay on task.

3. Get Out. Practice social distancing while getting out of the house. Chances are there is an entire ecosystem in your backyard no matter the appearance, exploring your nearest neighbors can be enjoyable and has been proven to reduce depression. Take a walk, for me it’s a bike ride or grabbing my skateboard for a ride around the block.

4. Stretch. Get the blood flowing, muscles limber, you can stretch while you’re on a call. Louise Dickens has 15 quick stretches to do while in the office

5. Be Thankful. I’ve talked to a few families in the recent and this tip has come directly from them. Understanding that others have lost their jobs it’s imperative to be thankful for what you do have. Things could be worse. Wake up with purpose and take on the day.

6. Vent. Not to take away from number five at all but one thing I learned while selling Cutco knives in college was the 5 minute rule. You are welcome to vent to your partner/ coworker for 5 minutes anything past that you’re just soaking the energy out of the both of you. Life happens get the anger out and back to being proactive.

7. Accountability/Support. I’m a huge believer of team work makes the dream work. Having a partner in your corner works wonders. An accountability partner is a person who coaches another person in terms of helping the other person keep a commitment.  Currently Justin over at Ugly is my partner. Posted Brotha!

8. Dress The Part. I’m guilty of wearing pj’s below the waist and button ups about the waist line on a zoom call for sure! Haha. But there’s something about looking good before you work that I believe gives your day a little extra in the ordinary. When you feel good you do good.

9. Be Present. If you take anything from these tips I’d say this is the most important. It goes without saying that time sure does fly and whether things adjust in a few weeks or a few months, being present with your actions can really be impactful. Enjoy life and enjoy the time you have with others always

10. Stay Organized/ Clean. I don’t mean get distracted with the dishes, laundry and all that but clean your work area a bit. I’m all about efficiency and a minute spent planning/ organizing can save you hours on the back end.
    

11. Bonus. When you are out running errands please don’t wear gloves, they are quite useless, a mask and washing your hands is fine enough. I carry a UV wand to sterilize my mask daily. If you happen to see gloves on the flood pick them up and throw them away.
    

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Evernote for Business

If you’re a note taker you’ve probably heard of Evernote. It’s a note taking app available on all devices, but not just any note taking app, in fact thats an understatement. Evernote has stood the test of time because of how well it syncs with all of your devices. In this blog post I’m going to cover how I use Evernote to remain productive in the busy world we live in today.

Ok so what is Evernote first? It is cloud storage productivity app that organizes your life. Evernote makes it easy to snap a photo of a slide deck, record a meeting, keep track of tasks, share a document, and the list goes on. To learn all of Evernote’s features go here.

Top 5 Tips

#1 Organize everything

Think of Evernote as your digital backpack. It stores everything you need in one neat little app on all of your devices. Yes all of them (with subscription, it’s totally worth). First things first, create notebooks for all the different categories you’d like to keep organized. Personal, Work, School, etc.

#2 Creating Tags

One of the Evernotes key features is it’s ability to tag notes. By using the tags correctly, you can take notes with out having to search as deeply with in the notebook. Not only will tags help you stay organized they can also do the opposite if you put too many tags that never get used, to prevent this I would recommend simplifying them to only a few per notebook.

For example: Tags you might use for work would be are: Projects, Events, promotions, meetings, taxes, receipts, schedule, etc.

#3 Remove the Clutter (other apps)

This was a game changer for me. When I started using Evernote, I was only using it partially to take my notes, I found myself still using the iphone notes app. That became a problem when it came time to search for things, I’d have to check both apps and it became a headache at the end of the day. I finally ended my relationship with Notes and devoted myself to Evernote. The transition took some time to move all my notes into one place but soon as I did. I was a like a well oiled machine. I recommend this for that reason and all the features that other notes app lacks, Evernote picks up with ease.

Team Tip: Evernote has a feature called Stacks it allows you to organize multiple notebooks under one “Stack” to further clean up the interface. If you have more than one job you might have a stack Titled Work and within that stack have all your work notebooks together. It’s important to note that stacks are put together for you and you only so you won’t be able to share stacks however notebooks and notes with in the stacks may still be shared.

#4 Share notes/ notebooks

Keep those close to you up to date with cloud storage sharing. I share notebooks with friends for vacation itineraries (save passports for extra protection while traveling internationally), project notebooks amongst colleagues, school assignments with your classmates, there is no limit to the number of shared notebooks you have.

The original creator has access to permissions. This is perfect for team members that need access to important information on a project.

Team Tip: Brangerine has a shared folder for client projects, brand guidelines, design tips, social media, & meetings.

#5 Use it Daily

This might feel like over kill at first so take your time and just get used to the habit of taking notes. My first notes with Evernote were back in 2009 literally a decade ago. From what I’ve learned is I could have saved plenty of time fumbling through paperwork, journals, if I would of organized those early on using Evernote. Between the voice, photo, and text based tools Evernote makes it easy to capture something that is important to you and makes easy to find later.

Team Tip: If you want to take it one step further and up your note taking experience to the next level check this out 8 tips on going paperless with Evernote! Save the Trees!