And just like that, everything changed…
We’ve had so much change in such a short, short amount of time.
I think everybody’s reeling from it, aren’t we? You know, what do we do? How do we do it?
It reminds me a lot of the Charles Darwin quote, you know that one; “It’s not the strongest of the species that survives nor the most intelligent, it is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”
I feel like that’s the situation that we’re all in. We have to adapt and there’s so much to adapt to because every day the rules change and I think, for many of us, suddenly finding ourselves at home is a huge adjustment. It’s not a big one for me, because I love working from home.
I’ll often skip going into the office and you know, bed down here, especially if I’m writing or creating. I love the quiet and I like the space. I’m a bit of an ambivert really. Plus, I live on acreage, so it’s quite beautiful.
I’m out here in the quiet. But my husband? He’s a different kettle of fish altogether.
He likes the office, he needs that structure and he doesn’t see home as a place of work. It’s a very big adjustment for him and he’s still going into the office when he can.
Whereas, me, I’ve bunkered down and I’m doing the early isolation. I’m just really working away and reaching out to people, just dealing with things online.
So, I’m Alison Vidotto for those of you who don’t know me, from Push! Small Business Training and Mentoring and here we are, in the middle of a pandemic and a whole roller coaster of craziness, and it can be a huge challenge.
Working from home is one of the biggest adjustments that we make, and especially if you have small children, that’s a tough one. I did that for many years and it’s a whole different ball game as they tend to be the boss in a lot of ways. I found when I worked from home when my children were small, I was working around their timetable and I had to just accept it.
The biggest thing for me was I had to accept that things weren’t going to be perfect and things were not going to go as planned. I think that’s the biggest tip I can give you; just to go with the flow. It’s not going to work as it did two weeks ago, a month ago, three months ago.
Wow! Wasn’t that a world away when we were making plans for 2020? We didn’t expect this. So here we are, we’re an incredibly adaptive species, and as I’ve mentioned previously, we’ve had giant challenges before, and we’ve come through them, just as we’ll come through this one.
So, tip number one for you; Just adapt, be flexible. Don’t give yourself a hard time.
Tip number two, I would give you is, don’t get too lost in your work when you do have time, make sure that you get up and you take a break. I’m as guilty as anyone of this, I can be working on something and I look up and four hours have gone by. I haven’t eaten. I haven’t stretched. So, I’ll often set a timer on my phone. Every 50 minutes, I like to get up and move. So I try and do that.
Tip number two; get up and move.
Tip number three is Focus. It’s a challenge when suddenly your work environment has completely changed. But, you can do it and focusing and choosing one thing at a time to focus on is really going to make your life easier and it’s going to take away the overwhelm. You don’t have to get everything done. You don’t have to fix everything at once. There’s going to be a lot of things to fix right now, and a lot of pivoting to do, but you don’t have to do it all at once. Just choose one thing, and focus there.
And you know, another great tip is to keep lists. Once again, it will make your life so much easier. If you make a list and then you prioritise. I like to make my list, I’m always adding to the list. Mine is in my phone. I’m always adding and then what I do, I’ll start the day and I’ll review, I’ll prioritise what’s on the list and I’ll delegate what I can. I’ll often sort of challenge myself to get rid of five items. So if you can actually focus on your list, choose one thing from the top.
Once you’ve prioritised it and every time you choose one thing, choose one thing to get rid of. Another one is to actually rely on your community, reach out to your community. Whether it’s a team, it’s a friend, it’s other small business owners. We have a great community here. Here’s the link to our Facebook community. It’s a private group.
Reach out and talk to us about the difficulties you’re having. Talk to us about the challenges. When we’re in things together, it makes a world of difference. So you know, really count on the community because you’ve got one.
You might be isolated, but you’re not alone. I really hope you remember that. Feel free to send me a private message or an email or post in the group. Any help you need actually reach out. You know somebody else is no doubt going through exactly the same challenge, so by sharing you’ll be helping someone else too.
I encourage you to join our Facebook group. If you haven’t already joined it, please join us. If you have joined, say hello, alright?
And please remember, You’re isolated, you’re not alone.
Take care.
Alison