No matter where you work or what you do with your days, you deserve some intentional action-taking that will set you up to feel satisfaction, fulfillment, and joy at the end of the day when your head hits the pillow and your brain assesses how it all went.
If you work from home, you have a lot on your plate because you don’t just have your job work. You have your housework, bills, shopping, etc. If you have a family or even just one person living with you, you have their needs to consider and the distractions they create. If you have littles at home or maybe you're a homeschooler like me, you have a thousand things to do on top of the dream in your heart to build your business, or do the job you were hired to do that pays the bills, or so on...
Even if you work outside of the home, these are all things you should consider asking yourself so that you cultivate a flow that works for you and helps you operate at your highest level of success.
Read through these questions, choose all that apply, and order them or categorize them based on the flow that works best for you or the situations/seasons/schedules they fit best in:
(Think of how you can implement them and make them work for you!)
What’s best for you first thing in the morning?
Quiet time (journaling, reading, prayer, centering)
Exercise in some way
Eat breakfast or grab coffee/tea/smoothie
Dive right in to the work
How do you enjoy getting to work?
Do a brain dump or do some whiteboarding
Create a prioritized to do list
Choose one priority to work on
Tackle the most difficult tasks first
What helps you as you begin working?
Work towards partial completion goals
Deep work for 3 hours
Deep work for short intervals
Work on lighter tasks and build to more difficult
Which visuals set you up for success in your workspace?
Calendar or schedule
List of tasks and priorities
Legacy statement/future you plan
Encouraging or inspiring reminders
How would you describe your perfect workspace?
Distraction-free space (silence, notifications off, closed door)
Background noise (music, white noise, tv)
Refreshments (coffee/tea, snacks, water bottle)
Atmosphere (plants, artwork, decor)
What’s the most energizing way for you to take a break?
Social connection (make a phone call, pop into a coworker’s space)
Disconnect (scroll social media, watch a video)
Do a task that’s unrelated to work (clean out the car, switch laundry, yardwork)
Take an active break (stretch, walk, light weights)
What is the best way to end your work day?
Review the week’s goals and accomplishments
End the day with light tasks
Cross off what you’ve accomplished and do a little victory dance
Make a list of tomorrow’s priorities
Is there anything that you know works against you and a successful work day in any of these categories? (ie. too many people wandering through your space, repetitive noises, lack of clarity on your schedule, etc.)
I know you were probably hoping for a quiz answer that if you chose certain answers you’d be identified as a particular avatar like a cheetah or Captain America:)
Instead, I simply encourage you to look at your answers and put them in place so they work for you. Take responsibility for showing up for yourself and setting yourself up for success. Do what works, cut out what doesn’t. If there’s something you simply can’t cut out, such as children waking up from naps early, then do some experimenting and find something that can work for you.
Most importantly, have a flexible mindset that allows you to shift as you go through the day. Semper Gumby means ‘always flexible’ and will serve you well if you lean in with purpose and clarity, but allow for shifts as the day goes so that you don’t get thrown off your game by things like offense, irritation, and disappointment.
If you chose more than one option for any of the questions, I encourage you to think about what order you’d do them in for the best results. That is evident in question number one, which asks what’s the best way for you to start your day. If you answer quiet time and exercise and breakfast, then think about what order you’d do them in. Maybe it’s best for you to have quiet time first, then take a walk, then eat breakfast before diving into work. But maybe it would work better for you to dive into exercise first, then make a smoothie, then sit down at your workspace and have quiet time for 30 minutes. It’s so individual.
One thing I know is that if you can identify what you really want for your workday, then you can make decisions about how it will go ahead of time with your prefrontal cortex instead of your toddler brain. This will help you commit and build a habit. Then, when your toddler brain screams, ‘I want to stay in bed! You can’t make me get up!’, you can respond with,
‘This is just what we do. Now go on with your bad self. We've got things to accomplish.’
It’s not an argument because your grown-up brain isn’t moved and stands firm on its decision.
If you have a lot of thoughts like, ‘My life will never have a structure because it’s never worked for me before,’ or ‘I don’t like being trapped in a structure like that,’ or ‘My kids will never go for this or help me out,’ I want to remind you that these are just thoughts. You have the power to change them and try something different.
Try on these thoughts once or twice and see if they help you feel differently and find hope in the possibility.
‘It hasn’t worked before but I’m willing to give it a shot again. I am in a new season and maybe knowing what I know now will help me be successful in something like this.’
‘I could teach my family to respect my boundaries if I set them. And I can teach myself to hold the boundaries and gently remind my family that what I’m doing matters. I can teach them how to treat me.’
‘I’m not trapping myself by creating a flow of how my day can go. I’m just giving myself more space to roam because of the freedom I create when I get so much done inside this framework that I choose (no one is forcing me).’
Reader Challenge-
Reflect and Identify:
Go through the list of questions provided and identify what works best for you.
Create Your Plan:
Use your answers to design a flexible work flow that fits your natural rhythm. If you choose multiple options in any category, decide the best order to implement them.
Experiment and Adjust:
Try out your new plan for a week. Pay attention to what works well and what doesn’t. Be prepared to adjust as needed—remember, flexibility is key!
Reframe Your Mindset:
If you catch yourself falling into limiting beliefs about what is possible for your workday, challenge those thoughts. Replace them with a new, positive paradigm that aligns with your goals.
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