You have heard about it, know people who do it, always thought you would want to until BAM here comes the Coronavirus. And you find yourself ordered to work from home, I bet you didn't see that coming. And it is more of a challenge than you realized.
As an Entrepreneur I started Citiscape Productions, Inc. in the dining room of a two bedroom house with a 6 month old and a 2 year old. Yup I did it with a 6 month old.
One of the comments I always heard was "If I worked from home I would work in my PJ's". Let me tell you from years of working out of my home and navigating a family it is extremely stressful and can be very rewarding.
I want to share a few insights on how I survived and thrived.
* Get up and show up! Get up and ready yourself for work. It helps the attitude, motivation and productivity. Seriously! When I am in my PJ's all I want to do is eat junk food and sit in the lazy boy with a cup of coffee.
* Be flexible on when you work, if you can. I would work mostly early in the am because that is when it was the calmest and later in the evening after bedtime. I will confess I did put Barney on a few times so I could get a few things done.
* I had my family on a schedule. I am sure if they read this they will laugh and go yea right. Well the fact they did not feel like they were on a schedule proves how successful it was, Mom for the win!
* I exercised almost everyday Dr's orders, LITERALLY! I ended up seeing my Dr. pretty early into this adventure with TMJ and the visit was full of tears. He bluntly told me to exercise to help with the stress. Hello running! When the hubby came home from work off I went.
*. You have to set guidelines and establish your work hours so everyone knows when you are needing to work.
* Show yourself some Grace! These are challenging times for everyone and finding yourself in a unique situation. Only you know how you feel.
* Get support. Talk to people and share your ideas, frustrations and show your support to the people you work with, family and friends.
It will be a challenge for everyone, but you can do it!
For the first couple of days into this whole mess. I had a client lose hundreds of thousands of dollars on an event that should of been his biggest. When just a week before he had the best sales he ever had...literally 7 days a part!
When you are self employed you find yourself talking to yourself alot! I don't mean the kind where you are creating people to have a conversation with, but the kind where you give yourself a pep talk and a pat on the back.
I am finding myself having to give myself pep talks during this crisis of feeling anxious and stressed. I finally came to the realization if I do not take care of myself right now I will be in deep doo-doo. Here are a few things I have done to make myself feel less anxious and stressed.
I turned off the news and only watch at certain times. I am still exercising, the landscape might have changed a little but I am still going strong. I have reached out to friends to see how they are doing and share in a little misery. Hopefully you have that friend or family member that you can vent to without judgement, if you don't FIND ONE!
I have decided I needed to brush up on a few skills and learn a few new things. So with things a little slower than normal I have put myself to task to learn something new.
I also realized my clients really depend on me during times likes these, and that's what I am there for! I'm in this business because I like to see my clients WIN and WIN they will!
Hang in there, you are not alone. If you wanna vent, I am listening.
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