Working from home, personal & professional growth, and how to combat uncertainty in a quarantined world as a business owner.
It’s a difficult time right now. We get it. The stress of the unknown is weighing heavier on society. This list meant to be a little bit of light in the dark. Of course, there are a ton of resources and links popping up for folks (including financial opportunities), but if you’re anything like me, it’s hard to keep track of them. So we put together our own list of what makes the most sense for us and our clients, and we’d love to share it with you.
Routine:
I’ve been working from home for 7 years. If there was ONE thing I would highlight that makes it all manageable, it’s routine. Especially in the morning.
Start your day with the news you WANT to hear.
Get off Facebook first thing in the morning. Sign up for relevant newsletters instead.
Some of our personal favorites include:
- Google Alerts – You can select the keywords you want to keep track of and every day Google will send you a list of the most recent articles surrounding them. For instance,
- Morning Brew – Quick rundowns of everything that’s happening in the world, not just this crazy virus.
- TLDR – A tech-specific newsletter with the MOST interesting stories.
Schedule your day
Make a calendar of your day, week, or month if you need to
- Krisp – How to make a realistic remote work schedule
- TopTal – How to make remote working work for you
- Doist – Remote work habits
Design & Creativity:
If you’re in a creative field, staying inspired in hard times is the most difficult. Surrounding yourself with creativity is a good way to keep the spark alive.
Staying Inspired
- The Design Kids – 10 design things to do in isolation – on Instagram
- AIGA – the professional association for design
- Eye on Design – from AIGA
- Ad 2 – for design and marketers 32 and under
Create
Create for the sake of creating.
See if any workshops in your area are offering remote classes.
Remote Work:
Whether you’re new to remote work or have been forced to dip your toes in. Take some time to brush up on how this style of work operates.
Know the challenges
Torque – 5 Challenges of Working Remotely (And How to Overcome Them)
Communication
Don’t forget your camera is on when you’re video chatting, even when you don’t have the window up lol.
Slack is AMAZING. But if you’re working with a team, find the best communication tool that everyone is on board with.
Freelance Style
Remote Marketing Professionals – Join or follow We Are Rosie
1575 Remote Jobs From 100+ Companies Hiring Remotely in February 2020
Check out the Freelancing Females Facebook group for #opportunities
Productive Downtime:
Not to say that when the ‘workday’ is over you should continue ‘working’, but depending on what your new routine looks like for you personally, we’ve got some tips that usually keep us busy before or after 5pm.
Check-in with yourself
Revisit your 2020 New Year Resolutions
Education
Here are 450 Ivy League courses you can take online right now for free.
Organization
Work through your extended to-do list (you know, those looooong time goals that have been in the back of your mind for months or even years.)
Pack and track. A Super awesome labeling system for when packing boxes!
Use Unroll.Me to clean up your inbox.
Personal Growth:
Taking time for yourself, friends, and family is more important now than ever (at a distance of course). Whatever your hobbies or self-care routine may look like, if it involves other people and community, find ways to make it work remotely.
Health
30 days of yoga – Yoga with Adriene
Connect with your therapist to see if they are offering virtual sessions.
Mindfulness
Keep a journal. Anxiety and fear is normal right now. Writing your thoughts and feelings down is a good way to work through them.
Clean out the social clutter – Unfollow or remove unhelpful pages or people from Facebook. Mark your favorite and more inspiring pages as ‘See First.’
Connection
Zoom and Google Hangouts are now listed in the top 10 apps to download, get acquainted with them, while they are the leaders in communicating for businesses, they’re great for chatting with friends too! Both are offering extended free advanced features during this time.
Business Growth:
For folks who can’t work IN their business during this time, think about how you can work ON your business. Use this lull as a tool to propel you forward and come out ahead.
Stabilize Your Foundation
Rework or create your business plan.
Tech & Marketing
Learn a little bit about SEO for your website, even if it’s just on the blog or article side.
Learn Mailchimp
Plan your social media content for the next few months. Make it authentic.
If we missed anything that you think would be beneficial for folks to know, shoot us a message and we’ll add it to this list! We’ll be updating this post periodically as we discover more helpful tools.
