Since the lockdowns in Europe happened in 2020, working from home and Zoom calls have become the new normal. Adjusting to this new way of working has been a challenge for many of us.
How to take care of your mental health? How to stay productive and motivated? How to achieve a good work-life balance when your office is also your living room?
Here are my top tips, and those of 3 fellow solopreneurs who have always worked from home.
Self-accountability and work-life balance
The one thing that has helped me stay productive as a solopreneur is to hold myself accountable.
I set myself monthly and weekly goals and I make *realistic* to-do lists every day, that I can actually check off without working 12 hours a day. Not only do I have a better sense of how many tasks I can squeeze in a day, but it also gives me a great sense of accomplishment.
I also have several accountability buddies who check up on me about my monthly and weekly goals.
But being productive isn’t the most important thing when working from home. Having a great work-life balance is. And that’s not always easy when your living room turns into your office.
Here’s my top tip: implement a shutdown routine.
Set a timer for the end of your workday if you have to! Turn off your computer and your business phone. Do something that marks the end of your workday and the start of your evening. Exercising is a good way to do that. If you’re really a workaholic, you can also ask your family to keep an eye on you and make sure you’re not “just checking emails” for an extra hour at 9 pm.
Showing up for yourself
When the pandemic hit, our lives and routines were turned upside down, and we were bombarded with news that we had no control of. Like many people, I felt that the only way to avoid losing sanity in this new situation was to turn to things I could control.
I also read a fabulous book “Indistractable” by Nir Eyal. The author defines three life domains as follows: you, relationships and work. “You” are at the centre of these 3 domains. “Taking care of yourself is at the core of all 3 domains, because the other two depend on your health and wellness”, he writes.
As a solopreneur, I immediately identified with this. I am my business, so if I am not OK, then neither is my business. In my weekly calendar there are now time slots for yoga, reading, sport and cooking healthy meals, alongside the business development objectives and client work.
I show up for myself and my business just as much as I would for a prospective client.
Thriving through virtual coworking
The lockdown starting in spring 2020 completely derailed my gym and networking routines and left me hanging in the air. Although I have been working as a freelance translator from my home office for ten years, I now found myself at home ALL THE TIME with very little social interaction feeling more and more isolated. The solution: virtual coworking sessions!
I’m part of a business coaching program for translators, and we decided to start hosting coworking sessions via Zoom. I run a 2-hour-session each Tuesday and Thursday morning from 10 am. We now have about 15 sessions per week in total, covering several time zones.
How does it work? We keep our cameras on and work for 25 minutes, then we have a chat for 5 minutes and repeat. A truly fantastic system! It feels like having colleagues.
It enormously helped with my productivity, accountability, and business. And I made new friends along the way. Even after this pandemic was over, we kept our virtual coworking sessions.
Coping with lockdown through indoor exercise
Cycling, the outdoor variety, has played a key role in my life both from a physical health and a mental health perspective for many years. As a solopreneur, it’s way too easy to end up locked to a keyboard, so it’s been my means of escape for quite some time.
However, the lockdown restrictions imposed in the UK from mid-March 2020 meant that it was not possible to ride outdoors with anyone else who wasn’t part of my household. With a child being home-schooled too, I couldn’t simply go outside for my hour of outdoor exercise without some considerable planning and negotiating, so I took my cycling indoors and signed up to an indoor cycling platform.
While riding a bike on a turbo trainer may not replace the freedom and fun of riding outside, the platform offers organised group rides, training workouts and races, all meaning I was able to create a much-needed exercise schedule to help me cope with lockdown and know when I was going to get my endorphin fix.
How about you? What helps you achieve a good work-life balance and stay productive and motivated when working from home?