We Can Work From Home (oh, oh, oh-oh)

I haaaaaaate working from home. Always have. I need the discipline of getting up and going somewhere else to work to actually get work done. Also, I don’t get to see my friends at Dunkin’, and they miss me when I don’t visit every day. Also, there’s–

Wait, this will be easier:

TOP TEN REASONS I PREFER TO WORK AT THE OFFICE

  1. The Coke Freestyle machine – Diet Dr. Pepper all day long!
  2. Contact with other humans
  3. Less talking on the phone. (How does my calendar fill up so quickly with phone calls when I’m working remotely?!)
  4. Way more lunch options than what’s currently in my sad fridge
  5. A bigger computer monitor, printers, scanners and all the regular office tech stuff. My apartment isn’t large enough to have all those things.
  6. Not getting jealous of my cats who spend the day napping (well, LESS getting jealous because I can’t see them blatantly throwing their relaxation in my face)
  7. Sunlight! (My Chicago apartment courtyard isn’t nearly as bright as the 12th floor of our downtown office building.)
  8. Did I mention the constant flow of Diet Dr. Pepper?
  9. All my files and “work stuff” are here
  10. A reason to take a shower and put on pants

On the other hand, my co-worker, Ellen, LOVES working at home in Phoenix. She’s got an entire home office set up in her house. She is also a much better cook than I am and her new kitten (hi Posey!) runs around all day.

But what if I had to work from home? In Chicago, we’re fortunate in that we’ve had few very restrictions about being out in public places while we continue to learn more about COVID-19 (coronavirus), but they’re probably coming soon. If I had more time in the day, maybe I’d start thinking about how I can outfit my apartment in case of an emergency without losing too much productivity (and Vitamin D). Luckily, that’s where the Errand Solutions Luv Your Life Specialists can help! I just sent them my top ten list, and they’re already hard at work on coming up with some ways I can have an easier transition to working from home if/when the time comes. (If you’re one of our current customers, take a look at the News tab of your app for all kinds of helpful info about how you can prepare yourself; don’t forget to wash your hands for 20 seconds while singing!)

What if there are members of your team who are like Ellen and always work from home? Remote workers don’t get a lot of the same perks they would find in the office, and that’s not really fair. (I feel bad that Ellen doesn’t get to use the Coke machine.) A virtual solution like the ones we provide is a great benefit that actually benefits your entire workforce, including those who work “off-campus”.

From planning out a productive home office space to finding an automated cat toy that will keep your pets entertained, Errand Solutions can help. Contact our business development team for a demo today!

Beat the Clock: Ways to Improve Your Time Management

February is National Time Management Month! While it’s not an official government holiday, it’s the perfect excuse to look at your habits and find out how you can make slight changes to save you time at both work and home. Check out just a few of these time management tips:

Track Your Time Waste

To better manage your time, you need to find out where you’re wasting it. What are your time bandits? Do you spend too much time on Facebook? Texting? Watching TV? Start writing it all down! By tracking your daily activities, you’ll be able to form an accurate picture on where your time might be being wasted. There are also apps to help you track your online time, specifically. Programs like RescueTime run the background of your computer or mobile devices and tracks the time on websites and applications, giving you a detailed report at the end of the day.

Make a Plan

Take the information you’ve gained from tracking your time and create a plan. Set goals on how much time you’ll spending on different activities each day and track whether you’ve accomplished them. There are plenty of software programs, apps and other tools you can use to make that happen – including bullet journals. Bullet journals, a recently popular trend, is a journal method that accommodates a variety of different planning systems. You’re supposed to fill the pages with bulleted lists (hence, the name), but also calendars, to-do lists, diary entries, brainstorming notes, doodles and even habit-tracking. Personally, bullet journals were a lifesaver when it came to planning my wedding last year – from lists of potential vendors to sketching out table arrangements, it was the perfect place to keep everything organized. But whether through bullet journals or an app, sticking your plan is key to improving your time management.

Prioritize

Start each day by prioritizing everything that needs to be accomplished. You may have 35 items you want to get done, but if you don’t have the time for all of them (and you probably won’t), it’s important to get the most vital ones done first. A good way to visualize this to think about your day as a bucket, and each of your to-dos is a rock. The truly important items are big rocks and the less important tasks are pebbles. If you fill the bucket with your pebbles first, there won’t be enough room for any rocks. Focus on the rocks first, and if you have time left over, you can start on the pebbles, which will fill in the empty spaces around the rocks. You may have some leftover pebbles at the end of the day, but at least your rocks will have a home in the bucket.

Set Time Limits

There are certain tasks that could take the whole day if you let them, so it can be helpful to set a time limit on those. For example, you could probably spend your entire day just reading and answering emails. Instead, block one hour of time devoted strictly to emails and stick to it. Hate cleaning? Try the 20-10 system – Micky is a big fan! He sets a timer for 20 minutes and spends that cleaning in one area. When the timer goes off, he sets another timer for 10 minutes, and does something fun or relaxing during that time. Micky says he finds that the mundane tasks get done faster when breaking them in to smaller, more manageable pieces.

Establish Routines

Just like you may have a morning routine for getting ready, creating routines for the day can be incredibly helpful. When you know what you’re already going to do next, you don’t have to waste time thinking and trying to decide. When these routines are established, it will become second nature and you’ll start getting through them quicker and quicker. If you plan on a 20-10 cleaning time every night, you can get those mega-cleaning Saturdays out of your routine and make time for something for fun.

Outsource

A huge part of successful time management is delegating or outsourcing certain items when you can. You’re not superman/woman and nobody expects you to be able to do everything in one day. Take advantage of people on your team (or our team!) and ask for help. Did you know you could have a personal concierge at your disposal? A service like Errand Solutions allows you (and your employees/coworkers) to outsource small tasks like making dinner reservations to time-suckers like planning your vacation. When it comes to a company’s time management, Errand Solutions is a huge asset.

Want to learn more? Get time back on your side and contact us today!