How To Work From Home (From An Experienced Remote Worker)

Many of you reading this are being asked to work from home for… a while, depending on what happens next with COVID-19.

For some of you, this will be a first; for others this is old hat. I belong to the second group. I’ve been working from home for 15 years now.

(I keep offering to move to Indy so I can go into the Bloomerang offices every day but they keep telling me it’s fine to stay in Virginia. Hmmm…)

Anyway, I’ve made it work fairly well by following two simple rules.

The first is to get dressed, every day. People, when they find out that I work from home ask all the time how I like working in my sweatpants and I tell them I wouldn’t know. I get up and get dressed like I’m going to the office everyday. Every. Single. Day. Your brain will make the connection that this is serious and allow you to focus more effectively on work.

Secondly, stay disciplined. I take breaks a few times a day to walk around the block, read the news, play with the cats, etc. But the rest of the day I dedicate to specific tasks and block my time off accordingly. If I don’t have phone appointments, I will have dedicated times to update my demo database, do some LinkedIn research and so on. I block them off on my calendar so I know not to let anything interfere with that task.

Fundraisers are naturally concerned about the coming weeks and months and their ability to keep donations flowing in without events that may be canceled, especially if they have to work from home and they believe that will result in decreased productivity.

Let’s flip that coin for a second. Believe it or not, you can INCREASE your productivity from home; and canceling events gives you the opportunity to spend more quality time (over the phone/Facetime) with your donors to firm up those relationships.

The American people have proven time and time again that we are generous and will help out. Do not abandon hope. The next few weeks and months will be chaotic and weird; if you allow yourself to be tossed on the waves of the storm constantly, your fundraising will suffer.

If you stay focused and disciplined though you can take advantage of the unfocused efforts of others and firm up your fundraising overall.