Need some remote productivity inspo?

I’ve been working at home for twenty years. That’s a long time. It’s the amount of years I’ve been in my current home, which has changed a lot to suit my family’s ever-changing personal and professional needs. When COVID hit and everyone had to stay home, even though I’d always been working from home, it affected me because now I had two other office mates I never had before. We adapted; overcame.

This month’s theme on our Staff Instructor Page is Optimizing remote and hybrid work, and I thought I’d share with you the things that work for me to remain productive, energized, and inspired, day in and day out. Rain or shine. Pandemic, seasonal endemic, or healthy.

Use a small second monitor for calendaring and messaging.

The biggest productivity killer for me is by a long shot. Nothing can come close to how jarring an ill-timed text message can be to a good work session. And 99% of the time, the messages are asking about something on my calendar. Stopping to look things up is also a productivity killer, as if I don't remember to do it in that moment, it might not happen at all!

My solution was to get a small, USB-powered travel monitor JUST for calendaring and messaging. I found a 15.6" portable monitor on Amazon.com, turned it vertically, and brought over iMessage (this can also work for Teams, or Google Hangouts). I then wanted to bring over my Google Calendar, which I access via the web. You can do this by dragging over the site to the second screen, but as the monitor is small, I needed to take as much advantage of screen real estate as possible. With Chrome, it's possible to create a window that removes all toolbars and menus.

Watch how I do this with Google Calendar here:

Now I can work uninterrupted on my monitor, and while the texts still come in, and I still need to look up dates, reschedule things and more, I can do it while leaving my main screen pristine and intact and the messages come into the second monitor, not where I'm working.

Rotate where you work during the day

I work on a laptop also, and it gives me the ability to be portable in my own house. The trick for me was to make spaces I actually enjoy working in. While I understand this needs a certain amount of buy-in from all your household members, remember that it's OK to want your house and working areas to be a certain way. I used to see articles all the time about making sure you have a dedicated work space that sets boundaries from your personal living areas, blah blah blah! Sorry, those days of luxurious living are over! Now you probably have various family members fighting for every inch of space to work.

I used to have a separate room with a desk. Now it has a giant treadmill in it as I can't go to the gym anymore, and I live in New England where my nose hairs will freeze if I wanted to exercise outside. And there is also a large pile of laundry blocking the door. In fact it's safe to say there is a large pile of laundry blocking nearly every door.

Desperate times calls for compromise, and as I couldn't work at the coffee shop anymore, I brought the coffee shop to me. I made an empty space near a window, and invested in a cafe table I found on the Internet. It is now my favorite afternoon spot, where I can have a 2PM coffee and recharge during the afternoon slump. That's where I am now, typing.

A great side effect of this is that I'm not the only one enjoying it. Other members of my family use it, as well as guests that come over.

In fact, since this photo was taken, it's evolved quite a bit, complete with cafe lighting, chalkboard menu and letterboard.

Go analog! Try a paper planner as an auxiliary mental organizer.

I know, I know - I'm Queen Google Calendar, iOS, digital, gadget lover. And it's still true. My online calendar runs it all. But having a digital calendar doesn't mean we're immune to surprises and disorganization.

I bought a planner I absolutely LOVE using. That's the important step. You have to love it so you'll use it. I bought one that I love the feel of, the smell of, the way it unsnaps and lets me customize it. There are many, many different types, and I can go into them all in a different article later. There are ringed organizers. Disc planners. Thick card stock. Hobonichi-style planners with thin tomoe-river paper. Daily, weekly or monthly styled inserts.

I've used them all, and still rotate frequently, but I always use a weekly style. My favorite routine is that every Sunday night, I sit down with my planner, Google Calendar, markers and stickers, and do a weekly spread. I write out every appointment and to-do, but only for the upcoming week. That way, there's no surprises, and I can start on Monday recharged and with a plan.

Bonus: Playing with stickers! Coloring! And of course, the whole not missing appointments thing.

Here are some examples of the different sizes and spreads I have had over the years.

I'd love to know if you want to hear more about the paper planners, so let me know in the comments, or if you use one and how it's helped you. Let's also hear your favorite tips on how you stay sane and productive in a remote environment. I made a coffeehouse in my own home, so trust me - no idea is too weird or offbeat. This is a safe space. I know most of us are probably reading this in pajamas.