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Happy Wednesday and more importantly Happy Work Wednesday! It is always fun to do one of these posts where I get to combine both my style and normal advice with some of my work advice. If you are like me then you are still working from home and will be for a while. The way the world is right now and all of the risks, in general I would just prefer to stay working from home. There has been a lot that has been happening over the last couple of months from Covid-19, hatred crimes and just injustice as a whole. We are worried about friends and family that are sick, going even to the grocery store, or what we are going to see on the news next. It is a crazy time since transitioning from working from home and can play a lot on your physical and mental state as well. It can be hard staying focused and motivated sometimes and can be extremely stressful. I can completely relate to you 100% right now, and am sharing my tips on trying to stay focused and motivated during all of this with your work.

Staying Focused and Motivated Tips

• Have Designated Break Times: Sometimes we just have to look away and take a stroll through our house, water our plants, or mentally turn it all off for a little bit. I don’t do the Pomodoro technique, but I do try to put a timer on my phone to take (2) 15 minute breaks and a lunch break if I don’t have a million meetings happening. This is so healthy to just take a refresh and get back to being focused.
• Don’t Try to Read Everything In the News: This is extremely hard to do right now because we want to listen to the news about our health, safety, and obviously our economy as well. I think it is important to stay informed, but new stuff comes out daily that can really give your head a complete whirl. Sometimes these news updates can provide more stress that actually messes up your motivation.
• Wake Up and Read Something Inspiring: I have mentioned this before as part of my daily routine, and believe that it truly sets the stage for how the rest of your day and your attitude will be. I read my daily Catholic reflection, but there are plenty of other examples of things that are motivational and how you can relate it to your work you do and your whole life as well.
• A Lot of People Are Distracted Right Now, Don’t Take it Personally:If you are leading a meeting and thought that it was going to go really great and then you get no response or just only negative feedback, don’t take it personally. This is extremely hard for me to do and honestly you want to scream/cry or ask why did you even join this call? Just like we might have off days, your co-workers and also leadership are dealing with similar stuff. There is a lot of demand on everyone right now and we are being pulled in multiple directions. It is important to just pause and understand that for a while and get back on your feet and start again for the next meeting.
• Look Back On Your Successes: Typically a lot of people will look on the negative thing, and if one thing goes bad they will focus on that for the rest of the day or week. People are generally giving feedback to see you succeed, even if you have had to redo something a million times. That practice makes perfect saying can take on a whole new meaning when you are getting ready for an executive presentation. When you feel like you are not staying focused or can’t get motivated to get it right, think back on all of your successes you have had so far. This is a big game changer in helping you persevere and move forward.
• You Can’t Wear Too Many Hats: This is a very hard one. I know that I typically have been wearing a lot of different hats at work. I am in the weeds with some of the technical subject matter experts, am project managing, helping with designs sometimes, and giving presentations. In order to not get burnout and stay motivated, you have to take a step back and understand that you can’t wear all of these hats all of the time either.
• It Can Wait Until Tomorrow/Log Off: You are not the best focused after a certain time frame anyway, so why do you have to be checking your phone for emails or staying on for way too long? I understand that there are certain deadlines or you get on a roll, but typically we already know when our mind does the best during the day for certain tasks, and it is not at these random times. Your brain will start focusing on 50 other tasks and staying focused on one thing turns out to be looking at several different things, which is not the most productive.
• Look at Your Goals/Take Courses: When you get in a slump and you have taken a day off of vacation already, it is time to look at your goals or take certain courses. I find that it is helpful for me to have updated my goals with what skills I want to achieve personally that will make a difference on my work tasks, but also on my interactions with others. Taking online free courses on skill sets that you want to refresh on or learn are great motivations that can truly make a difference.

I hope you enjoyed all of my favorite tips here. You are not alone right now in this weird time where we feel like it isn’t getting back to normal. I know that a lot of people don’t even have jobs right now, which I feel for you. No matter what state you are in, I think we can all use a little focus and motivation to help us get through. It all takes little steps and some days are better than others. I hope you are able to use some of these tips to get a better grasp on your next day 🙂