Staying productive as a couple working together at home…
It’s no secret that we are a couple in business with three small children! The kids make their way into our content on a daily basis. We were working together from home well before we were all locked down in the great pandemic of 2020, in fact its been nearly 10years…But how do we stay productive while working from home? We’re not going to say its easy, we’re only human! But we thought that this week we would share just a few things that have allowed us to stay more productive without filing for divorce!!!
Creating a productive workspace…
Now we will be the first to admit that we by no means live in a clutter free show home! We are also happy to admit that a lot of the time the two of us will be sat on our laptops on the sofa with the TV on in the background. [ as we are right now whilst writing this blog] But we have made a massive effort to create a productive office space for times in which we really need to focus and be completely undistracted. Finding a space in the house where we can close the door on everything else going on in the building has made a massive difference.
Embracing both paper and digital diaries…
Our brains are wired differently..fact. And although we have a shared, colour coded, cloud based diary, sometime a pen and paper is all you need. In the video above we talk about how we work on our diary management week by week…
The weekly meeting is a game changer for productivity…
One of the biggest differences we have made to how productive we are as a business is the introduction of the weekly Monday meeting. Now we appreciate that there are two of us in this business but carving out this time every week even if you are a solopreneur is such a worthwhile time investment.
Each and every Monday morning at 9am [ once we’re back from the school run] we sit down with a coffee and our laptops, review the week just gone, spend sometime looking at our statistics and run through the week ahead in fine detail. By appreciating each others calendars and priorities alongside all of our family and personal commitments we ensure that we are on the same page at all times.
And yes, our to-do lists are often about ten pages long but we do cut ourselves some slack and we try and give ourselves just one daily priority that we need to get done. The one non-negotiable that we want to achieve.
We also set just THREE monthly goals that we write on our office white board. We keep it simple, yes we would love to achieve Yellow world domination but manageable steps makes it easier for us to get there and feel accomplished on our way!!
The cloud.
It needs no real explanation. We use the cloud for EVERYTHING. [See video!!!!]
And last but not least…The car.
Our most productive place is always when we’re in the car. This might not be the same for you but we highly suggest finding “that” place away from home that you can have some distraction free thinking time. We find that if we’re struggling in the day, or can’t agree on a project or get inspiration the first thing we will do it pour two coffees into our travel mugs, jump in the car and drive. Most of the time there will be no particular destination in mind but the minute we are in a different space and the radio is on our brains kick into action. We have to appreciate that, and especially over the last year, we live in the same house, we are parents in the same house, we work in the house we are a team of just two people without the most buzzing of social lives with three kids under our feet. Sometimes the best way to be inspired is to change the vista.
We really hope you enjoy todays video. Let us know in the comments if you have any of your own tips for staying productive!
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