[rank_math_breadcrumb]

Working from home: like a boss

  • Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Author:  Lucy Bloom

Short Description

Suddenly half the world is working from home and many of us have new workplace surroundings to adapt to. Remember folks, it’s not the most intelligent or fittest of the species who will survive, it’s those who can swiftly adapt to change. I’ve spent huge chunks of my career working from home, so here are […]

Suddenly half the world is working from home and many of us have new workplace surroundings to adapt to. Remember folks, it’s not the most intelligent or fittest of the species who will survive, it’s those who can swiftly adapt to change. I’ve spent huge chunks of my career working from home, so here are my top ten tips for working good in the ‘hood:

  1. Dress for work. PJs make you work like a slob. Make your bed and “go to work” in your head.
  2. Dedicate a workspace that is ideally not in your boudoir. Under the current circumstances that might not be possible but it really is best not to work in your bedroom.
  3. Stick to a routine. I work in two-hour blocks during the day. I do three of those blocks, the earlier in the day, the better, for me and my brain. When I am pumping out a lot of work like finishing my last book or creating my new podcast show, I work in 8 or 10-hour slabs but I set a timer and stop for 60 seconds exercise every 20 minutes. I learned this pearler from my brother Pete. Twenty minutes shoots past fast, then do one minute of squats or lunges or run down to the letterbox and get your heart rate up. Then get back to it. It switches your brain on and keeps your blood pumping. If you find housework distracting to your workflow, put those tasks into your one-minute breaks. Put on a load of washing. Then get back to your desk, quick!
  4. Kill off interruptions. I’ve nuked all notifications on my phone and laptop. Put your phone on Do Not Disturb if at all possible. Quit your email program. Then dive into your work. Take a look at all those alerts when you are ready rather than when they barge into your focussed work time.

Working from home: like a boss

  1. If you have kids, the bad news is, in my experience, that kids under 12 will make sure you can’t get any work done at home. You’ll need to make plans for kids to be supervised. The good news is, in my experience, that high school-aged kids are able to do their schoolwork in the same chunks of time that I work at my desk. While we are all at home during what I am referring to as The Pandemonium, we are all working together AOK. But my kids are 12, 14 and 16 and the WiFi is holding up. Having said that, I was recording a podcast interview last week and my middle child walked in FOUR TIMES to ask if I wanted to lick the spoon.
  2. Reward yourself. I give myself my second coffee for the day once I have reconciled my bank accounts. It usually only takes a few minutes to clear a routine task that is crucial to my business and can become a giant, horrid task if it’s left to pile up. Pick something you are least fond of and smash it in the face, then reward yourself.
  3. If you’ll be using Zoom to have virtual meetings from home, sit where you can get the best natural daylight and be mindful of your background. Your boss or clients don’t want to see your bed or your laundry pile. Promise.
  4. Keep a daily log of the work you get done. This spurs you on to complete things faster and will gamify your own productivity. When I have managed remote teams, I have been keen to see how productive they are offsite. The best employees keep a simple log of work complete and would email that to me at the end of the day. As they got into their autopilot groove, they would only need to send me a weekly summary. If you do this for your boss, you will help them see that if they spend an hour on the phone to you each day, they are chewing through your time. This simple productivity log once helped me see that a member of my remote team was doing less than two hours of work a day. She was stacking multiple contracts. Naughty. Busted!
  5. No day drinking. Pandemic or no pandemic, save the goon for after hours.
  6. Take your usual commute time and DO something with that time. Have a separate project for yourself or for your work that is assigned to the time you were spending travelling. It will feel extra good to have something to show for the time saved by working from home.
  7. Have fun. This Corona-virus-isolation-work-from-home-caper won’t last forever so make the most of it. You get to choose the office playlist. Woot! You can have the dog at your feet and put the slow cooker on at midday. Stay focussed, have fun and you may well find your house to be an incredibly productive place to work.

Lucy Bloom is a professional speaker and management consultant. She’s the author of two books: Get the Girls Out: a memoir of love, loss and letting loose (HarperCollins 2019) and Cheers to Childbirth: a dad’s guide to childbirth support (Flamingo, 2020).

Contact Us at WeSpeak Global and follow us on Twitter

Author Profile

The articles, video and images embedded on these pages are from various speakers and talent.

These remain the property of its owner and are not affiliated with or endorsed by WeSpeak Global.

Similar to Working from home: like a boss

Blake Morgan

It’s not every day Leaders Can Build Relationships Through Transparency or you see a CEO dancing on TikTok. But being vulnerable and transparent is one of the reasons Ali Bonar has seen incredible growth and success with her company, Oat Haus.   Consumers are moving more towards sharing real experiences and less about hiding behind the perfect […]

  • Author: Blake Morgan
WS Logo 512

If you don’t prioritise your sleep, you are putting your health at risk. Good quality Sleep Weight Health is the diet pill we’ve all been looking for, the ultimate wrinkle cream and the secret to longevity. And guess what? — it’s free!   When we think of our beds and our pillows, we often forget […]

  • Author: Joni Peddie

I chuckled as I read the words in Kevin Kruse’s insightful book, 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management: “Throw away your task list.” In my time management and Juggling Elephants training programs I am continually surprised at the number of people who still use such a list as their primary guide for their […]

  • Author: Jones Loflin

Last month Renias and I helped a game reserve start a leopard habituation project in the Waterberg and here is my MESSAGE FROM A WILDEBEEST. A Tracker Academy project to track, find and form relationships with leopards. For the benefit of ecotourism lodges in the area. During the day we tracked leopards. In the evenings, […]

  • Author: Alex van den Heever
Noah St. John

What does it mean to be an inspiring leader? An inspirational leader is someone that people follow, if you’re a leader and nobody’s following you, you’re not really a leader or you lack leadership skills. Think of the world’s most inspiring leaders, who are inspiring leaders throughout history?   What does it mean to be an inspiring leader? An inspiring leader is someone […]

  • Author: Noah St. John
Ken Okel

To unlock employee motivation, you may need to change how you communicate special requests. These are things like important changes to operating processes or customer service procedures. You need people to embrace a different way of doing things. It has to be done right and it needs to be executed right away. But you notice […]

  • Author: Ken Okel
Scott McKain

Something about being Attracted to the PAST seems much more romantic than the future so Are you more attracted to the PAST or the FUTURE?. Maybe it’s because the past is a time we can look back on with nostalgia, or perhaps it’s because the future is an unknown quantity. Whatever the reason, it seems […]

  • Author: Scott McKain
WS Logo 512

I mean, isn’t that the nature of goals to begin with? What’s missing between you and your goals might be walking the walk of your goals — not just talking the talk. Or rather, running the run of your goals. I’ll tell you what I mean. Goals are easy to think of but harder to achieve, aren’t […]

  • Author: Sterling Hawkins

Our Mission

We are your partner creating memorable and engaging experiences that go beyond the event itself.

© All rights reserved 2025. Created using VOXEL THEME