Working from Home (with Kids) | My Productivity Tips

One of the most important things when it comes to working remotely is to have clarity about what you need to do, what matters for your work that day, because it's really easy to get distracted at home. And that's not— that doesn't mean they're necessarily all bad things. Like, you probably have kids running around, you might have a pet that needs, you know, that a dog that is thrilled that you're here, and then a cat that is maybe more ambivalent to your existence. I don't know, I don't have a cat, that's just what I hear. That doesn't mean your distractions are all bad, but it does mean that they exist.

I accidentally got paid all over me.

Doesn't look very accidental. As I've studied productivity and talked with high-performing people over the last several years, one of the most consistent and common characteristics and actions that they share is an evening review that then propels them into a morning preview. And one of the things that can be really useful with that, whether you call it journaling or like say the evening version of Morning Pages, gratitude journaling, any of those things that help you think about what you've done during the day, what the wins were, what you're grateful for, who you helped, what tasks were done and still are left to do tomorrow. And that's when you start to transition tonight thinking about what are the most important things that you need to do when you get up and get going in the morning. To the morning. The important things that I make sure I'm doing in the morning before the boys wake up, besides making delicious coffee, is I'm getting a few entries down in my daily journal as well as knocking out the top tasks and priorities in my bullet journal. The reason that this matters is that it's really important to be clear clear on when your meetings are, when you have to like, you know, be somewhere on Zoom, and then what do you need to get done when you actually have time to do it. Now for me, this is the little bit of time before they wake up in the morning, during— they're up. Yes. And back to me. So that time just was reduced. So that's the 4, that's Kanan, our 4-year-old, and pretty good at staying in his room until it's wake-up time. Currently it's 6:49, which really isn't that bad. I was just hoping for, you know, a tad more. But now I know during this pre, you know, out of, not wake-up time now, but out of, out of your room coming downstairs to eat breakfast time, time that I have a little bit of creative time to work, or just at this point probably just to fire off some emails and important messages that need to be followed up on, just so I get those out first thing in the morning. And then the good deep work time for me is going to be during nap time for the 1-year-old and rest period for our 4-year-old. But even if I get up 20-30 minutes ahead of them, it's still really important to me not just because I get to make, you know, stress-free, kid-free coffee, but also because that way I'm very proactive in how I'm thinking about the day mentally. I know what the important tasks are connected to the evening review the previous night, but I know what those important tasks are. So when I get time that I'm able to work, whether they're like doing independent play or they're watching you know, something on TV, or, you know, it's that golden, you know, nap time, rest period, uh, hour or two. That way I know I'm not, I'm not being pulled away by like the first thing that I see on my computer when I open it up for that work block. I'm getting right into— I can look right at the Bullet Journal, right at the Full Focus Planner, and start to get to work on what I know matters most to me this day. To be honest, that was one of the biggest things that when I started working remotely, and especially working remotely when I was also the primary caregiver for the boys, is to be really intentional about the important work that needs to be done. I was too often like being, you know, waking up at the same time as them and being not just reactive to their needs, but also like then I would open up my computer and I'd try and, you know, like fire off some things, but whatever I saw first would get my attention. Another little trick that I have found really helpful when it comes to, you know, being productive on my computer first thing in the morning or when I first open my computer is the previous night, whatever app you know that you want to use first that you want to be focused on or whatever task, go ahead and have that one open already on your computer. So when you lift up when you, you know, lift up the laptop or you power on the desktop, whatever it might be, that's the first thing that you see. You're not looking at email, you're not looking at social media, certainly. You can get right into what you have already defined and already understand is the most important thing for you to do. If your kids wake up as hungry as mine do, then it's really, really good to have something ready to, if not have all of breakfast ready, but at least, at least have something to tide them over, whether it's, you know, a single egg or toast. Just something to throw at them, place in front of them gently, kindly. One of the things that Kanan really likes in his oatmeal is honey. But because it melts and is basically invisible, if you put it on too soon, he likes to what?

Witness.

Witness! And so we make it very Mad Max: Fury Road of Kanan, witness me! Witness! Witness! Witness! Little camera, camera swing move.

Can I try that?

Bad light here.

Can I, can I try that?

So gonna be cleaning up, get everything cleared, and then maybe do a little whatever they will allow themselves to get done from a self-independent play perspective while I work there. And again, focusing on those top tasks, making sure that I'm making progress amongst a little bit of chaos. And then we'll go on a walk, have a snack, more play, more work, lunch, rest period. And rest period is really where it gets dialed in. Just after 1 o'clock, and I'm in the second of my three main phases of the day for really getting important work done. The first one is early in the morning, wake up early, get started on the most important tasks, look through the important messages, reply to anything on Slack, email, or Intercom that definitely needs a beginning of the day response. And then I'll check in on things. I'll fire off some emails, like just some, some lightweight message responses throughout the morning. And then right after lunch, boys go down for either nap or rest period, and this is when I have about a 2 to 3 hour stretch. So now that I have this focused time, I need to make sure that these top tasks are being taken care of, like important emails, following up with people, and then the two biggest things are one, working on this video, but also a new course lesson that I'm putting together on sales pages, and send mostly a few emails that I want to make sure get out to important people before the weekend hits. Another thing that I'll often do to make sure that these top tasks and just, you know, my, my bullet list for the day is top of mind, I'm not getting too distracted by anything is that I keep it right here below my computer, and then of course, you know, keyboard, everything right here. That way, as I'm working, as I'm going through things, I can always see that I have these lists available to me. And if, you know, for whatever reason, whatever reason there may be, I get a little stuck or I just need something else to do to take my mind off a particular task and just redirect some of my mental energy, I have that whole list right there ready to go. So right now we're at the time in the day where Benson, knock on wood, is still taking his nap, but Kanan's rest period is over, and so he's watching Wreck-It Ralph, cruising through some more emails, and working on a course lesson. So not as focused a bit of time because he's there. And so that's why it's so important during the, I would say about the hour before they wake up, the hour during rest period, and then the hour-ish after they go to bed, really make that your time where you have to do your, your most focused work, your most creative work, and really get used to kind of that time blocking cadence to make sure that you have time to do this. Work like now or work when they're doing independent play is what I will do for like responding to emails, outlining course ideas, uh, just doing that regular follow-up, like more not as like deep creative work. Really important, understand your times when you can focus and make sure that you really dial in during those like times of the day. 4:45, boys are up, can't really be any work done right now. And so we like to come out and play on the porch, and the workout that I will do is usually just some kind of playing with them, doing push-ups, sit-ups. I might hold them while I'm doing said push-up or sit-up. I might also, you know, just lift them in the air. And dance or something. Yes.

They can like be your weight.

Yeah, that's a good, that's a good plan right there. If you want to know like more at-home workouts you can do, a little side project that I started is called remoteworkout.club. Check that out. I post new workouts every day. Some of them are very kid-friendly.

Can everybody see me?

Yeah, they can see you.

This guy has a furry head.

Yeah, that's the microphone. It's 10:22. It is time for the third shift of the remote work with two young kids day. What am I doing at this time that is different than the others? Well, during these main phases, that's when I'm really, really focused on something creative that I want to be doing. And since, you know, no one's awake, there are a couple of things that I still want to knock out today, especially like from a creative needle-moving perspective. And so what I'm going to do is work on this for an hour, knock out some good progress, and then I'm gonna do my evening review and make sure that I have my top tasks planned for the next day because my wife is working again. Shout out to the nurses and healthcare heroes. We love you. You're doing amazing work. And so I'm gonna work on this evening review, top tasks for tomorrow. See you in a minute. All right, so here we are back again. It is right back where we started up. Time for me to do my evening review and preview tomorrow's to-do, the most important tasks that I know in the time that I have are most critical for me to get done. I hope that you enjoyed this video, you found it useful, especially in this new new, like a lot of people working from home, a lot of people working with kids, it's easy to get like caught up in, I really have to do this work. And a lot of times that is true. Be patient with yourself, with your kids, in, in a really crazy unprecedented time. So there are 3 main points that I hope you took away from this video. Number 1, always enter the day understanding what your top tasks are so that when you actually have time to work with, especially if you have focused time to work anytime during the day, you know exactly what you need to get into, you know what's going to move the needle, and you know what is going to drive results for your work, for your business, whatever it is. Second, make sure that you understand the time that you have available for deep work and the time that you need to have available just for doing some of that like firing off emails, making sure your Slack messages are responded to, just staying up to date with your team. That's number 2. Make sure that you understand what time, what times during your day and which blocks of time during your day are best served for different types of work and focus. Number 3, make sure that you communicate a lot with everyone in your life at this point. I'm not even just talking about like, hey, you haven't talked to you know, a friend in a while, so give them a call. Probably still give them a call, but that's not what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is your coworkers, the people that you report to or that report to you, and especially your spouse. Make sure that if you're living with other people, especially if you're living with a spouse, living with kids, communicate to them. Make sure they know which times of day you really need to be working. I will even talk to to my 4-year-old and say, hey, Daddy has to be on a meeting for like, you know, 20 minutes. If you really need anything, come see me, but if not, just, you know, be in your room and read or listen to an audiobook or play with Legos or something like that. And even though he often interrupts me, I think it's important that I'm communicating to him like, this is what I do and this is how I'm working and I get to be with you and be with home, but I also still at times need to work as well. Rooting for all of you. I know it's a pretty wild time. If you have any questions about working from home and especially working from home with kids also at home, then go ahead and drop a comment below. I will respond to all of them, help you out any way that I can with advice or lessons. I've been working from home for about 7 years now, and so I'm pretty used to it. But just like all of you, working from working from home now is different than all the other working from home that I've done before. Can't go to coffee shops, kids are always at home, and a lot of days like today, it, you know, I said my wife's a nurse at hospital here in Nashville, and you know, she's a hero along with all the other healthcare heroes that are out there. And so I get to hang with my kids, I get to work, very fortunate. And so if you have any questions, please let me know. And thanks for watching this video. Bye.