Productivity expert Paula Rizzo shares a framework for remote and hybrid work, from finding your ideal work style to organizing your desk, email, and digital tools. She covers workspace design, setting boundaries so you're not always on call, and portable setups for moving between home and office.
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Hey there, welcome to Inside Scoop. I'm Paula Rizzo. If you're like me, you love to work from home. I've been working from home for the past, oh gosh, I don't know, 6 years since I started my business. And, uh, you know, my remote setup has changed through the years, but when the pandemic started, I felt pretty ready to go as far as, uh, being able to work from home and be productive. And I know that was not the case for everyone. And I actually created a LinkedIn Learning course all about how to be very productive when you're working in a remote environment. Because at the time, at the beginning, it was new to people. People were sort of just starting to do this. And I had some hacks and tricks and things that I was able to help with initially. But now it's even more important because that was sort of triage mode, right? Everybody needed to stay home and see how they could do their work from home. But now that we're working in these hybrid work environment and the way that we do things change, maybe you're only working from home. Now you really have to give some attention to how you work best. So I'm going to run you through in just a minute, a little preview of the course, because I think it would be really, really helpful for you to think this through as a longer-term strategy and not something that just happened for a couple of months or actually a couple of years, but to really do your, your best work to be able to create a space for yourself that is truly productive at home. Um, I'm a productivity expert, as you know. I have two courses, um, two, two books actually about productivity and list making. You can check those out if you go to paularizzo.com/listfulthinking. And, um, some of the concepts and things that are in the course do come from those books, so you will see some common themes. And I would love to be able to hear from you if you have questions, or maybe you have somebody who, uh, has some questions, or you think, oh, you know what, they're working from home now and they really need to be able to optimize their time better and set up their office in a better way. So please contribute to the conversation here. I would love to hear from you. And make sure that you are thinking through this for yourself, but also for your whole house, right? This is not just something that's gonna happen only for you. If you have other people that live with you, you're gonna want to talk to them a little bit too about what your best way to work is. So maybe they have some questions that they want to weigh in on here. So let's get started on the first piece of the puzzle. So the first one is determining your ideal productivity style. Now this is something that I talk about a lot in my second book, Listful Living, and it's all about how you work best. So what is your ideal productivity style? Thinking through what— not only time of day, but what are the things that are around you that you need to truly be productive. So, you know, what's in front of you? Do you have things in your office that spark joy? That you're looking at something really nice outside, maybe it's a, you know, a green space or, or whatever it is. These things matter, right? How many of you have ever worked in an office with that terrible overhead lighting and you think, oh, how am I gonna get anything done? I get it, you have to adapt to where you are sometimes, but when you have a choice, you should really dig in and think about what is your ideal space look like? Because you can design it if you want to. Uh, and so in the course, I do go through a lot of the things that are also in the book to be able to help you to determine what your productivity style is so that you can create that very intentional workspace. You don't have to just be sitting at the corner of the kitchen table anymore. Uh, when you organize that physical space, thinking about changing your surroundings— maybe the, the room that you were once working in doesn't work anymore for you, right? Maybe the orientation of where your desk is, is not great. Uh, you know, I'm in a new space myself and I have tried out different locations for my desk because I was in one space and I just didn't like it. I don't know why, I don't know how to describe it, but it just didn't feel good. So I moved it to the other side and flipped it around. I'm like, oh, this is nicer, this I like better. So you do sometimes have to do a little bit of trial and error to see about the physical space and also to adapt to small spaces. For a long time, and in the course you will see, uh, I lived in a New York City apartment with my husband and it was a tight squeeze. I even had a little closet that I turned into an office called my smoffice and I was able to utilize all of that space really, really smartly. So even if you don't have a lot of space, you can make sure that you have something that you can adapt that will really work. In the course, I also talk about your video studio because your office is now a video studio because you're probably doing a lot of video calls if you're working remotely. So being able to also think through, okay, what's behind me? What are the things that I'm going to integrate? What kind of equipment do I need? I talk through all of that because it's important to up your game in that way. It's not acceptable anymore to have your cat run in the background or, you know, whatever it is that's going on. That those days are long behind us. And also setting boundaries to be more productive. Now I do have a whole course about setting boundaries, but specifically if you're working from home, You know, just because you're sitting there doesn't mean that you're accessible or that you should be accessible all the time to anybody and everyone who's walking into your office or to your home space. So thinking through what, what that really looks like. Another really important piece of the puzzle here when we're talking about remote work is organizing your digital space. Now, this has to do with where all of your documents live, right? And so if you work for a company, they will likely have their own system. But for you to even start thinking through how you manage email, for instance, right? Do you have specific folders that you use for different clients? Like if it's a client, you have a folder for just that client, or do you have action items? That's how I do all of my, um, my email. It's all action-based. So if I have to reply to something, I have a reply folder. If I have to review something, I have a review folder. So I kind of go through those and I know exactly what I'm going to find, but it helps me to clear out my inbox in that way. So thinking through also your, your digital space, how you can communicate with people digitally. How can you be more effective using Slack or using any of the systems that now are available to us? That's probably the only way you'll see some of these coworkers, right, is to see them. Maybe you leave them voice or video messages, or they use Voxer or something like that. So talking about those types of tools that will really help you to communicate better as well. And then what about if you need to go into the office or you're working somewhere else, right? So you're taking what you have set up on the go. You have to have a strategy for that as well. And I do talk about that in this course because maybe you're going away or you're on vacation or you're working from somewhere else. Working remotely doesn't mean just working at home. So I want you to really have thought through what are the pieces that I have a checklist and I'll be able to take these things with me so that I can just set up wherever I am. Now, this is specifically very important if you are doing a hybrid work environment, which I know a lot of people are now. And I actually have two other courses that I created also for LinkedIn Learning, all about hybrid work. So the first one is Enhance Productivity in a Hybrid Work Environment, and there's a QR code there and you can check out that course because it does dig into this piece much, much more. I have another one as well called Be an Effective Hybrid or Virtual Employee. And this has some different strategies that you can use to be able to optimize working in a hybrid role. So you would be sometimes at home or remote, and then sometimes in the office. It can be jarring if you don't have a plan. So you can use the QR code there, or you can find any of my courses at paularizzo.com/linkedin, and there's a QR code there as well. But you know, you wanna be able to take your workspace with you wherever you go so that you can avoid disruption, so that you can literally sit down and get to work, so that it's not a lot of preamble of you getting started, getting situated, getting to— because that's part of the battle, right, is that when you move from workspace to workspace, it may not be the exact thing you're used to. And so how can we eliminate some of that in-between time? It's really important. So I hope that you will check out the course all about organizing your remote office for maximum productivity. The QR code is there, or or check out any of the courses that I have on LinkedIn. If you go to paularizzo.com/linkedin, you can check those out for sure. And, um, I also have a little freebie for you. So if you are into lists, which I know you probably are, I would love for you to check out my list-making starter kit. Go to paularizzo.com/list, and that will very much help you to be more organized and productive and get more done no matter where you're working. So thanks for watching. If you have questions, please leave them below. I will be checking and I'll see you next time.
