Thread by @heyblake

Remote work can be awesome.

It can also be super difficult.

Here are 40 habits to help you crush working from home:

Tip: Take a 10-minute break every hour

Difficulty: 1

How-To: Set up a spot in your calendar 10 minutes before every new hour. Stand up, take a break, enjoy yourself for a few.

Tip: Stretch and move

Difficulty: 1

How-To: In a meeting or taking a break, you need to move those joints. Stretch out, stand up, do jumping jacks, go jousting, whatever.

Tip: Wear pants

Difficulty: 1

How-To: I know it's cliche, but this makes a difference. At the very least put on some gym shorts.

Tip: Go outside at least twice a day

Difficulty: 1

How-To: Paging Captain Obvious: your body needs sunlight. Take a walk or go grab lunch. This will energize you more than you think.

Tip: Don't eat lunch at your desk

Difficulty: 1

How-To: Yes, that Dominos looks delicious. No, it doesn't belong at your desk while you Zoom with your team. Separate your living space from your work space if possible.

Tip: Take a deep breath break every hour

Difficulty: 1

How-To: You can use a guided app for this, or just close your eyes and breath at the top of every hour. Take a moment to reset your mind and dive back into the next task.

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Tip: Set aside time every day to learn something new

Difficulty: 1

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How-To: This is more for your sanity than your productivity. You'll probably do a lot of repetitive tasks when working from home. Set aside time to learn about something that interests you. Treat yourself and grow in the process.

Tip: Listen to pump-up music

Difficulty: 1

How-To: Doesn't matter if this is Taylor Swift, Binaural Beats, or the Phineas and Ferb soundtrack: listen to music that energizes you (especially at the beginning of a new task.)

Tip: Set up a distracting site blocker

Difficulty: 2

How-To: You'd be shocked how many times you subconsciously check Twitter per day. Set limits on when and how you can browse certain sites. I use Opal for this, but there are tons of other options.

Tip: Take a mental health day once per month

Difficulty: 2

How-To: We don't take enough full days off from work. If you can manage to take a day off per month just to recharge, you'll be able to do effective work much more consistently over time.

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Tip: Split your day into "Energetic" and "Non-energetic" portions

Difficulty: 2

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How-To: Figure out when you are most energized during the day. Schedule your biggest and most important tasks for that time. Do the same for your least energetic times of day. Schedule repetitive work for these times.

Tip: Determine what a successful day at home looks like

Difficulty: 2

How-To: Set a north star for each day that clearly tells you "If I accomplish X, today will be a good day." Meet that standard daily. Do more if you can, do the minimum if you can't do more.

Tip: Get a mic and webcam

Difficulty: 2

How-To: This will improve your communication. Zooms and Looms will sound better, look better, and make you feel a little better about hopping on calls all day. This also dramatically improves the quality of your recordings.

Tip: Add tasks to your calendar

Difficulty: 2

How-To: Don't just schedule meetings. Schedule your tasks. If you have to write a blog today, create a task on your calendar and block out the time you need. For best results, don't deviate from the time you set.

Tip: Conduct a Self Review every Monday

Difficulty: 2

How-To: Give yourself time to catch up with...you. Ask what went well last week. Ask what was tough last week. Assess your performance, and make goals for the coming few days. Take notes and keep track of your progress.

Tip: Prioritize your daily work

Difficulty: 2

How-To: It's not enough to have a to-do list. You have to prioritize the tasks and schedule them accordingly. Do your big tasks in high-energy windows. Make sure you can focus on only that task during that time.

Tip: Put your phone on the other side of the room

Difficulty: 2

How-To: What you can't touch or see can't distract you (at least as easliy.) Lock your phone away somewhere outside arm's reach. You have enough distractions at home, you don't need one more.

Tip: Write out weekly focal points

Difficulty: 3

How-To: Focal points are the tasks you need to accomplish this week that tie directly to your core goals.

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Tip: Establish 3-5 core goals weekly

Difficulty: 3

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How-To: These goals may carry over from the past week, and that's OK. What are the 3-5 most important things you can do this week? If nothing else got done but these, you would still feel accomplished. Tie all work back to these goals.

Tip: Tie all projects to a weekly goal

Difficulty: 3

How-To: What are the main projects you know you have to tackle this week? Make sure they tie directly into your core goals for the week. If they don't they shouldn't be included as priority projects.

Tip: Tie all tasks to a project

Difficulty: 3

How-To: Reverse engineer your main projects to find out the tasks that are required to complete them. Plan out a specific time on your calendar to complete each task.

Tip: Start and end at the same time every day

Difficulty: 3

How-To: The actual time doesn't matter. The consistency matters a lot. Wake up at X, start work at Y, and end the day at Z. Every single day.

Tip: Record explainer videos

Difficulty: 3

How-To: Meetings can quickly add up and add stress. Opt to record your thoughts or needs in a Loom video instead. Share the video with whoever needs it. Add to the discussion in Slack instead of Zoom.

Tip: Set non-negotiable focus hours

Difficulty: 3

How-To: Aim to have at least 2 hours of uninterrupted focus tiem daily. If meetings try to make their way on your agenda during these times, decline them. This time is crucial and it's easy to lose it.

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Tip: Don't expect to perfectly follow a routine

Difficulty: 3

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How-To: You won't shoot 100% on your routine every day. In fact, you'll mess it up more often than not. It's more detrimental to your productivity to stress about this than it is to let it happen. Create a routine and try to stick to it, but accept when it isn't possible.

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Tip: Add a 24-hour buffer to new tasks and ideas

Difficulty: 3

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How-To: Your team members will have great ideas. So will you. When a new idea or project goes up into the air, delay it for 24 hours. Don't start anything new right away. Sit on it to make sure it is worthwhile after giving it some time to sink in.

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Tip: Don't accept last-minute meeting requests

Difficulty: 3

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How-To: It's tough to say "no", especially to your friends and co-workers. But you have to respect your time first. If you get a request for a last-minute meeting, kindly ask to schedule for tomorrow (even if you're free.) Set the right precedent.

Tip: Tell people openly when you won't be online

Difficulty: 3

How-To: Don't be scared to say "I'll be offline between X and Y." Everyone is human. Everyone takes breaks. Everyone has to go to the doctor sometimes. Just be open about it.

Tip: Batch email management

Difficulty: 4

How-To: Pick one time per day to check and respond to email. Ignore the inbox the rest of the day. Go through and organize emails, first. Then go back and respond second.

Tip: Batch Slack management

Difficulty: 4

How-To: Pick two times per day to check and respond to Slack. Ignore it the rest of the day. You can always set keywords to follow urgent topics if needed.

Tip: Batch social media use

Difficulty: 4

How-To: Pick two times during the workday to check your social handles. This can be at lunch, on break, or at a dedicated stopping point.

Tip: Batch meetings together

Difficulty: 4

How-To: If you tend to have lots of meetings, try stacking them back-to-back instead of spreading them out. This makes it more likely you'll have focus time to complete deep work.

Tip: Make a meeting sandwich

Difficulty: 4

How-To: Put all meetings in the middle of the week, leaving you to do deep work on Mondays and Fridays.

Tip: Avoid multitasking at all costs

Difficulty: 4

How-To: Multitasking is the enemy to productivity. Your day should be planned out enough that you know what to tackle right now, and what's coming next. Do them one by one. When you tackle two tasks, you complete zero.

Tip: Document your days in a journal

Difficulty: 4

How-To: This one can be tough as it requires extra effort. But if you take notes during the day and compile after the fact, it can help. Keep a journal about daily work, learnings, questions, etc.

Tip: Set up clear boundaries

Difficulty: 5

How-To: Got kids? Pets? Annoying family members? Close the door. Set clear expectations for how available you'll be, when you'll take breaks, and when you need alone time.

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Tip: Embrace chaos

Difficulty: 5

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How-To: If you have a lot going on at your house, chaos is inevitable. Try to stick to your schedule, but don't beat yourself up if you chill with the kids for 30 minutes during the day or need to help out around the house. It happens. Embrace it.

Tip: Keep your mind on the same context

Difficulty: 5

How-To: Responding to emails and writing an email strategy are different tasks. Don't melt them together. Batch tasks into the same mental context.

Tip: Take good notes or record conversations

Difficulty: 5

How-To: Every meeting can be recorded. Software can transcribe your recordings. You can take manual minimal notes on all your projects and meetings daily. Your future self will thank you.

Tip: Don't try to do all of this at once

Difficulty: 0

How-To: Look at the difficulty scores and decide what you can try out right now. Add a couple of things on here and there and adjust to make it work for you.

That's all, folks!

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