Hey everyone. Welcome to the Be Bold, Make Waves Podcast, a show bringing you inspiring stories of women who are growing and scaling their business. I’m your host, Laura Kåmark, a website and tech integration specialist who works with online business owners who love their work and not their website. Join me as we have incredible conversations about business, mindset, productivity, and, of course, the website and tech behind the business. Let’s go ahead and dive in to this week’s episode.

Hello, and welcome to this week’s show. For those of you who don’t already know me, I’m Laura Kåmark website and tech automation specialist who works with women who love their work, but not their website. I have a special episode today, where I’m going to do a solo episode and go into three ways that I’m productive while working from home. So I thought this would be a little fun today. And a little bit different for us. But I’ve been talking to so many online friends lately, who have it seems like been struggling with staying productive. I have a lot of friends on Voxer. And we go back and forth throughout the week and hold each other accountable for things and something that I keep hearing come up time and time again is I feel like I sat at my desk, and I’m just not getting things done. And that have been asked Laura, what are you doing to stay productive at home. So I thought I would share with my audience and all my wonderful listeners three ways that I’m productive while working from home. So first I want to go back to when I first started working from home, it was back in 2013, I was still working my corporate job. And I had decided to move down to Southern California where I currently reside. my corporate job was given advance notice and they came to me and offered a to create a remote position which back in 2013 wasn’t really that common of a thing. It was a big company about 500 employees. And at that time, there was only two employees that were full time remote. And I at first was a little unsure because how I’m moving to a new place, I’m not going to know anyone how am I going to meet people and make friends when I’m moving to this brand new place that I know one person. And that’s it. But I decided it would probably be a good idea to just you know, have a job when I first moved down here. So one of the things that was actually because a friend of mine had said Laura, if you work from home, you’re going to end up being a hermit that never leaves the house. And that comment stuck with me because I am definitely a homebody I love hanging out with my dog and my cats and reading a book. And just hanging at home. I’m perfectly happy. So I it’s one of those things that sometimes a person will say something and it just sticks with you. And that friend had mentioned that I she was concerned I would never leave my house. So I made a point that every day, I would continue my normal routine as if I was going into the office. So my routine was always I would get up I would take a shower and get dressed for my corporate job and then drive to work. And so when I became a remote employee, I did the same thing except for having the commute. So I would still get up, take my morning shower, get dressed in my work clothes, which wasn’t anything. I mean, I wasn’t I was never wearing a suit or, you know, a blazer or anything like that to work. It was still, you know, dressy pants and comfy sweaters and stuff like that. So I made that my habit. And that is something that 10 years later, I still do every day. That signals to me in my brain. It is time to go to work. I’ve got my shower in, I got my cup of coffee, I’m dressed and ready for the day. That’s just something that’s always really helped me to flip on this work mode mentality in my brain. That’s my first tip for you. My second thing that I do is even though I’m at home, I ignore the mess. Now hear me out. I know how hard it can be and how I mean I am not the person with an Instagram where the you know, uncluttered surface full, you know, free of all the things. Oh, that’s not me. I definitely have clutter. It was a struggle I had before I had children and now with two small children. We definitely have clutter we have toys. Right now down in my living room. There is a child’s play TV set up the dolls dresses and clothes was a bucket that was dumped out a day ago and it’s still hanging out there. The cat was laying on it this morning. And this morning, the four year old brought out like the baby doll crib. And that’s all still laying down there. Now I could have before I hopped into work mode this morning, tidy that up but I did And because I know that my house will, I can just get get into that never ending cycle of let me just tidy this real quick, let me tidy this and then I’ll go to work oh, there’s, you know, it’s if you give a mouse a cookie, he’ll ask for a glass of milk. If I start tidying up the counters, I’ll realize I need to empty the dishwasher. And then I’ll put something away down the hall and realize I need to put in a load of laundry. While I’m downstairs, maybe I should organize the entryway. So it’s just it’s a snowball effect. And I know that about me. So one of the things I do is I just ignore the mess, I get my cup of coffee, I walk upstairs into my office, which is upstairs in the loft. And I sit down and I go to work, because that’s a money making activity. And my business is not going to thrive if I put off at work by just procrastinate cleaning. So that’s my tip number two is to I ignore the mess. And I’ll deal with that after working hours or right before the cleaners come. Every two weeks, we do have cleaners that come. Now if I don’t have my clutter picked up, they just kind of dust around it which isn’t exactly doesn’t get under the surfaces. So I definitely run around and tidy up the house before they arrive so that they can be able to do their job. And I can happily do mine. So my third tip for you today is I put my phone and computer on Do Not Disturb mode. So my phone could I mean, I don’t know about you, but I get so many spam calls. So I have it on silent anyway. But I’ve actually started putting it in Do Not Disturb. So that if anyone tries to contact me, they get a message. Anyone who’s in my contact list, they know I’m working right now I’m in Do Not Disturb. I will check it few times during the day. In case there’s anything necessary. But the schools they also have my husband’s contact information. If they can’t get a hold of me, they would get a hold of him. And he’s answering his phone all day long. So I put my computer my phone and do not disturb. I’ll put my computer and do not disturb. So I’m not constantly getting email notifications, I shut down my email. And I check my email really a few times a day unless I’m waiting for something to come through. I have made it a habit to not check my email first thing in the morning. And even there’s times where I do see stuff on my phone that needs to be replied to I will wait and reply to it later in the day. Because I know I can get sucked into the inbox because I’m definitely not an inbox zero person either. I’ve let that go. And I’m no longer striving to be Inbox Zero. It’s, it’s okay. So those are my three tips for you today. I do want to add one sort of bonus tip that I find is very helpful for me to be more productive, and that staying hydrated. That is something that I make sure to have lots of water at my desk, I refill my water bottles often and frequently. And really just make sure that I’m taking in a lot of water because I’ve noticed if I start getting dehydrated, and my water intake isn’t as great one day, I get more tired and my focus isn’t as great. So, there’s my tips for you today. I would love to hear from you. Go ahead and send me a message on Instagram @laurakamark and let me know what are ways you stay productive while working from home. Thanks so much for listening. Thanks so much for listening to this week’s episode. Be sure to check out the show notes at Laurakamark.com/podcast. And if you’re ready to turn your website into a marketing machine, get more sales, save time and simplify the back end of your business. Grab my free resource power integrations for your website. Head on over to Laurakamark.com/power. If you enjoyed today’s episode, make sure subscribe. And also I’ll just love you forever if you leave me a review. It helps get this podcast in front of other people that can help inspire. Thanks so much for listening. I’ll see you next week. Bye now