How Remote Workers Can Minimize Distractions

This article was published on yonder.io on December 6, 2018.

Working from home allows tremendous flexibility and is a total work life balance game changer. It does, however, come with a few challenges. Distractions ranks pretty high on that list.

Minimizing distraction starts with setting boundaries for yourself and for your family and friends. While you might have flexibility with your working hours, it’s important to set dedicated work hours and communicate those hours to your internal team, clients, family and friends.  Stick to those hours—if not you will find yourself working 24/7 and getting burned out… or not working at all and not having a job.

I’ve found that having dedicated office space in my home is helpful in setting boundaries as well. When I’m in that area of my home, I’m working. The door is usually closed, as this signals to my family that I’m unavailable. They know that when the door is closed, they need to knock (or just leave me alone.) I often only close the door to focus when I’m on a call or deep in numbers or writing. Other times, I’ll leave it open, and my family knows I’m open for a break.

Taking breaks is key. If you are finding yourself becoming distracted, you may just need a break. A break can mean walking to the kitchen for a coffee, or wandering outside to get the mail, or taking a 15-minute stroll around the neighborhood. Whatever works for you is what matters. Take a real break for lunch. Do not eat lunch at your desk. Take snack breaks. Take water breaks.

Oftentimes, I hit the local coffee shop or the beach to work. A change of scenery is what I need to refocus and jump start my creativity. When I’m at home, I easily get distracted by household chores. Getting out of my home often helps me to focus on work and only work. Calendaring helps also.

I have a master calendar that reflects my life—it includes both work and personal. I have time blocked off to drop off/pick up my daughter at Montessori School, go to doctors appointments, and attend meetings. I even block gym time, lunch time, and break times. I live by my calendar, and those little ding dong reminders keep me on track and distraction-free.

Since I do work from home, I regularly receive FedEx and UPS deliveries that I must sign, however, the added distractions of sales people knocking and interrupting my work day became too much. I invested in an inexpensive “No Solicitation” sign for my front door, and now if I hear a knock, I know I need to answer it.

There’s a lot of construction happening in my neighborhood currently, and that means loud noise. I’m thankful that I invested in a pair of good wireless headphones not only for the video calls, but to block out noise when I need silence to concentrate.

It’s hard to concentrate when you have a cluttered desk. Knick-knacks, receipts, junk mail, Post-It notes, and bills on your desk are total distractions. Take a few minutes each evening before you sign off for the day to clean, straighten, and organize your desk. Simply clearing away the clutter from the day will help you end your day and separate work time from “going home” time. You’ll also feel great when you log on the next morning, and you have a neat and orderly clean slate in which to start.

I usually start my day reviewing my to-do list for the day and my calendar. Knowing how my day looks and what I need to accomplish helps me focus and minimize distractions. I schedule out the tasks that need to be completed for the day around my standing appointments. My work is deadline heavy. There’s always a hotel contract due, a client byline due, award submission or speaking engagement deadline, or a timely social media post. I always start with those deadline sensitive deliverables and go from there. If there are a few admin or “mindless” tasks, I’ll knock them out of the way first –it always feels good to cross off a few line items straight away. What’s your best advice or tip for overcoming distractions when you work from home? Tweet us @acannistraci to share your tips!

Straight from the horse's mouth

If you hear something “(straight) from the horse's mouth", you hear it from the person who has direct personal knowledge of it.  Your customers are the best source of trust and enthusiasm in your brand, products, services. Does your marketing toolbox include testimonials? It should.

Correctly using testimonials is an art. Too fake and fluffy—you run the risk of not being taken seriously. Prospects can see straight through fake testimonials. Also, a short and sweet testimonial (such as, “I love this service!”) recommends your brand, but doesn’t say much else as to why potential customers should choose your brand. Ask your customers to elaborate on why they love your brand, and what sets your brand apart. 

Request that your best customers provide testimonials with details that definitively describe key and unique benefits of your brand. Customers should focus on addressing a pain points that your services resolve. Testimonials should answer the question of why someone should use your brand.

What are your best tips for curating testimonials?

Seven Tips for Curating a Memorable Company Retreat

This article was originally published in the May 2018 Group Travel Leader Magazine.

http://smallmarketmeetings.com/articles/seven-tips-planning-memorable-company-retreat/

More companies, especially distributed ones, are implementing company retreats into their budgets. It’s a smart move as it allows employees to bond in a more relaxed, open environment and for leadership to receive candid real-time feedback. It’s also a great way to kick off the year and set goals. As with any event, all the elements are a big puzzle—that you the planner—need to fit together. Andrea Cannistraci, CMM, President & Founder of andgreat, a marketing, branding , and events agency, shares seven tips to ensure a successful and memorable company retreat.

1. Send a pre-planning survey
Survey your attendees before the company retreat. Find out what destinations interest them, what topics they would like to discuss, what goals they hope to achieve from attending, and what activities interest them. Getting attendees onboard at the planning stage will ensure better participation, excitement, and a much more focused and successful event.

2. Develop a strong team of suppliers
Reach out to the local CVB of your chosen destination. They are the experts on the area and will be essential to helping you navigate the area and source the best caterers, AV, entertainment, restaurants, transportation, off site venues, and team building activities.

3. Conduct a site inspection

It’s imperative that you know the area and your way around. Meet personally with all the suppliers you’ve received quotes, experience the activities, restaurants, venues, entertainment. Start to build the relationships. Take copious notes. Know where the closest hospital, pharmacy, Kinkos, and grocery store are located.

4. Schedule free time
One of the biggest mistakes you can make is not building free time into your agenda.  Give attendees an hour each later afternoon before dinner to check-in with family, refresh, relax, or hit the gym. Often, you’ll see the attendees will want to continue the day’s conversions at the bar, or around the pool. Those unstructured moments where employees bond on their own can create the most insight—and best memories.

5. Use natural meeting space

If your company retreat is in a warm climate, definitely take advantage of outdoor meetings places for casual breakouts and meals. There’s nothing worse than being in an awesome destination but stuck inside four walls all day. Let your attendees see the sun and feel the breeze! A simple U-shape of chairs under a tree, or a few cabanas at the pool are excellent non-traditional meeting spaces for breakouts. Many conference rooms have patios—use those for breakfasts and lunches. Trust me, your attendees will thank you.  (And the Instagram pics will be the envy of all.)

6. Consider meeting floor plans
The setup of the meeting room matters.  Know how many attendees you are expecting and plan accordingly. Your General Session should be configured so that everyone can see everyone. A flat oval shape works well.  Will attendees be taking notes on their laptops? If so, they’ll need a bit more space.  The last thing you want is a room full of sardines.  A good rule to follow is two people per six foot table. And make sure the room has windows—preferably doors that open to a patio (see #4.)

7. Plan an unforgettable group activity
Almost every company retreat has at least one group activity incorporated.  This is a great opportunity to make your company retreat memorable. Look at your destination. Look at your demographics.  Keep it local. If you’re at a beach, consider SUP or surfing lessons, or chartering a boat for a dinner cruise. If you’re in wine country, schedule dinner in a wine cave or a biking wine tour with lunch. If you’re in New Orleans, plan a hands-on Creole cooking class for dinner or a scavenger hunt through the Garden District.

How I Stay Organized

Who doesn’t like to feel in control of their life, their day, their week, their year? Meeting planners especially feel the need to be organized and streamlined—it’s in our DNA; it’s essential for our jobs.

As an entrepreneur with a thriving business and a busy two year old, I’m committed to one tool that has helped me tremendously to be more efficient, ensuring I never miss a meeting or appointment--business or personal.

I live by my calendar—if an event is not on my calendar, it well not even exist. I start by planning out the year and block off:

1.  National holidays

2.  Religious holidays

3.  Family birthdays

4.  Big events within my clients’ industries

5.  Meeting planner conferences I want to attend

6.  Personal holidays and trips

7.  Montessori school breaks

For example, I knew that I needed to severely limit my travel the first four months of this year due to a personal project. I was able to conduct all my site inspections for Q1/Q2 2018 in Q3/Q4 of 2017. I declined nearly all FAM, and conference invitations through April 2018. I limited nearly all client projects that required me to travel in Q1.

As for day-to-day organization—I have everything on my calendar. And I do mean everything from 8am Body Combat Class, to reoccurring client meetings, to Giovanna’s ballet class at 4pm. I block my calendar if I need a massage, or have a doctor’s appointment. I make time for me—and because it’s all on my calendar—it’s easy to see where I can fit in these personal errands and make sure they are achieved.

It’s difficult when you work from home to actually take breaks and take care of “life maintenance”. That’s why it’s key to put everything on your calendar. Sure, clients may need to move a meeting, a project may take longer than you thought, and some days you just won’t feel well. Life happens. But a surer way to meet your deadlines—all of them—is to start putting everything on your calendar.

If you’re struggling to stay organized, give calendaring a shot. It just may change your life. 

WFH with Kids

One of my clients, who is distributed, recently tasked me with creating an infographic on the topic of working from home with kids. It's a relevant topic and one of concern for both employers and employees of distributed-model companies. As a Mom working from home running my own business, this was a fun project that truly allowed me to share my expertise on the matter.

Would love to hear your advice on working from home with kids.

Move Over Balance. It’s Blending Time.

Everyone talks about it, there are many debates on how best to achieve it, and many people say it’s a requirement of their employment. Many blog posts have been written on 42 tricks and tips to achieve it and the seven habits of the highly successful who have achieved it. What is it? Work life balance. I’m here to say that it is no longer about the balance. Balancing a busy personal life with a busy work life is stressful! You schedule time for family, you schedule time for yourself, you schedule time for work. Hello stress.

Since starting my firm less than one year ago, I have diligently practiced the concept of work life blending. (Yeah, kinda like a smoothie).  One of the reasons I left corporate America after a successful 17-year career was to have my cake and eat it too -- not to balance. I have a family (and want to keep it) and I have a life—a pretty exciting, adventurous one. (Well, as adventurous as a life can be with a newborn), and I love what I do for work and I am willing to go to the extreme to do it.

How do I work life blend?

1.     I treat everything—work, me time, family time, lifestyle/friend time—seriously. It’s on my calendar.  My daughter’s scheduled C-section was on a calendar meeting request to her father and my mother. Yep, that’s how serious I am.

2.     I use a lot of cool tech platforms and tools for communicating with clients. My favorites right now are Slack, a real-time messaging, archiving, and search tool that all the hip companies are using and Sococo, an online workplace that facilitates collaboration.

3.     I work off hours. There is no need for me to sit at a desk from 9-5pm local time. And who turns their phone off at 5pm anyways? I have clients all over the USA so working off hours is a necessity.  My Mondays start with a client’s executive team call at 7am. My other days usually start at 10am. I work at 8pm most nights (never Tuesdays—I have beach volleyball league). Bottom line, I do not need to be in my office physically for 8 hours straight to get my work done.

4.     I incorporate flexibility. I schedule my day around my commitments and accomplish my work. I may take a 9am Body Pump class or take my baby to a Music Together class at 4:30pm (and take a call enroute). Often, I work again at night after the baby goes to bed.

5.     I combine work travel with family/fun travel. I think the term they use for this is “bleisure”. I travel a lot for work.  It’s easier to tack on a family holiday or girls weekend when you’re blending work and life.

6.     I communicate. My family and my clients always know “what’s next?” Whether that be my next biz trip or our next deliverables or action items. See #1. 

My life has completely changed for the better in the past nine months and most of the credit goes to work life blending. I engage with life and work together.  Are you ready to drop the balancing act and start blending?  What are you doing to have a better blend of work and life?  Any other tips/tricks people out there have to blend your work and life better?