 Friends, what a year these past two weeks have been. And if you've moved your office to home, now you're trying to be productive and move your career forward, working from home with other people in the house. Some of you may be viewing this whole work from home situation a little bit like going to war. So let's prepare you for battle and I'm going to share my tips on how to do that today. Since it's Leanne and I haven't heard of one person in the meetings and events industry that is still working in their office setting. Most of us have been relocated to our homes. And when our employers did that, I'm not sure they understood the kind of lion's dens that they were throwing ourselves into. We're being thrown in with spouses, kids, dogs, dirty dishes. It's complete mayhem. And we're trying to navigate all of these mind fields while being over productive and working overtime to process everything that's gone on with the crisis at hand. Friends today, I'm here to arm you with a few tools and weapons that you can use in getting your work done while you work from home. You see, I've been working from home for most of my career. And for the past eight years, I've actually worked from home with my husband, who also works from home for his company. In fact, most of you have never even noticed him before, but when I'm filming these videos, my husband is sitting right there behind me. So we share an office space and over time, we've created some strategies that have kept our marriage together. But more importantly, we've both been able to be very productive working from home in our respective spaces in this same office. But before I begin with today's tips, don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel and click on that little bell to be notified. Over the next several weeks, a lot of my content is going to center around a post COVID working environment. So I encourage you to tune in and take a listen each week. Thank you. Okay, so let's take a look at how you can be the most productive working from home with all of these different distractions around you. Tip number one, and most importantly, you need to set boundaries, especially if you have kids in your house. Now my kids are very well versed with their parents working from home and the boundaries are set and you rarely see them come into our office space to interrupt us. In fact, if they do climb up those stairs, they do so sheepishly and they kind of crawl on the ground like they're navigating a minefield because they know that if they interrupt our work that they're going to be in big trouble. I'm not advocating that you threaten your children with anything, but set very clear boundaries about how work is work and home is home when they're both under the same roof. Tip number two, and this has come in very handy these past few weeks is to create a helper calendar. When all of you are under the roof, things are going to get messy very quickly and I don't want you to be tempted to go and clean it up. So bring your family together for a family meeting and ensure that tasks and chores are being assigned each day. Everyone has very clear direction and that way your house doesn't look like a complete disaster every single waking moment. Tip number three, and this is for you is to manage your own calendar. It is still a nine to five job that we have to deal with and even for those that are furloughed right now, it's a nine to five job to stay on top of what's going on in the industry, but when we're getting distracted being at home with all the family members, it's easy to be pulled away from our own commitments and our own calendar. So manage your calendar just like you would be in an office setting, set up your meetings, set up your appointments. Now we're setting up all of these webinars. Make sure they're in your calendar and make sure you stick to that calendar and do not let anyone derail you from your work efforts. Tip number four, invest in some good headphones. Now you've probably noticed my husband is wearing headphones. He can't hear what I'm saying right now. So we can say whatever we want about him. He wears those headphones and it completely tunes me out. Conversely, I also wear a headphone when I work. It doesn't tune him out, but those things just mess with my hair. So this works better for me. Make sure you get a good set of headphones and it works both ways. You can turn people out and then adversely, they don't feel like they are distracting you from your work. Tip number five, stay in touch with your leadership. Whether you still are employed or you are temporarily laid off or furloughed, it's really important that you stay in touch with your leadership every few days to get a pulse on what's going on with your organization. Again, schedule those meetings in, whether it's a webinar, a teleconference, or simply a phone meeting. Connect with your leaders for just at least five minutes every other day so that everyone is in the loop and understands what the next 48 hours looks like during this time of uncertainty. Additionally, stay in touch with colleagues and friends. And these can be former colleagues as well. If you're in the same industry, you probably have some stories to share about what's going on at your work situation and their work situation. Again, with the rise of Zoom, these are easy to coordinate and easy to do. And now at this pace, we're falling into a habit of scheduling these webinars regularly. Make sure that you're doing the same. Those are all of my work at home tips for when you have people under the roof. But don't forget about these tried and true tips, regardless of your home situation when you find yourself working from home. Don't forget to get dressed as soon as you get up in the morning. Follow your morning routine. Carve out a dedicated workspace. Set your hours for the day just like you would at your nine to five job. Set your daily intentions and set some small goals for each and every day. That one is critical. You know how I feel about those. Get some fresh air, go for a walk, take your dog for a walk, take your spouse for a walk, whatever it looks like. Make sure you get some fresh air built into your work day. And of course, get regular exercise. Whether you're working out now from home or you are able to get outside and go for a bike ride or a run, ensure you incorporate some exercise. This does a few things. It keeps you from gaining a bunch of weight from eating all the snacks in the house. But it also keeps your creative juices flowing for when you return to work. Over the years, I've done several posts about working from home. And if you want to check out those videos, you can find them right up here. Friends, if this is your first time working from home, I want to hear from you. Please let me know what your biggest struggle is. And hopefully I can provide you with some resources to help. Please comment below this video. I'll leave you today with this final piece of advice. The words work from home can be both exciting and terrifying. I think people who start to work from home focus on the word home and all of the benefits and fears that that comes with. But if we reverse that and focus more on the word work, it'll give us purpose, focus, and it'll make us more productive when we're in our new office setting from home. So I hope that helps. If you're looking for more productivity tips, head on over to my blogs over at liankholderwood.com and conferencesource.net and just click on the productivity pantry category. Stay safe out there, my friends. We will see you soon. Bye for now.