This is your next best defense right now

Sanitize, keep your distance and stay inside. No idea when life will be normal again.

Chances are you’re working from home these days, at least part-time.

Sounds great at first, but it can be challenging to stay focused and be productive. Maybe you’re familiar with these experiences.

Before you dive into your email you’ll throw in a load of laundry, scroll social media, and catch the last half hour of The Morning Show.

You run through your to-do lists again, trying to make sense of technology while your overloaded video meetings keep cutting in and out.

In between it all, your kids or spouse keep yelling from the other side of the house, wondering where their next meal is coming from or when they can have friends over and to top it off, your dog is pining for another walk.

Which leaves you scrambling to make your 5pm client deadline and wondering where the day went.

On the other hand, you may be connected to work 24/7, feeling stretched too thin, as work-life and home-life have no distinction anymore.

I feel your pain. Really I do.

But I also know this.

The best DEFENSE against your scatteredness right now is…

A strong ROUTINE.

There has never been a more important time to create and honor your routines.

Routines can get a bad rap though as they’re often associated with stringent, must-follow, ritualistic structures.

Which is why we so often beat ourselves up for “falling off” or not being able to stick to one.

This idea couldn’t be farther from the truth.

IF you’re creating routines correctly, they are guidelines embedded in a structure that is meant to be as much adhered to as they are meant to be flexible.

Here’s a powerful insight from my routine creation process.

I distinguish between two types of routines…

Fixed routines and Variable routines.

Let’s start with a Fixed routine.

A fixed routine embodies things that are in your control. When I work on this with my clients we typically start with their morning routine and their night-time routine.

Yes, I know that there are outside forces that can throw either one of these off.

But it is still within your control to make time and space for critical foundation pavers like journaling or exercising as well as planning or setting up for the next day.

Fixed routines are designed to start and end your day with as much control and empowerment as possible while also cultivating peace and gratitude.

Now let me explain Variable routines.

Variable routines are malleable. They too are embedded in structure but are easily adaptable based on outside circumstances: new deadlines, an unforeseen crisis, unexpectedly working from home!

When we create these routines we assume that you will have changes through your day and week, which will impact your priorities and timelines.

That is why we create adaptable schedules.

For example, one way we do this is to apply “themes” to certain days or parts of each day (morning, afternoon, evening) which can be moved, switched, or deleted as necessary.

If Monday morning has been themed for “Marketing” but an urgent client demand comes up we can shift the theme to the afternoon or later in the week.

When you learn how to effectively shuffle your priorities, you still manage to get everything done, without the fear that something will fall through the cracks.

I spent years thinking that I failed at routines because everyone I knew who was “successful” seemed to be up at 4:30am and plowed through their to-do list like an army Sargeant.

I paid a ton of attention to experts, but no one explained the adaptability in a way that I could understand.

Then when I truly discovered how to make BOTH fixed routines and variable routines — my results totally accelerated. (At home and at work).

ESPECIALLY right now, when productivity is more important than ever before.

Seriously, we’re already dealing with the fear of the unknown. We don’t need to add work-at-home stress to the mix too.

So, do all the things you should be doing — sanitize, keep your distance, and stay home.

But also, focus on your next best defense right now – your routines.

To getting more of the right things done,

Xo,

Mridu

P.S. If you’re thinking, I need to ramp up my productivity more than ever right now (so I do everything I can to keep my job and not kill my family ;)) – please set up some time with me for a no-obligation chat. I know there are simple ways to make this crazy time easier for you!