Working from Home – How do I feel about it?

I’m not new at working from home.  A couple of years ago I worked from home for an entire year.  I loved and it was probably the most productive I’ve ever been.  I don’t have children (I have two poodles) so I never had to worry about getting interrupted and my time is my time.   During this time I set up a new process for regulatory monitoring for the entire consumer bank and the process is still going strong with some changes.  We developed a regulatory library with laws impacting the industry from every state in the United States and recently we’ve added some foreign jurisdictions.  This program is now the basis for our obligations.

Since the pandemic, I like many others in the country, have been working from home and again, this is probably the most productive I’ve been.  My job consists of reading lots of laws, summarizing them and letting the legal teams know about upcoming legislation and how it will impact the industry and the processes we currently in place.  I know, it sounds boring but I enjoy it.  I’ve always said that if I weren’t a paralegal I would probably be a librarian.  I love reading and enjoy the quiet.  I am also an introvert.  I don’t mind crowds.  I’m not opposed to having a social gathering (when able to) but I don’t do well if that’s the norm.

Since we are all talking about getting back to the office I’ve become more stressed.  I don’t enjoy the set up.  There are too many distractions.  Not necessarily people who want to come chat with me.  My cubicle is actually pretty out of the way so unless someone really needs to talk to me I can go days without seeing anyone.  The walls of the cubicles at the office are high enough that I don’t even see the person sitting in the cubicle immediately in front of me unless we both stand up.  The distractions I’m talking about are the other conversations.  They don’t have to be loud to be distracting.  Sometimes when they are mere whispers they are more distracting than if they were loud, I think.  I guess my brain want so figure out what is being said.  Call me nosy!!!!

Anyway, working from home allows me the opportunity to really focus on what I’m reading and when comes time to summarize the law it allows me the focus to get the job done much quicker and more concise.  Since we began working from home I have found that I don’t need as much time to get through the work I need to do in one day.  Normally, that entails going through each of the states legislative sites and finding introduced legislation and marking it to be tracked.  Once that is done I go through the legislation that I am tracking to see if there are any changes and what the chances are that a bill will become a law.  I enjoy having the time to actually think about patterns.  How many states are introducing the same type of bill?  Will it impact another area of the industry?  Have any states figured that out?  What should I let the attorney know to keep an eye on and to tell the client?  These are the things that I have had the time to think about since the distractions are at a minimum.  When I’m in the office I barely have time to get through the new legislation, let alone have time to see patterns.  Most of the time, when in the office, I’m in reaction mode.  Trying to stay above water.  It’s been nice having a bit of breathing room lately.  I’ve even taken a few classes in other things I’m interested in learning.

What about you?  Have you been working from home?  How is that going?

How I’m becoming paperless

The past couple of years I have tried and failed and tried and failed to become paperless at home and in the office.  I think I’ve posted a few times about my attempts and then eventually I give up because it becomes difficult to maintain.  I will admit that it is not the easiest thing to do and I find myself many times a day reaching for a pen and paper to jot down a quick note only to remember that I don’t keep pens or paper on my desk.  I do that on purpose because I know that if I keep either of those on my desk I will fail in my attempt again.

I’m still not 100% paper free around the house but I will say that most of the time I am conscious of when I do reach out for something paper because I still have not found a better method and when I’m just being lazy and don’t want to be bothered.  I think the trick is to make being paperless as easy or easier than not being paperless.

It’s been a month and so far so good.  How did I do it this time?  Why is it that so many other times I failed and this time it seems to have stuck?

Remove Temptation

Like I said above, I removed all the temptation from my desk.  I removed all little post it notes and little pads of paper from my reach in my home office.  I no longer have that post it sitting right to the side where I can just jot down a phone number, or a quick note to remember to do something later.  I have to say that doing that was 99% of the battle.  Not having it around me forced me to be creative and instill a habit I needed to have to find a solution digitally instead of physically 🙂

Find the Apps that Work for you

Reminders on my phone:  When I just need to take a quick note I usually speak it into my phone to remind me later of what I needed to do.  I do this when there is really no other way capture that thought or idea.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been outside with the dogs and I remember something I have to do.  I quickly pick up my phone and tell Siri to remind me to … blah, blah.  Whatever it may be.

Notion for all other stuff:  for office and life related things I no longer have a notebook where I keep notes and a planner when I keep my personal life organized.  I keep everything in one place.  I have on life and one body and things make more sense together in one place.  The things are together but I can filter by areas of my life:  Work, personal, health, family, etc.  It’s working for me and it’s keeping me on track.  Notion was a great find for me.  It allows me to organize my life the way I am able to make sense of my life and I’m not stuck to a pre-selected process created by someone who does not think like I do.  I create my own way of staying organized.  For me this was half the battle…. staying organized and on task.  The last few times I tried going paperless I gave up because I would get frustrated because I could not find things when I needed them.  Notion has a search option where I can search for things if I can’t remember what notebook or folder I’ve put them.  However, I will have to say that because I created the system to work with my brain I, very rarely, use the search feature and am able to find things when I need them just by going directly to the location that makes sense for me.  what’s best?  Notion has an app on my phone, my iPad and my computer.  I am connected to my to do list all the time.

I’m planning on doing a video or a blog post about notion in the future.  I’m still learning all the ins and outs of it and I’m sure I’m not using it to it’s fullest capacity yet.

Scanning and filing away:  I have to admit that this is very slow going.  I have so many papers stored in my office that I feel like this is going to take a while and if I’m going to be completely honest this is the area where I’m most afraid of getting frustrated with.  I have started scanning somethings and keeping them in folders in my computer.  There are things I will have to keep in paper form and those will be stored in the safe.  Things like my mortgage papers, mine and my husband’s licenses, you know the normal government stuff that will need to be available in paper form when the government needs them.  The rest of the stuff is ready to be scanned and filed away.  I’ve created folders on my computer where I’ll put things in and will be able to get to them wherever I am…..I am looking forward to that day.

The grocery list:  We have been using our reminders app on the phone where we add items we need when we remember or think about them.  We share that particular reminder folder with each other and it’s always available.  So no more of him calling me on his way home from work to ask what it is that I need, if anything.  All he has to do is go on the app and it’s right there for him.  Once the item is purchased we check it off on the app and the item goes away.  So no more of the two of us are out buying duplicate things or not having what we needed because we forgot the list at home.  Now if I could find a good coupon app and incentivize him to use it….. that would be amazing 🙂

So what is it like to be more paperless?

I don’t know about you guys but both my husband and I are very paper heavy.  Not to mention that we’re old and we are always taking notes on little pieces of paper and leaving those around only to see them a week later and not remember what that note was about.

No more being somewhere and remembering something but not having a pen and paper on hand and telling myself that I will remember it later when I get back in the house where I can write it down…. I never remembered!!!!!!

Less clutter is also good.  I no longer have a million little notes all over my desk where I wrote down that password, or someone’s number to remind myself I needed to call.  My desk is a lot cleaner and my brain is at peace because I know that a computer will remind me to make that call and will have the phone number right there in front of me when the time comes to make the call.

So far this paperless thing is working for me.  This has been the longest stretch of me not needing a pen and paper everywhere I go.  I just need my phone and I’m free roam and stay on track and organized.

Have you tried to go paperless?  How did it work?  any tips for me?

How I stay Organized and On Task

Very often I’m asked how I manage to do so many things.  How do I have time for two blogs, a full time job, launching a business, keeping a house without help (the husband helps a little) and philanthropy work.  Nope, I’m not super human, nor am I a robot.  The way I manage all these things in my life is by staying organized and on task.  Yes, I still, sometimes, fall off the wagon and procrastinate.  I AM HUMAN.  We all need to take time to play and forget the to do list sometimes.  The difference is that I make sure I get back on track as soon as possible.

I use a few apps to help me stay focused.  All the apps I use sync across all my devices, my MacBook, my iPad and my iPhone.  Although I am fully integrated in the Apple ecosystem you don’t have to be.

Voice Memo

An idea pops up when you least expect it.  When that happens I don’t always have the time to look for a pen and paper or open my phone to the right application or location where I can record the idea.  I’m not sure you’re like me, but if I don’t record the idea as soon as it pops up in my brain I will lose it forever.  Yep, even if I tell myself that I am going to remember it.  I’ve used every trick in the book to try to remember it and it never works.  So, I now record my thoughts and when I can I listen to them again and if I still think they are good ideas I transfer them to my idea incubator where other ideas are sitting waiting for the right time to make their appearance.

A calendar

Recently I have been testing Google Calendar.  I’ve been using iCal since the iPhone first came out and I like it but I’m bored with it.  Google Calendar is not much different but it is a little prettier. I think Apple is slacking off on some of their applications.

I use my calendar as an event reminder…. dentist and doctors’ appointments, birthdays, anniversaries, dinners out…. you know the normal stuff.  I tried calendar blocking but I’m not big on that.  I do it for work where I block a few hours each day for uninterrupted work.  But my personal calendar I don’t feel the need to do it and it doesn’t work for me in the same way.   For those of you who don’t know what calendar blocking is; it’s when you block time to do planned things.  So if you have to write a blog post, you block a few hours that week when you are going to just write your blog post…. if you have to prepare for a presentation, you block your calendar that week to prepare for the presentation.  It’s a great idea but for the work that I do in my personal life even my business (blogs and the launch of the new business) I usually just plan to do the task on a day and fit it in as I go along.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.  Sometimes I move it to another day.

Notion

This is the meat and bones of my planning.  I plan everything in Notion.   I’ve been using Notion on and off for the past few years.  Two months ago I went all in.  I use Notion now to store all my thoughts, articles I want to read later, yearly goals, monthly goals and projects, thoughts and ideas, my book lists, my articles, movies to watch and music to listen to.

When planning I use notion to break down my goals into projects and then my projects into actionable tasks.  The actionable tasks become my daily to do’s (sort of).  One of the things that I still have not figured out how to do in Notion is to schedule recurring tasks.  You know those tasks you do every couple of days or every couple of weeks.  So in a way I’m still using Apple Reminders to help me with those.

I also use Notion to help with my bills.  I created a database to track all the household bills and that database roles up to my daily tasks so when there’s a bill due it shows up on my daily page.  I will try to figure out how to do a video about my Notion set up and as soon as I can figure out how to do get it done right I will post it.  I think it will make more sense if I do it that way.

Conclusion

All of this planning can be done with a pen and paper.  The trick is to make sure you review each of the steps on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis.  Don’t let one thing fall through the cracks or you will have to pick up the pieces and it can be so discouraging that you wind up letting it all fall apart.  I set up meetings with myself to review my week every Sunday and get ready for the next week.  At the end of the month I have a meeting with myself again to review my month.

Being methodical about my planning helps me make sure I stay on track.  Sure sometimes I slack off…. how many times have I promised to be more consistent with my writing here on the blog only to fail?  More times than I care to remember.  And, as I mentioned above, every time I come back it’s a struggle to get the ball rolling and get into a routine.

Let me know how you keep yourself organized and on task.  Do you use a pen and paper?  Do you use an app or many apps?  Let’s start a conversation below in the comments.

Thanks and I’ll see you in my next post.

Calendar Blocking or To Do List?

I do both — How do I do both?  Well let me tell you how it works?

Calendar Blocking!!!!!

Are you sick of hearing about calendar blocking?  It seems like everyone is talking about this these days.  When I first started hearing about this I was sure it was going to be great.  I immediately took out my calendar and began blocking time to do things.  It was great.  it was like my to-do list came to life.  It felt as if everything I needed to do completely fit in one day.  By the end of the day I had realized that maybe I had put too many things on my calendar and I felt as if I was running like a chicken with my head cut off and to accomplish everything.  I felt rush most of the day and even though I think I was very productive I really didn’t have much to look back on.  There were things that had been moved and now I didn’t know if they would have been crossed off and there were things that just remained but I really had not finished them.  It was a mess and my brain felt tired.

I gave up and went back to my tried and true method of having a to do.  Which If I’m going to be truly honest it is not ideal either but it seemed to work for what I needed.  I like to see how much I accomplished.  I get a sense of accomplishment from crossing things off.

In the midst of this frustration I had an idea……..

It doesn’t have to be one or the other

What a concept!!! Just recently I realized that it does not have to be one or the other.  The calendar blocking method works with the to do method perfectly well.

This past month I have been keeping a master task list where I jot down all the things I want to accomplish and then on set times (weekly and daily at the end of the month I plan on doing a monthly review as well) I open up my calendar and the to do list next to each other and start figuring out what will fit in my schedule for that week or for that day.

Why I use both the “to-do list” and the calendar blocking methods?

The To Do List:  I like to cross things off and know what I did throughout the day.  one of the downfalls of the calendar block was that if I did not get to something I would move it forward to a different day or a different time but there was never that pleasure of crossing it off it was done.  It began to feel like I wasn’t doing much.  I know I can go and look back at my calendar is see all the things but that just wasn’t enough for me.  If you are like me and you like not see things crossed off, the calendar method can feel anticlimactic.  It doesn’t have to, though.

The Calendar Blocking Method:  The thing I found most frustrating about the to do list is that I was not able to figure out how much time I would have each day and sometimes I would start with things that I thought would take less time in order to get more things done.  Good plan right?  But what if the thing takes longer than expected?  what if you misjudge and then the most important thing doesn’t get done because it was actually the thing that was going to take a bit more time but because you thought the other thing was going take less time you prioritized that one other thing first not leaving you any time to complete the one thing that was really the most important?  Ugh!!!! did this make any sense?  let me know if this doesn’t make sense and I will try to clarify it.

How do you do it?  How do you plan and organize your day?  What is working for you?  Do you use a calendar blocking method, a to do list or both?  Or none?  Let me know.  I would love to hear from you.

In the mean time, be well and I will see very soon, I hope.

Ana

How To Plan Your Day and Be Organized

This is how I do it!!!!!

Who knew that it would take me so long to figure out how to get some control of my days. I say some because complete control of my day when there are so many moving parts is but a dream. No sooner do I think I have some control and everything is going smoothly when …. Well you know….. For some time I considered and even attempted to use two planners. For me this was more trouble that it was worth it. For you it may work and if you want to test it and need some help, let me know I will give you templates and show you how I organized my work planner. As I said, for me two planners are not a solution. After, all, I am one person, I have one life therefore I need one planner. Carrying two planners around or having to sync two planners became a hassle. Things started falling through the cracks. I found found myself playing catch up all the time because I hadn’t checked one planner against the other.

Fast forward a few planners and planner a few planner hacks and this is how I plan my days today ….. happy to report it’s been working. I will say that I’m still working through some project management issues and testing applications for project management but for my day to day planning and organizing I use my Filofax Malden in purple.

I only keep monthly pages (month on two pages) and daily pages (day on two pages).  I carry the full year in my monthly pages because I use that for forward planning but I only carry the current month on my daily pages for now.  Depending on where I land for the project management issue that may be changing…. Stay tuned for further developments.   My daily pages are my EVERYTHING. I plan on those, I track on those and sometimes I journal on those (short one liners) or at least I make sure I write down one thing for which I’m thankful that day. I keep both work and personal schedules and plans on the daily pages but keep them separate by designating one side of my right page for work and one side of the same page for personal. When I open the daily page I can see all my to-do’s for both aspect of my life … Same person, same life, different hats!

Color Coding

I thought about color coding the various aspects of my life.  One color for business and a different color for personal.  Although that achieved the goal I was looking for and, in fact, was one step closer to planner peace and making me more organized and productive. That too, was annoying and in a way almost the same as having to carry two planners. The only difference was that, instead of two planners I was having to carry a whole bunch of pens which made me nuts. There are days when I don’t carry a purse.   My planner is with me all the time, it’s also my wallet. I carry with me a black pen and a green pen (I’ll explain the green pen a little later).

I cannot take credit for my current method of planning.  I did not come up with it.   Maryanne Moll is the genius behind my planner peace situation and if you have a few minutes I suggest you go check out her channel on YouTube and her store on Etsy.

So… How do I plan?

Every night I sit with my planner and look at what I accomplished that day and move the things that didn’t get done to the next day. I also keep a running list of things I want to do on that particular week and when during this review I take those into consideration.  If I think I can fit more to-do’s on my next day schedule, I add them.  If not, then i don’t.  I am the boss of my life and I get to decide what I can accomplish.  All the entries done at this time are done in my normal black ink.  The pen I use every day…… It’s a fountain pen and I love it (minus the black fingers once in a while).  As each task is accomplished (on a good day most will be) I cross it off with green ink (which is the other pen I carry around with me). I also use the green pen to add any new tasks that get thrown at me in the middle of the day (we all have those).

Why the two colors? Well, you know those days when you feel like nothing at the top of your list got done and at the end of the day you’re wondering why you’re so tired but got nothing accomplished? Well, the different color allows me to see what was done that I had not counted on having to get done. It also allows me to remember tasks done, no matter how small, when management feels that I need to explain my existence. …. For some of you would imagine will help you with your billable and non-billable time. Hmmmm imagine you use black for non-billable and green for billable time…… Let me think about that for a minute.

During this nightly review I also fill in the left side of the planner.  The portion dedicated to tracking.  I don’t 100% believe that trackers are absolutely necessary, but I am a nerd and I enjoy looking back on my days and see things like; what made me happy (my gratitude), my mood, my steps, the weather…… it helps me connect the dots and to me life is all about connecting the dots. Sometimes, things that don’t make sense on that day will make sense when you have a full picture. Like, why didn’t I get much done that day…… Ohhhh yeah, I had a headache because it rained for three days in a row and I just wasn’t in a good mood.  Who knows….. all the dorky stuff that makes me who I am.

If you look at the top middle of the page you see something that looks like a Chronodex (a time tracker). I don’t have to bill my time …. Yeah, I know!!!!!! #blessed.  But I’m seriously not bragging. Entering time is not as bad as we feel it is. Come join me in my facebook group and join our chat.  I’m working on a few goodies that will help you slay the billable time monster. I have a plan to get training videos and templates on how to bill your time stress free….. but I digress. At night I go through the tracker side, fill in and color all the things that happened during the day.

The outside ring and second ring stand for the location, where was I? (home, office, outside, etc.). The larger outside ring is reserved for where I plan to be…. The second ring is reserved for where I actually was. The first ring gets colored in the night before while I’m doing my planning and the second ring gets colored in at the end of the day when I review the day and plan for the next day.  The third and fourth rings (the inside rings) are reserved for activities.  What did I plan to do at that time and what I actually did. Was I in a meting? Was I working on the blog? Was I working on the book? Was I with a friend or spending time with my husband or doing house work?  I know this sounds crazy and you may be thinking ain’t nobody got time for that but it actually helps me figure out how long it takes me to accomplish tasks.  It’s also a great way to relax for me for to fill in little squares with color.  Like I said, this is not something that I think you MUST do to stay organized but for me, it works and it makes me happy.

For example, if I tell someone I can do something in 1 hour and it actually takes me two do it.  I know that the next time I’m asked to do that same task I can better assess how long it will take me to do and, not only can I manage my time better but I can also give the lawyer assigning work to me a better understanding of how long it takes to do something and aren’t just guessing.  I’m a firm believer in under promise and over deliver…. This little hack helps me keep in line with my goals and keeps me productive through out the day.

For paralegals or anyone who has to bill time, being and staying organized is extremely important.  If you can go through your day knowing what you’re going to work on next and how long it will take you.  You can schedule your day in ways to take advantage of your best time of day.  You can feel more in control of your time and achieve more productivity without stressing yourself out…. and who doesn’t want that?

Do you plan your day?  What methods or hacks do you use to stay organized?  leave me a note.  I’d love to hear from you!

XoXo