Hi everyone, in the middle of all this craziness I am trying to find some peace and sanity. There’s so much information going on, so many opinions, so many alerts and threats that are making my head spin! At the beginning it took me a little while to get adjusted to this “new normal” and I had to find a new balance where I was able to pay attention to my two teenagers and my baby and at the same time, my company and my employees, (forgot my husband too! 😊. )
I found some tips to help me be productive and stay positive; I hope it might help you as much as it did help me.
Productivity. Understand that your day is not going to be as productive as it used to for several reasons, now you have to take care of your new home dynamic. For those like me, who were used to working in an office environment, working from home adds a ton of distractions so I know that even though I make my task list every morning, sometimes I am not going to be able to get through even half of them because I have to take care of other things. That is ok.
Re-pace. The good news is the following: remember that everyone is working on a new pace, a much slower pace. It is expected that you’re not going to give the same results and you just have to go with the flow and remember, everyone is on the same slow boat.
Dress-Code. Besides the fact that everybody tells you that you need to dress up every morning, which I do ( I put on a little bit of makeup so I don’t look like a Halloween horror movie, Zoom does not help the situation), it is important to treat every weekday not like a Saturday. I am trying to embrace this situation and I showed up via Zoom on my PJs in front of a couple of Investors 😊! It’s cool to show your relaxed side, you are at home!
Reconnect. I’ve been doing a lot of consulting sessions these past weeks. People are starting to explore ideas they had in the back of their minds that in the past were crazy ideas but now is not that insane anymore. This is an opportunity to reconnect with old customers, potential customers from a more humble angle. We are all living this non-sense (although every day makes more sense) so it is your chance to ask how are they doing. Be sympathetic and reconnect with them during this crisis because they will remember you in the good times.
Work Housekeeping. The past couple of days I’ve been doing a lot of housekeeping. I’ve been working on the company’s SEO, fixing all of those little things from the website that we never had time to do, updating portfolios, and adding new stuff that I know it is definitely going to improve my accessibility people, new people. I also changed the content of the website and social media, making it more sympathetic with what is happening in our world. Instead of focusing on selling, creating leads, maximizing your profits which seems impossible right now, I changed the content into a more realistic overview because times have changed and we need to adapt and rethink how we are working and how we are going to connect with people from now on.
Background. Zoom, Hangouts, Skype, Facetime became the new normal, right? So, make it fun. My Favorite one is Zoom because I can change the background. I have traveled the world the past 2 weeks from beaches, to the Everest, to el Amazonas, I even have one background for happy hour!. Play with it, it is fun and it breaks the monotony of a virtual meeting. One friend mentioned that she got one of those coloring books because it helps her concentrate. Anything to keep us going!
I hope this helped you or at least entertained you. I am not a writer but I definitely will have some learnings to share and some stories to tell after this crazy pandemic passes.
Stay safe at home,
Nicole Minionis
CMO – Hive Innovation ventures, Marketing Director – Wethink Marketing, cool mom, frustrated musician, passionate about love and connections.
