You might be surprised to hear that the first thing I tell my coaching clients is this: Quit spending too much time searching for remote jobs.

But, it’s true. An important piece of advice I give to everyone I work with involves spending less time on the search part of their remote job search.

Many people are confused by this. After all, job seekers are often told “looking for a job is a full time job.”

Honestly, this is only partially true. You see, dear job seeker, there are a lot of activities that go into a job search. Yes, searching for job leads is part of it. But that’s just a small sliver of a job search.

3 Other Important Parts of a Remote Job Search

1. LinkedIn Networking

LinkedIn is a critical part of your job search, but not a lot of remote job seekers spend their time here. However, it’s a good idea to take time away from finding job leads and using it instead on LinkedIn.

Why? Because a lot of connections and hiring decisions are made on LinkedIn. Let’s check out these impressive LinkedIn stats:

• 87% of recruiters use LinkedIn

• 20 million job openings posted on LinkedIn

• 122 million people got a job interview through LinkedIn

Impressive, right? Needless to say, you need to spend more time on LinkedIn. Period. It all starts with your profile. Of course, you can’t just have a generic LinkedIn profile. Instead, you need to craft a powerful LinkedIn profile that leads to interviews. To do this well, it will take some time.

Plus, it’s a good idea to be active on LinkedIn. It’s one thing to write an amazing profile. It’s another to be engaged, active, and create meaningful connections. This can be done by sharing, posting, commenting, and participating in groups. You can even follow remote-friendly companies to be the first to know when they are hiring.

The more time you spend on LinkedIn, the greater your chances of remote job search success. You’re never more than a connection away from your next interview.

2. Perfect Your Personal Brand

Today, more than ever, it’s important to spend time on your personal brand. This is especially true for remote job seekers, like you.

Your personal brand is essentially the professional persona you project online. A well crafted personal brand make you a no-brainer hire for a position. A bland personal brand allows recruiters to pass you over for interviews.

Don’t forget, as a remote job seeker, you won’t get to make an in-person impression. Remember, the entire application process from hiring to interview to onboarding is done virtually. That means recruiters and hiring managers will turn to good old Google to develop their own impression of you. Don’t let it be the wrong impression.

An estimated 77% of companies will google you before they invite you to interview. And Google will show them everything they can possibly find on you including, but not limited to:

• Facebook Profile

• Blog Posts

• Instagram Profile

• Twitter Profile

• News Mentions

Essentially, anywhere your name shows up online will come up when someone (including employers) google you. Potential employers will use what Google gives them to form an impression on you. And this can make or break your chance of getting an interview (or job).

So, instead of spending all your time job searching, hop online and clean up your personal brand. Make your Facebook profile private if you don’t want recruiters to see what you share here. Delete politically-charged tweets that might make you look aggressive. Go the extra mile and create your own personal brand website.

Making your own website takes back your online presence and gives you greater control over what Google decides to show about you. That’s because a website with your name as the domain (i.e., yourname.com) is likely to rank higher on Google searches than anything else.

All of these personal brand job search tasks provide greater return on time investment than scouring job boards for hours on end.

3. Optimize Your Resume

Writing my resume is fun, said no one ever. And it’s even less fun when I tell job seekers that not only do they have to write their resume once, but re-write it for every single job they apply for.

At first, this is time consuming. But, trust me, it is time well spent. That’s because the majority of remote job listings are posted with an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). ATS is a special type of software companies use to make hiring easier.

That means when you upload your resume to apply for a job, it’s being scanned by ATS to determine whether you’re a good fit for the position. If so, great! Your resume is passed on to a real person. If not, then your resume is placed in limbo, and you never get an interview or a rejection letter. Being in resume limbo is the worst because you never know one way or another what happened with your application.

The best way to avoid resume limbo is to keyword optimize your resume. This means taking hard skills from the job ad and placing them in your resume. It takes a few extra minutes to do, but it pays off — big time. Now when you submit your resume, the ATS sees you have the hard skills from the job and instantly places you in the “yes” pile, exactly where you want to end up.

Spend less time tracking down and verifying job leads and more time optimizing your resume. In the world of remote jobs, it’s all about quality over quantity. That is, it’s infinitely better to apply to fewer positions with an optimized resume than to mass apply to many positions with the same resume.

How To Spend Less Time Searching in Your Job Search

It’s easy to get caught up in the searching part of your job search. After all, you can’t apply to jobs if you don’t find them, right?

That’s true. But even still, you don’t have to spend too much time on job boards seeking out remote jobs.

Automate Your The Search

Instead, automate your search as much as possible. The best way to do that is to sign up for job alerts.

Job alerts can be scheduled daily. That means once a day, you’ll have all the newest remote job leads delivered to your inbox. It’s much quicker to glance through an email than to scroll through a job board site.

Use Remote Job Boards

It’s also a good idea to stay off the big-name job boards like Indeed or Monster. Sure you can find remote job leads there. But there’s also a TON of non-remote jobs in the mix too. Avoid sifting through these by sticking to remote-focused job boards. That way you know every lead coming your way is actually remote.

Take Advantage of Hand Curated Sites

Another major time suck of remote job searches is determining whether something is legit or a scam. Save time by searching job boards that hand pick their leads like FlexJobs. These job boards do the hard work for you and ensure each and every listing is the real deal.

The Effortless Remote Job Search

To help remote job seekers make the most of their time, I’ve created The Effortless Remote Job Search.

In this crash course you’ll learn where to quickly find real remote jobs, how to save time, and best practices for avoiding scams.

Bonus content includes:

• LinkedIn Profile Checklist

• List of Hundreds of Remote-Friendly Companies

• Job Search Tracker

• Now Hiring Spreadsheet

• Scam-Guard Checklist

Ready to make your remote job search as easy as possible? Sign up for The Effortless Remote Job Search Today for just $27.

It’s never been easier to find real, scam-free remote job leads.

Freelancing is becoming SUPER common — so common that 1 in 3 Americans now has a side hustle of some kind. People are looking to get out of the typical 9-to-5 grind and be their own bosses — and who can blame them?

Most of us aren’t too passionate about what we do for a living anyway. We drag ourselves to work each day to do a job we don’t like, to work for people we don’t care for, to put in countless hours for zero potential growth. And then drive back home on a commute… we don’t like.

I know I was tired of working my butt off for someone else and not reaping any of the rewards. And I’m sure we all have stories about horrible bosses, nasty coworkers, long commutes, and zero potential for growth. Instead of putting up with all that, entrepreneurs are deciding to take their lives and futures into their own hands.

That’s exactly what I did!

My freelance proofreading career began after I got fired.

Yep, fired. As in, unceremoniously shown the door at my full-time job after working my tail off there.

But getting fired ended up being the best thing that ever happened to me.

Without being fired, I never would’ve even thought of starting my own company. But I was forced to. So I took up freelance proofreading to earn income.

I did that for three years, and I did pretty well for myself: I earned more than $40k a year two years in a row. People kept asking me to teach them how I did it. While I had the knowledge to create a how-to of some kind… I had ZERO confidence. Who would listen to me? And who would actually pay money to learn from me? Because of that self-doubt, my first blog, Proofread Anywhere, almost never existed.

But my husband, Ben, encouraged me to put myself out there. So I started out with an eBook. And now, three years later, my business has grown to two online proofreading courses and several eBooks and workshops.

Teaching others about proofreading is what I LOVE to do. It’s been the most rewarding and life-changing experience of my life.

And today I’d like to share with you exactly why you should consider starting your own freelance proofreading business, just like I did. Who knows — it might lead you to places you never thought possible!

Proofreading is a growing freelance side hustle… and even a career

You might be wondering if proofreaders are even in demand right now.

The short answer: absolutely! A vast majority of the content we consume consists of words. Think about the online content you view — most of it is written, or at least has some written component to it. And we all know there’s no end to the amount of new content being added to the internet on a daily basis.

Just think of all the possibilities! Bloggers, authors, website creators, business owners, copywriters — the list is endless. Every one of those content creators needs a proofreader.

The rise of online businesses has created a major demand for fresh, quality content on a regular basis. That means businesses are churning out articles and eBooks left and right, and when you write that much copy, you definitely need a second set of eyes to make sure it’s as error-free as possible.

Error-free content equals a positive reputation; content riddled with errors equals a not-so-positive reputation. Which do you think a business wants?

One of THE largest and fastest growing niches is online courses. Entrepreneurs are taking their businesses to the next level by launching specialized courses in their fields of expertise. And guess what? Those courses need to be free of grammatical errors and spelling typos. Even *I* hire proofreaders to proofread my courses — and I’m a professional proofreader! It goes to show that everyone needs a second set of eyes.

Proofreading basics

So what exactly does a proofreader do?

A proofreader’s main job is to spot grammatical, formatting, punctuation, and spelling errors before the content is published. You are using your eagle eyes to spot errors the content creator and/or editors might have missed.

It’s very easy for writers to skip over errors they’ve made because they’ve looked at the content so many times that they see what they want to see, not necessarily what is actually there on the page (or screen). A fresh pair of eagle eyes can spot those errors easily and help polish the content so that the author’s true vision is there in the final version.

What a proofreader does NOT do is rewrite sentences, move paragraphs, or give opinions on high-level elements like the plot or main idea. Those items are considered editing and copyediting, and you definitely don’t want to do those as a proofreader.

Why? Number one, editing and copyediting demand a higher rate, so you would essentially be doing more work for less money. And second, you might not yet have developed the more advanced skills you need for copyediting. You don’t want to bite off more than you can chew with a client — that’s a fast way to get a bad reputation. And believe me, it’s a small world out there.

But once you master the art of proofreading, I highly recommend branching out into copyediting and editing. Like I always say: mo’ skills = mo’ money!

Common proofreading tools

In order to be a successful proofreader, you must use the tools clients expect you to have. Besides your natural skill of finding errors, the two basic and most common tools for general proofreaders are a style guide (like The Chicago Manual of Style) and a dictionary (I recommend Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary). If you’re working for an author or publisher, you might also need their specific guides. (Don’t worry: if it’s required, they’ll provide it to you with the project.)

You should also have a way to proofread documents quickly and easily. Some of the more common options are Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and a PDF annotation tool like Adobe or iAnnotate. Some clients might even prefer pen and paper, but that option is getting less and less popular and is usually more of a hassle than it’s worth.

You might notice I didn’t list any online grammar checkers or a generic spell check tool. That’s because while they can both be super helpful, they should not be depended on to be 100% accurate. How many times have you typed something in Word and the spell check tells you something is incorrect but you know for a fact that it’s okay? This is where relying on your skills and knowledge trumps any automated grammar tool out there. If you think running spell check in Word is sufficient, becoming a proofreader might not be the gig for you.

What it takes to be a great proofreader

All excellent (emphasis on excellent!) proofreaders have the same core qualities. No matter what corner of the world you live in or what type of content you proofread, you must have the following skills:

• A natural ability to spot errors and know how/why to fix them. This is THE most important skill to have. If you don’t have a natural passion for pointing out errors, proofreading is probably not right for you. If you’re known to your friends and family as the “Grammar Police,” then you should definitely consider proofreading as a career.

• A great attention to detail. Another must for a proofreader! This skill can make or break you. If you’re more of a “big picture” type of person, a freelance business that demands a critical eye for the smaller things might not be the best way to go.

• Enjoy reading. This might seem like a given, but it must be said. If you don’t like to read, you are not going to enjoy proofreading. The two sort of go hand in hand 😉

• Always willing to learn more. No matter how good you think you are, there is always, ALWAYS room for improvement. Even the masters need to hone their skills or learn new ones on a regular basis. Becoming stagnant or settling for okay are the worst enemies for freelancers.

• Unafraid of doing research. I guarantee that every single project you work on will present a new challenge. You’ll come across a word you’ve never heard of before, or maybe the topic of the content is something super different from what you normally work on. Google, your professional network, and the library are your friends.

• Maintain a stellar online reputation. With so much networking happening online, it’s VERY important that you present yourself in a professional manner at all times. That includes your (error-free) website, how you interact on your social media profiles, and any reviews of your work.

• A positive attitude. People want to work with kind, professional, positive people. If you are a pain in the butt to work with, you’re going to have a really hard time finding — and keeping — clients. This kind of goes along with the previous point. Word travels fast, and if you’ve been rude and unprofessional with a client, it’s likely others will hear quickly, and your chances of getting quality jobs drops drastically.

Time to test your proofreading prowess!

All right, Eagle Eyes! Let’s see how you do with some of the most common errors found while proofreading. This will give you a good idea whether or not proofreading could be the gig for you. Good luck!

1) Do you know why _____ desks are so dirty

A. their B. they’re

2) Which sentence is correct?

A. I like to eat chocolate but my friend likes to eat peanut butter.

B. I like to eat chocolate, but my friend likes to eat peanut butter.

3) We always loved visiting our _____ house.

A. grandparents’ B. grandparents

4) I like to watch at least _____ new movies every month.

A. three B. 3

5) Which sentence is correct?

A. My son is taking a three-week vacation in July.

B. My son is taking a three week-vacation in July.

Answers:

1. A (their: shows ownership; they’re: contraction of “they are”)

2. B (use a comma to separate two independent clauses)

3. A (use an apostrophe to show ownership)

4. A (generally, spell out numbers zero through one hundred)

5. A (hyphenate compound adjectives before the noun they modify)

How did you do? If you got four or five right, you’ve got the makings of a great proofreader! If you didn’t do so hot, don’t worry too much — that just means there’s room for improvement, right?

How YOU can get started as a freelance proofreader

If you’re looking for a low-risk way to find out more about becoming a freelance proofreader, check out my FREE 45-minute workshop. I show you how to elevate your skills, use one of the most popular proofreading tools out there, and even give you a sneak peek into how to find clients.

Then if you like what you see and hear, you can go on to sign up for my General Proofreading course and receive a special rate just for attending the workshop.

See you there!

The job market is competitive. It can be even more so for remote job seekers. Often, your interviewer is considering multiple candidates for a single position. Remember, when you make it to the interview phase you’re likely one of just four candidates remaining.

In this case, an interview thank you letter edges out the competition – especially when you’re neck and neck with another candidate. Keep in mind, just 25% of job seekers follow up with a thank you letter. However, more than 80% of hiring managers use them to further evaluate candidates!

Remember, it’s good manners to send a sincere thanks for being considered as a candidate. Plus, your politeness and willingness to go the extra mile can leave a lasting good impression. And this positivity can lead to a job offer, especially if your competition failed to send a follow up.

3. It Keeps Your Name At The Top Of Their List

Hiring personnel are busy people. They conduct interviews, field phone calls, and sort through countless resumes as they work to fill multiple positions. Sometimes, in all the chaos, it’s all too easy to forget about the dozens of candidates they’ve met with. This could very well be you! Recent research shows remote roles receive 7 times more applicants than in-person corporate positions!

Needless to say, you don’t want to be swallowed up in a sea of remote applicants. An easy way to stand out is – you guessed it – a remote interview thank you letter!

When your letter arrives in the hiring manager’s inbox, it jogs their memory. Now your name is “fresh” on their minds and more memorable than candidates who don’t follow up.

This positive recall is incredibly valuable when it comes time to for them to make a hiring decision. Plus, a personal letter provides another chance to interact with the interviewer. This added exposure makes you feel more familiar, and psychology tells us that people love familiarity!

Always, Always Write A Thank You Email After An Interview

Besides being ultra polite, your thank you email can actually help you get the job offer. Use this short but powerful email to give your job offer chances a boost. Your email can help you fix any bad answers or strengthen weak ones, it helps you beat out the often stiff competition, and keeps your name on your interviewer’s mind. When done correctly, not only does your email make you look like someone the recruiter wants to work with, it can bolster your chances of getting hired.

So, don’t neglect this simple yet effective interviewing tool. A strong thank you email can make or break your chances of finding a remote job.

Happily,

What is Burnout?

Burnout is a real concern. According to the Mayo Clinic, burnout at work looks like:

• Lack of energy or productivity

• Difficulty concentrating

• Irritability with coworkers/customers/clients

• Zero job satisfaction

• Being cynical or critical

One of the biggest causes of burnout is, of course, work-life imbalance. When work takes up too much time and effort, it leaves little left for friends and family. This quickly leads to feelings of resentment and turns to job burnout quickly.

Burnout for Remote Workers

And burnout is a real concern for remote workers. A study from Nature on Human Behavior learned remote workers punched out later and logged more hours. On average, about 10% more hours than traditional office workers. Yikes.

As remote workers, we’re always connected. Like 24/7. This is especially true if we work with clients or coworkers around the world. They might be in the middle of their day when it’s after midnight your time. So, you could find yourself sneaking in an email at weird hours and even on weekends. It happens from time to time, but this is the exception not the rule.

Does that mean work from home jobs are too good to be true? No, not at all.

It’s easy to highlight the Burnout factor of remote work. It’s the wicked remote coworker, after all. And, of course, there are ways to avoid Burnout (which I’ll cover later). But, before I do, it’s important to bring up the opposite side of the work-life balance spectrum. The side where life wins out and we put work on the back burner. I call this side “Living it Up.”

What it Looks Like When You Work Too Little

We know Burnout is working too much and at inappropriate times.

Living it Up is the opposite. You opt to slack on work duties in favor of personal pursuits (or no pursuits at all, ha!).

There aren’t a lot of statistics about Living it Up. After all, who’s going to admit that they aren’t really working when they’re supposed to be? However, you know deep down when you’re not meeting your work responsibilities as well as you should be.

Signs You Aren’t Working Enough

Just as it’s easy to work too much, it can be just as easy to put work aside. For some, being home is a little too comfortable. This results in not enough work time and too much personal time. When this happens you:

• Miss important deadlines because your time management favors personal pursuits

• Spend the majority of your work day sitting at your desk but you’re scrolling through social media or watching Netflix

• Often “knock off early” to head out to dinner or grab drinks with your friends

• Have a serious cause of FOMO so say “yes” to everything even though you should say “no”

• Get complaints from coworkers about your lack of responsiveness

• Fail to respond to teammates or clients in a timely manner

• Forget to do routine tasks or put in minimum effort to get by

If any of this sounds familiar, well then, you are on the opposite side of the balance scale. You, my dear, are clearly Living it Up. You might get away with it for a bit. But, after awhile it catches up to you and causes a level of distrust with your coworkers.

Remote Workers and Trust

So, are remote workers just sitting a home watching Netflix all day? Is that really why workers don’t want to head back into the office? Plenty of remote workers report increased focus and productivity. But managers don’t always agree.

In a recent Harvard Business Review (HBR) study,

41% of managers stated they didn’t think they could trust remote workers long term. A similar percentage (38%) said remote workers performed worse than their in-office counterparts.

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW

Clearly, the goal is for companies and managers to trust remote workers. Typically, companies look for specific traits in remote hires for this very reason. But trust in general is so important that, when a group of remote-friendly companies was asked “what traits do you look for in candidates for a remote job” dozens (and I do mean dozens) included several similar answers about trust and work ethic:

• “demonstrated responsibility”

• “strong work ethic”

• “self-motivated”

• “self-starters that are good at budgeting their time”

• “high degree of independence”

• “receptive to feedback”

• “doesn’t need a lot of hand holding”

• “initiative and discipline”

• “the ability to find answers and figure it out”

I could seriously keep going on and on and on. But the takeaway here is that companies want to hire remote workers who can manage their time and have a desire to do the job (and do it well) even when no one is looking.

It’s up to you and you alone to manage your time well while working at home. Clearly, some companies are skeptical of the work ethic of telecommuters. Do not tip the scale too much in favor of life. Otherwise, you’re gonna give remote workers a bad name.

And then we’re all gonna come after ya. Just kidding. Remote workers are typically introverted people who prefer to stay inside and dislike confrontation. So, you’re safe 🙂

How to Achieve Work-Life Balance as a Remote Worker

We’ve done a deep dive into what happens when you live in a state of work-life imbalance. When you work too much, your family life suffers. And if you work too little, your work performance suffers.

Of course, neither of these is optimal. That’s where work-life balance comes into play. It’s a simple enough concept but difficult to master. Fortunately, there are two fundamental concepts that will help you achieve the often elusive balance you seek:

1. Time Management

2. Boundaries

Time Management for Remote Workers

It’s true there are a lot of benefits to remote work. One of which is time saved with no commute. On average, a US worker’s commute is 27.6 minutes one way according to the Census Bureau. That comes to 55.2 minutes of work travel every day. Yes, almost an hour saved not sitting in traffic is good for your health. But in reality, an hour isn’t a ton of extra time. And for remote workers, it’s important not to replace that hour saved with MORE work.

Fun fact: In additional to being a Certified Professional Career Coach, I’m also a certificated Time Management Coach. Betcha didn’t even know that is a thing. But it is and it’s a credential I absolutely love. Why? Because teaching remote workers better time management (or anyone in general, really) results in a ton of positive changes.

That’s where time management comes into play.

What is Time Management?

For a basic definition of time management, Wikipedia offers the following:

Time management is the process of planning and exercising conscious control of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase effectiveness and efficiency.

WIKIPEDIA

For remote workers, proper time management leads to work-life balance. It provides a set structure to your work day so you don’t work too much or too little. In other words, don’t wing it. Go into your remote workday with a plan of action so you feel like you’re actually getting sh*t done and not just endlessly busy without much results.

Time Management Benefits

Think about it. No matter how much money you have or wisdom you possess, you are never given more than 24-hours in a day. It’s how you choose to spend those same 24 hours allotted to each of us that will make all the difference in how accomplished or unaccomplished you feel. And when you feel like you’re using your time to its fullest, you:

• Can do more without being frantic

• Make better (and easier) decisions

• Work toward goals and complete them faster

• Feel greater confidence

• Free up time to focus on what actually matters

• Reduce stress and boost happiness

• Avoid feelings of overwhelm and burnout

Reminder, time management is about prioritizing and using time effectively. It is not about cranking out tons of work as quickly as possible. You are human, not a robot. Doing too much leads to burnout. Instead, focus on planning and execution so you make the most of your time.

Types of Time Management Styles for Remote Workers

Psst: There is no secret to time management for remote workers. Every person will have a different method or manner of time management that provides them the best work-life balance.

It’s up to you to find which system or style or software works best for you. Try out different methods. See what sticks. Research them. Some might sound too whacky right out the gate for you, and that’s okay.

There is no right or wrong answer. However, and I can’t stress this enough, you absolutely have to have a time management system in place to achieve work-life balance from home. Period.

5 Popular Time Management Methods

1. Getting Things Done (GTD)

MY OWN COPY OF GTD WORKBOOK

This method was created by David Allen, an authority in all things work-life management. His signature method, Getting Things Done or GTD for short, helps bring order to chaos in both work and life (kinda sounds like work-life balance, right?).

The GTD System is broken down into five fundamental steps: Capture, Clarify, Organize, Reflect, Engage. You can grab a copy of Allen’s book, Getting Things Done along with the Getting Things Done Workbook on Amazon for around $20 bucks.

I own both, and particularly love the workbook and the 10 moves it breaks down for you. It’s a must-read to help you gain control of your work-from-home time.

2. The Eisenhower Matrix

When you have decision-making fatigue, the Eisenhower Matrix can help. It’s a fairly simple method that helps you figure out which tasks actually need to be completed in your workday.

This method allows you to ignore unimportant tasks and helps you feel like you’re making progress and in charge of your day (instead of your day ruling you). Simply put, it allows you to keep work tasks in check so you don’t end up working too much, especially on things that are unnecessary. The smart folks over at MindTools created a handy infographic to illustrate how it works:

CREDIT TO MINDTOOLS

3. Pomodoro Method

The Pomodoro Method or Technique is pretty straightforward. It works wonders for procrastinators and those who struggle with focus — which is admittedly two BIG struggles for remote workers.

So how does it work? You break your workday into 25-minute chunks of time. Each chunk is referred to as a pomodoro. You literally set a timer for 25 minutes and focus on a single task during that sprint. After a single 25-minute pomodoro, you take a 5-minute break. Then you rinse and repeat. When you’ve finished four or five pomodoros (with breaks in between), you take a longer 20 minutes break.

The idea is the forced breaks prevent burnout (woohoo) which helps with work-life balance. And you also get a realistic idea of how much (or little) time you actually have in your workday. With the Pomodoro Technique timer ticking, you focus on work, avoid distractions, and work on tasks that actually need to get done and not filler items.

4. Time Blocking Method

The Time Blocking Method has you break your entire workday into smaller blocks of time. During these smaller blocks you focus on a single task or a group of like tasks. For example, you block off a chunk of time just for meetings or phone calls. Another chunk is devoted to answering emails. And so on and so forth until your workday is filled.

This method, like the others, forces you to think about important work tasks you need to complete and set aside time for them so they get done. It keeps you from getting distracted or working on too many things at once.

Remember, multi-tasking is actually a time management disaster. According to the Cleveland Clinic, multitasking makes us less efficient and more prone to errors. Cal Newport, author of Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, has said about planning workdays that

A 40-hour time-blocked work week, I estimate, produces the same amount of output as a 60+ hour work week pursued without structure.

CAL NEWPORT

5. Rapid Planning Method (RPM)

Tony Robbins is the guru behind the Rapid Planning Method or RPM for short. His inspiration was to create a system that focuses on results rather than tasks. With this method, you get rid of your daily to-do lists and instead prioritize tasks.

This method combines both work and life goals, which of course plays well into our goal of work-life balance for remote workers. On top of prioritizing tasks, the method shifts your mindset, too. Every day (whether at work or home), we have tasks that have to get done but thankless (i.e., answering emails, laundry, etc.).

RPM helps you think of all tasks as meaningful in their own way and a small part of a much bigger picture.

Boundaries for Work-Life Balance from Home

The other secret to creating better balance when you work from home are boundaries. Because the lines of work and home are blurred remotely, boundaries keep you from combining the two. That way you don’t constantly feel like you’re at work, even though work and home are one and the same.

What are Work Boundaries?

In a nutshell, work boundaries are the limits you set to protect yourself. They are put in place to allow for a distinction between personal life and professional time. Without them, you end up feeling like you’re being pulled into too many directions at once. And, as we already know, that leads to stress and burnout.

Who to Set Boundaries With When You Work from Home

Typically, you only have to set work boundaries with yourself and coworkers. But, when you work remotely, you have to set work boundaries with your coworkers and:

• Spouses or significant others

• Children

• Neighbors

• Family members outside the home

This can be tricky and downright delicate. Nonetheless, it needs to be done. I’ve worked remotely for a decade. To this day, I still have to remind everyone on the list above that Monday – Friday, 6:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. (I’m an early bird), I’m working. This means I cannot just pick you up from the airport or have you drop in for a visit. Similarly, it means you can’t just burst into my office. Not only is it rude, but it ruins workflow.

According to Harvard Business Review, our brains have a hard time switching from one task to another (more reason not to multitask!). So, when we are interrupted, by roommates, spouses, kids, neighbors, and unexpected visitors, it takes much longer to complete the task at hand. This ultimately upsets whatever time management plans we have in place. The end result is often working outside of work hours to make up for it.

How to Set Healthy Boundaries for Work-Life Balance from Home

Remember, time management helps you work on what matters most. The boundaries you set allow you to seamlessly separate work and home when you work from home (no easy task!).

Say No

A lot of people have a hard time saying “no.” But it’s important to create your work-life balance from home. You need to say no to requests from friends and family members during work hours. Similarly, say “no” to coworkers or clients who put in requests on weekends or nights. Being able to say no without guilt is a learned skill.

Set a Schedule, and Stick to It

Whether you’re employed or self employed from home, know your work schedule ahead of time and stick to it. Again, this is why it’s important to have a time management method in place. That way you can easily “say no” to personal or professional requests that fall outside of your schedule. So, if you don’t work weekends — then don’t work weekends. Period. At the end of the work day or workweek, close your office door, shut down your laptop, and do not “return” to work until your next scheduled day or time.

Communicate Clear Expectations

Let your friends and family know your work from home schedule. And that means during those time you’re unreachable, unless it’s an emergency. It’s also helpful to define what is and isn’t an emergency.

Similarly, remind your coworkers or clients that you sign off daily at a specific time and don’t work on specific days. Let them know not to expect responses from you until you “return” to the office.

How to Build Better Work-Life Balance from Home

In a perfect world, you would work as much as you needed, get all the right tasks done, and have plenty of time left over for personal relationships and hobbies. But we are human, and perfectly imperfect. That means sometimes we work too much or not enough. And that’s okay. (Seriously, it’s okay).

As long as you recognize imbalances and correct them, you’ll be okay.

Through time management and firm boundaries it’s absolutely possible to build work-life balance from home.

Happily,