Working From Home 101: Prioritization

The ability to prioritize tasks is valuable in any line of work. But when it comes to working from home, prioritization is crucial!

I’m Alissa Hammes, Senior Agency Lead at Centro. I’ve worked remotely for the entirety of my six years here! When I was asked to share some of the best practices I’ve picked up along the way, prioritization was the first habit that came to mind.

My best advice is to set daily and weekly goals. I personally enjoy crossing things off a to-do list, so I create lists for both work and home to take the “what’s next?” question out of my down time. Here’s how I organize each of these lists:

Work

• Organize your projects/activity goals by day and week
• Keep a running list of to-dos
  • Highlight high priority tasks
• Schedule out chunks of time during the day and week to update your to-dos and reprioritize. 

Home

• Health: In my family, we prioritize the D.R.E.A.M.—diet, rest, exercise, alignment and mindset.
  • Set aside time in your schedule to address each of these pillars of wellness! (15 minutes to stretch here, 10 minutes to meditate there, etc.)
• Meal prep: I find that I save myself time when I know what I’m having for lunch, dinner, and even snacks.
• Kids: If you’re a parent, create a schedule and a running list of possible activities, so that you don’t run out of ideas while they’re sharing your space.

Now more than ever, your normal daily schedule may look a little blurred between home and work. You may need to work with your manager if the regular workday needs to be adjusted to early morning or evening hours so that you can prioritize each aspect of your life while you’re working from home.

But enough about what works for me—here’s what a few of my coworkers had to say about prioritizing when working remotely!

“Turn off email notifications! Most of the time, I am working on something and then I see an email. I totally drop what I’m doing and I tend the new email. Before I know it, I have multiple emails open and I leave things half-finished to work on something else.”—Alyssa Brown

“Keep a running to-do list in a notebook where you can cross things off. Star timely items that need to be completed that day. Before you sign off at night, re-write your to-do list for the following day so you can hit the ground running.”—Kelly Wittmann

“With more self-accountability, it is easy to push projects for ‘later’. List out 1-3 projects each week that you WILL complete.”—Alana Putterman

I hope these tips help you to find your optimal blend between work and life. Stay positive out there!

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