We asked marketing leaders and practitioners how they begin their daily work-from-home routines—be sure to check back as more weigh in!
William Faust, senior partner and chief strategy officer, Ologie
I’m a boomer and an empty nester—important to know because I don’t have kids at home to consider or adjust to. My daily routine before was to get up by 5:30 a.m. and do email and news feed check-ins over coffee, work out and then go to the office by about 8:30 a.m. We do have a home office, but I prefer working at a big table in our great room. I already have a printer at home, full Wi-Fi and pretty much everything I needed since I would work from home about 20% of my time before COVID-19.
What’s different so far for me is Slack, which I never really used in the office but now need to ramp up fast, as it’s much preferred by our team of about 75 people. I’ve added that to my daily check-in over coffee. Because I relied more on office systems for things like conference calls, I was woefully behind on my browser updates and had to update a lot so I can take part in more video calls on my laptop. I also never used headphones for calls but now will switch over as they help a lot. As far as dress, there’s no major change there. We are a very casual business anyway and our clients understand that. No jammies, though. I am spending more time on news feeds to monitor the status of various government rules regarding people gathering, etc.
Ricardo Baca, founder and CEO, Grasslands
My alarm’s usually set for 6:30 or 7 a.m.—early for me as a 20-year veteran of daily newspapers. I’m on email first, checking on potential client or colleague needs. Then it’s on to Twitter and my favorite early-morning newsletters, which include aggregations from The Colorado Sun and Marijuana Moment—given that my agency Grasslands works with clients in cannabis, hemp, tech and other highly regulated industries. I listen to [The New York Times’ podcast] “The Daily” on the treadmill before showering, and then it’s finally coffee time.
Now that my colleagues and I are working from home, I’m generally dressed even more casually than I am at the office: a hoodie and these Uniqlo athleisure pants I can’t get enough of, with Japanese house shoes. My home desk is the dining room table, set among these giant, south-facing Victorian windows that tell the time like a sundial, via shadows and sunbeams dissecting my coffee mug. The French press is close, and my two chiweenies are generally closer.
My chief of staff Debbie came up with the brilliant idea of a daily 30-minute touch-in for our full 12-person staff, via Google Hangouts. At first we wondered if it was too much, but especially given the countless unknowns of #COVIDlife, these meetings have become meaningful opportunities for human connection, professional sharing, a couple laughs and plenty of goal-setting. I legitimately look forward to seeing everyone—electronically—each morning, and I don’t think I’m alone.
Lisa Guillot, transformational mindset coach and brand voice coach, Be Bright, Lisa
I’ve been working from home—which I fondly call “my studio”—since 2009. I start my workday morning by setting an intention.
The word intention comes from the Latin intentio, which means “stretching, purpose” and intendere, which means “to turn one’s attention.” Intention-setting is an easy way to create your mindset to stay laser-focused toward milestone goals, your life purpose or simply how you want to be intentional today.
A few questions to set an intention are:
- What’s one thing I can be excited about?
- What’s one word I could use to describe who I want to be today?
- What’s one thing that could stress me out?
- How would my higher self deal with that?
Answering these questions will give you something to look forward to, clarify your mindset and give you a game plan for how you want to handle a potentially stressful moment.
Photo by John Forson on Unsplash.
