Celebrate what you’ve done

Take stock at the end of the day to stay motivated for tomorrow

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is to celebrate what you've done, Especially when
you're working from home and not commuting anywhere. It can

(00:25):
be easy to feel like you haven't done much of anything,
but you probably have so best to notice that. When
I first began working from home almost twenty years ago,
I found the switch from an office job disorienting. I
was used to getting up and getting into fancy clothes

(00:47):
and then taking a train and two buses to get
to work. As you might imagine, that process had to
be reversed to get home. Moving myself around so much
meant that by evening, whatever else had happened that day,
I'd feel like I'd done a lot, and then suddenly
I wasn't going much of anywhere. Not only that, no

(01:10):
one was monitoring when I started working or when I stopped.
If I didn't get much done on any particular day,
there was absolutely no hiding that fact from myself. Eventually
I got better at the rhythms of daily life, but
one thing that helped me feel productive is learning to
make challenging but doable task lists for each day and

(01:33):
then making sure I ended the day with everything crossed off.
If I did something that wasn't on the task list,
I'd write it after doing it, and then I'd cross
it off. I know that sounds silly, and yes it
is kind of silly, but the crossing off was important
for me mentally. It was my way of celebrating what

(01:54):
I'd done. Crossing items off a list is one approach,
but you can also just go straight to the celebration
part at the end of the day. Get in the
habit of listing the tasks you've accomplished. You might call
this your done lists, or even if you want to
be cute, a two done list, not just a to

(02:15):
do list. If you've got a supervisor, this would make
a great end of day email. Your supervisor can't read
your mind, and it's harder to keep tabs on things
with remote workers. This done list keeps you accountable. Let's
your manager give you feedback and let's be honest. Will
likely lead to a great job note that will help

(02:37):
you in the day well too. You can share your
list with team members as well, not so much for
seeking validation as just to keep everyone up to date.
They'll probably share what they've done with you, which you
can applaud. If you've got direct reports, you might ask
them to send you a done list so you can

(02:58):
keep tabs on what's going on and give them lots
of high fives as well. This habit does a couple
of good things. First, it keeps everyone focused on what's
getting done. Sometimes we can measure work days and hours,
as in I put in my eight, but honestly, who
cares about the time. What usually matters is what you

(03:22):
did with it. A done list keeps you accountable for results.
It can also make you feel really good. There are
always things you've done, even if it's not necessarily what
you intended to do at the beginning of the day.
Sometimes we can get derailed from our to do lists,

(03:44):
but we never get derailed from our done list because well,
it's in the past. If you are supposed to do
eight things and you did five of them but did
five other things, well you may need to work on
your to do list making skills, but there is no
reason not to celebrate the ten things that did happen.
And finally, creating a done list is a great way

(04:05):
to end the day. Once you've listed what you've done.
You can actually be done when you work from home
and don't have an end of day commute, creating a
boundary around work. This can be a smart way to
create such a boundary. You think back over the day,

(04:25):
you celebrate all the good stuff you made happen, and
then you can shut down your laptop and move on
to the rest of your life. So, if you are
looking for a way to make work from home days
feel more productive, try making a done list. You just
might surprise yourself with how good it feels. In the meantime,

(04:51):
This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
the most of our time. M m Hey everybody, I'd
love to hear from you. You can send me your tips,
your questions, or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook,

(05:12):
and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod that's b the number four,
then breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me
an email at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media
dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all
the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward to staying
in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I Heart Radio.

(05:40):
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