Redefining Your Expectations for Your Work-At-Home Life with Kat Harris of The Refined Woman
Episode 432: Show Notes
Today on the Strategy Hour podcast we have Kat Harris joining us. She is a Brooklyn-based online educator, digital content creator, co-founder of The Refined Woman, and the host of The Refined Collective podcast. Kat is also a photographer who has spent the last decade working from home—so she can teach us a thing or two about getting working from home right! After so many years of experience, she had tons of advice and shares her strategies for organizing your schedule to serve you. Because, for Kat, your time and energy matters and you should be spending it exactly like you want to while still getting the job done.
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She talks about how she has adjusted her schedule, mindset, and expectations during the crisis to strike the balance between growing and giving yourself a lot of grace. This episode is full of practical advice everyone can implement on some level, according to your reality and set of priorities. Let’s jump in!
How Extroverts Experience Working From Home
We know for us introverts, working from home and being by ourselves is not really a big deal, but for highly sociable, outgoing people, this must be an added layer of difficulty! Kat is an extrovert who lives in the buzz of New York City but she says regardless of our personality, we all ebb and flow in terms of what we need and what brings us life. Being obsessed with personality tests, she has learned that in times of stress we can operate from the personality opposite to us. This strange time we’re in has an impact on all of us. You might wonder why you feel tired, depressed, or unproductive, or perhaps you have a strange desire to just hit the road and run non-stop. It is important to acknowledge where you are right now and to notice the sensations in your body that are tied to those emotions. Often we live in our heads, constantly operating from the to-do-lists in our minds, but we are body, soul, and spirit, so we need to pay attention to all three areas. Even though Kat is an extrovert, she has been working from home for a long time so she has put structures in place to help her thrive in that environment. It’s all about knowing what you need and then setting yourself up for success.
Adjusting Your Schedule, Mindset, and Expectations
When we ask Kat how her schedule has changed since the coronavirus crisis, she says that while some things remained the same, there are aspects that have shifted. For her, it is important to grab hold of the unique growth opportunity presented by the crisis. When thinking about your structures, consider what has and has not been working for you up to this point. Which aspects of your life are thriving versus the beliefs, thought patterns, and behaviors that are not serving you? The huge interruptions that we all face—are you adjusting to find better ways of doing or are you still stuck with the ineffective strategies from before? Are you allowing these disruptions to refocus you? Kat says that she is not working the same hours as she did before the outbreak and, technically speaking, she is not as productive but she is using this time to reflect and ask herself some hard questions. Instead of wondering how we can be the most productive people on the planet, we need to think about the lifestyle we want to have, develop a vision for the future, and evaluate whether what we are doing now is contributing to that vision. As far as your new work strategy goes, it is not advisable to try to do everything you did before the crisis. You have to adjust your expectations around what can be done—while also protecting your mental health. We are in a pandemic and it’s okay to feel feelings about it. The feeling is uncomfortable but we need to just sit in it instead of finding a million ways to avoid it. If you want to grow, you have to get uncomfortable.
Finding Equilibrium Versus Over or Underworking
When stressed out, some of us resort to overworking while others become passive and apathetic. Maybe you’ve experienced both extremes. Kat believes that structure gives you more freedom and a sense of being grounded. We all need structures whether we believe it or not—even artists work within the boundaries of a canvas. When she first started working from home, she would have 14-hour workdays and forget to eat, a habit which is easy to fall into when you work from home and when you are passionate about your business! During this crisis, we can also fall into the trap of overworking because we have nothing better to do. On the flip-side, some of us get pulled into the vortex of Netflix or spend most of the time on our phones. When we create structures, it also allows us to track our progress and decide how much we want to work. Under “normal” circumstances, Kat aims for 40 hours a week. She advises not to work from bed and check your email the first thing in the morning. And, even if you don’t leave your house, get dressed. There is something psychological that happens when we get dressed versus when we stay in our pajamas the whole day. Kat also recommends a block schedule in which you assign tasks to specific times so you can avoid multitasking and losing focus. When you have a schedule like this, you can also show your boss or colleague when you are planning to do which tasks—and be sure to take that lunch break. She also advocates for the Pomodoro method of time management where you work for 25 minutes straight (without interruptions), take a five-minute break, and repeat that four times. After the fourth time, you get a 15 minute break.
Take What You Can And Forget The Rest
We just want to put out a huge caveat to all our above suggestions and the block schedule. If you have a kid at home, these ideas are not realistic. Take what you can from the advice and see how you can implement it in a way that works for you, but the bigger lesson we are learning is the importance of boundaries when it comes to work and personal life. We mentioned before that this is a time to reevaluate your priorities and check what’s working for you. We recommend simplifying things in your work life for now—it just makes dealing with everything else easier. If possible, focus on one task at a time and try to reduce your work stress. Look at your to-do-list and compare it to what your main priorities are, and see if it is aligned. If something is a priority, it needs attention first. Don’t try to tick off all the quick, easy tasks first because you might never get to the big one that is most important.
Hitting A New Rhythm and Surrendering To Your Reality
For Kat, the first two weeks of quarantine were overwhelming because she kept thinking of all the content she should be putting out. Instead of taking ownership, she was reacting and responding to the situation and getting flustered. She was unsure of what to focus on so she asked a few friends for their advice, and all of them said that she should use this time to work on her book. She needed outside perspectives to refocus on what she was doing and why. The book is an opportunity for her to be a voice to women and so she decided to stick to that before putting out all the other little fires. This meant she stopped looking at what everyone else was doing and instead focused on the task she knew she had to do. Instead of being discouraged by the seemingly massive progress of your peers, why not use it as evidence that it can be done? If they can do it, you can too. It will also do you well to remember that your worth and value are not tied to your productivity. You also have to surrender to the fact that your plans will not always work out—and you should be okay with that. Give yourself a lot of grace.
Quote This
No matter what personality you have, we ebb and flow with what we need and with what brings us life, with what brings us rest.
—Kat Harris
Highlights
How Extroverts Experience Working From Home. [0:05:24.1]
Adjusting Your Schedule, Mindset, and Expectations. [0:10:35.1]
Finding Equilibrium Versus Over or Underworking. [0:19:39.1]
Take What You Can And Forget The Rest. [0:30:44.1]
Hitting A New Rhythm and Surrendering To Your Reality. [0:37:00.1]
#TalkStrategyToMe [0:42:47.1]
Set up connection points.
Do/get into a hot seat.
Use apps to help you.
Put your phone on airplane mode.
No emails first thing in the morning.
ON TODAY’S SHOW
Kat Harris
The Refined Woman
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Podcast
Kat Harris is a podcaster, online educator, speaker, author, photographer, Beyoncé lover, and Ranch dressing aficionado. Her vision is to equip and empower women with practical tools to walk in their worth and navigate their lives grounded in freedom, vision, and wholeness.
KEY TOPICS
Personality, Body, Soul, Spirit, Block schedules, Mindset, Expectations, Pomodoro method, Surrendering
