Ep. 77: Best Places to Work When WFH [Jumpstart Your Year: Day 17]

Happy New Year!

Welcome to the 2024 Jumpstart Your Year series, where we're coming to you every day this January with mini episodes to help you get reflecting on what's working and what's not in your parenting and productivity journey.

Our goal with the series is to create momentum and spark creativity so you can go into the new year with clarity and intention.

On Day 17, Kimberlyn reflects on the question:

Where do you get your best work done at home?

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Transcript

Kimberlyn: To jumpstart your year. We are coming to you every day this month with many bite sized episodes to get you reflecting on what's working and what's not in your parenting and productivity journey. Our goal with this series is to create momentum and spark creativity so you can start the new year with clarity and intention.

Hey guys, it's Kimberlyn and today is day 17 of our jumpstart your year series. 

Wow, we are already over half of the way through this series. I've been actually really loving it and I'm really excited about our topic today, which is going to be reflecting on the, on the question, where do you get your best work done at home? All right. So as you guys know Christina and I both are work from home mamas.

You may or may not be someone who works from home as well. I'm assuming you probably are if you are listening in. But anyway, so I think this is actually a really good, good question to ask. Because I think a lot of times we tend to kind of like work in one place. Yeah. And that just is, like, the place that we work. And I think a lot of times we don't necessarily put intention into, like, deciding on where we work.

We usually just have, like, a home office, and that's the place where we work. whIch, you know, is great, but I think that for me, at least because I've actually kind of moved around a little bit in terms of of where I work. But it's, it's a very valid question because the environment around us and the place that we actually work in.

Is so important to determining whether or not it is actually conducive to the work that we're doing. So as you may know, right? I have actually, I spent most of my time, especially pandemic before pandemic. Well, before pandemic, I used to work a lot of times in coffee shops, but but when I was at home, a lot of times I would work from my bed, which I don't think is a bad thing, right?

I don't think that we should be like shaming people for working in bed. I think. You know, you may have an office that you love. You may have a bed that you love. You may have a, you know, a kitchen counter that you love. For me, I loved working from bed just because it was so, like, comfortable. There was also a time where, for example, Before I met my, my current partner where it was me and my daughter and so my bed was like, just my place.

It was the place where I would get up at the time. I also, like, would work. You know, early in the morning, sometimes I would wake up at, like, 6 o'clock in the morning, grab the computer next to the bed and, like, just put it in my bed and keep working and. I also worked a lot if you can't tell. And so it was really important for me to be in a place that was comfortable since I had to work a lot and the bed was just kind of the comfortable place.

Like I had my, you know, my pillows, my like two, three. Pillow situation going so I can be propped up. I was warm, especially like during the winter working from bed is like I don't want to say it's the best, but there are definitely times for working in bed. So now I'm coming at you right now. And all of our, our podcast episodes are now recorded from.

Our office space, we, we recently, I guess, like, well, not really so recently last year we we did some renovation here in the home and my daughter's room. She moved to a room that was downstairs and so the room that we're in right now, which is all purple. If you guys are watching this on video, it is. It was her room and it's perfect because it's like right next to my room.

It's like close enough to, you know, be able to just like hop in here on a meeting and I've got my desk. I've got my new chair, which I got for. birthday gift. And it's comfy. It's, it's not as comfortable as as a bed, obviously. But I actually think that having a place like this, where I can sit, where I can get some work done, it actually Benefits me in the sense that it's not somewhere where I'm going to be sitting for hours and hours and hours.

It actually forces me to, like, sit down for an hour, 2 hours max. And then I get up and do something else. Like, what we talked about a couple of days ago of, like, recentering. So it will, it will be perfect for getting, you know, a little bit of work done but it doesn't Actually, like, it doesn't, what's the word?

Like, absorb. Absorb me. I don't know if that's a word. But, you know how the bed, like, when you're in the bed, it's like, you're working in bed and you're just in bed. It's really hard to actually get up from the bed to go do other things. And so, you usually just, like, tend to sit there with your laptop in your lap and it, it's really easy to get kind of absorbed in your work for hours and hours and hours when you are in bed.

Whereas when you're sitting in an actual, like, you know, desk chair at a desk it's, for me, it's great to get that, like, focused work. I, I love it here. Also, if you notice, we have if you are watching this on video we have what do you call these? Like electric shades or something? I don't know.

Anyway, we press a button, they go up, we press a button, they come down. So when I'm doing videos or when I am, like, working on something where I just kind of want that, like, cave feeling around me so that I can get, like, super focused. Work done. I can just like shut the shades or shutters or whatever you call them.

And get that like that the cave feeling right where I am here. I am focused. I'm not looking at the birds outside. But also, if I want to get work done, and I need that sunlight, like, for creative work, for example, I can also lift the shades and get the daylight in here as well. I actually really love that's another thing that I love doing.

When I can, it's not necessarily conducive to, like, work on the computer, but whenever I have translation work that I can do on my phone, for example one of my favorite places to do that kind of work or do creative work or write is outside, right? It's where I can be in the sunlight not necessarily.

It really depends on the day. Like, sometimes, like, with the sun beaming down on me, like, it's perfect, and then sometimes I just kind of need, like, The sunlight, but to be in the shade. And that really works for me. Like I said, like, for creative work for work that really gets me out of my my comfort zone.

And so I think that, like, the sunlight and being outside is. It's comforting for me. And so it's that balance that really works well as well. So those are the kind of like the 3 places that I generally work. So if I have translation work, I have got to get something done on the computer. I will generally sit at my desk for an hour, hour and a half, 2 hours max.

This is where I get it done in my office if I have, and it does happen sometimes, right? Sometimes I will have like really large projects where I know that I just have to like hunker down and get work done. And for those, I do find that I get my best work done in the bed. So it's not something I do. All the time, but for special occasions I will, you know, hunker down in my bed and I will stay there and I'll be on my computer.

And for some reason, my, my kid doesn't bother me when I'm like, on my computer in bed. So. Also, you know, great points for for the bed in terms of, like, that, you know, like, don't bother me. I'm here. Energy. And then finally, if I am doing some type of creative translation or I am writing or, you know, Or reading for for work.

I like to do that outside. Right. That gives me that, like, kind of freedom of of just being somewhere else. Right. I think 1 of my very favorite things to do as a. Work from home mom which doesn't necessarily mean working from home, but I do love working outside of the home and I love going to coffee shops.

I love when I travel and the fact that I can just like carry my computer and like get, you know, an hour of work in at like. A coffee shop in a different city or one of my favorite kind of memories is when I, I went for a month to Italy and I have pictures of me, you know, me and my computer right at this like little table overlooking the ocean and I just, I love that kind of outdoor feeling.

As well, so like I said, it's not always conducive to working on the computer, especially, like, based on, you know, the sunlight and the glare and all that. But when I can, like, I love it. And so to recreate that when I am here at home, I like to, you know, take my work outside if possible.

So that is me. Those are my 3 places to to work. When I'm working from home let me know about you.

So I want to hear from you guys. Are you, you know, a home office kind of gal. Are you a work from bed kind of gal? Are, are you, you know, go outside and work from the patio kind of gal? Let me know. You guys can always hit us up on Instagram. sHoot me a DM. Let me know where it is that you like to work when you're working from home.

And if you like this episode, you might also enjoy The Village, which is our community and co work space with opportunities for connection, accountability, and intention setting. You can check out the link in the show notes for more information on our upcoming meetups and to follow along with our daily prompts.

All right, guys, see you next time.