How to Own Working From Home: The Pandemic Edition

By Chris Harris and Bunny Young

Are you working from home? How's that going for you? 

 

Whether you're one of the millions of workers sent home when the pandemic struck, or you made the move from cubicle to kitchen table for other reasons, you've probably discovered the tru

• Language: English
• Publisher: Boss On Purpose LLC
• Release date: Jun 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781950306114

Chris Harris

Chris Harris is a writer and executive producer for How I Met Your Mother and a writer for The Late Show with David Letterman. His pieces have appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, ESPN, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and on NPR. He lives in Los Angeles, loves peppermint stick ice cream and, when he’s not too full, just-a little-bit-more-peppermint-stick-ice-cream-but-don’t-tell-anyone. He's a funny guy, as you can tell from his children's poetry collection I'm Just No Good At Rhyming. In his spare time, he gets older.

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How to Own Working From Home: The Pandemic Edition

©2021, Bunny Young and Chris Harris

Boss On Purpose LLC

Edited by Erin Leigh

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-950306-15-2

ISBN eBook: 978-1-950306-11-4

Table of Contents

Confession from the Editor

Preface

WARNING: READ BEFORE YOU DIVE IN

Chapter 1: What Just Happened?

Chapter 2: What Matters Most?

Chapter 3: You Are Where You Are

Chapter 4: Fall in with Boundaries

Chapter 5: Insane Productivity

PART 1 - Reduce & Remove

PART 2 - Hone Your Focus

PART 3 - Be Present

PART 4 - Just for Parents

Chapter 6: Think Like a Boss

Chapter 7: Staying Positive When Things Suck

Chapter 8: How to Make a Difference Every Day (Seriously!)

Chapter 9: Now It’s Your Turn…

Epilogue (Is It Really Over?)

Quick Reference Guide

Co

nfession from the Editor

When Bunny and Chris came to me and said, We want to co-author a book! my first thought was, Well, mixing these larger-than-life personalities can only end one of two ways. This could turn out to be an unending maze of data and perspectives. Or, we’ll figure out how to merge their awesomeness into something enormously educational and exceptionally engaging that absolutely has the power to change people’s lives.

Figuring it would be an adventure either way, I placed my bets and said yes.

Now, many months later, you’re reading this book. I hope you’ll agree it most certainly turned out to be the latter.

It’s taken some time, but we’ve taken an abundance of quality content and have distilled it down to some serious, drop-it-like-it’s-hot lessons on life, business, and surviving remote working, especially with kids. In these pages, there’s more than enough clear, actionable content to take you from zero to 60 right now.

To help you stay focused and make the most of this content, we’ve included specific action items (from Chris) and journal prompts (from Bunny) at the end of every chapter. These exercises are designed to help you navigate their perspectives and apply what you learn (so you can actually improve your remote work experience, which is the whole point).

As editor and contributor, I am most certainly biased, but I truly believe you will be a better person in all kinds of unexpected ways for reading this book. So, take a deep breath, read on, and, with every page you turn, remember to enjoy the ride (because, in our crazy, upside-down world, what other choice is there, really?).

To your next chapter,

Erin

Preface

Welcome to the work-from-home world. If you’re one of the countless workers suddenly stranded at home when COVID-19 hit (or some other major shift led you from cubicle to kitchen table), you’ve already spent some time trying to adjust to your new circumstances. But effectively making such a big transition on your own is a lot to ask.

To help you, ourselves, and hopefully the world, we took our collective years of business coaching and work-from-home expertise and poured it all into this book.

As you read, you’ll find that many of the recommendations and practices in these pages blur and cross the line between work and personal. That lack of separation is intentional. With so many of us working from home, work is no longer just at work. Home is not just at home. They have become, simply, life.

Watching your work and your life collide in front of you, especially while trying to maintain professional productivity in the face of global uncertainty, is massively disruptive. It’s unsettling. It can even be scary. But for us, straddling that line between work and home is not new. As long-standing entrepreneurs, we’re both intimately familiar with the chaos (and joy!) that accompanies remote working. Those challenges you’re facing? We’ve faced them, too. We know all about the insane distractions of constant texts and emails. The crushing deadlines from coworkers and clients. And, of course, the agony of both literal and figurative headaches caused by video conferencing all day.

We also know that if you have kids, you face the additional stress of homeschooling, babysitting, and trying to make sure the house doesn’t look like a tornado hit. You get to cope with the unique pain that twists your heart every time your child begs you with tears in their eyes to play make-believe horse races with them, and you must say, Mommy (or Daddy) is working right now.

Despite the many challenges that come with remote work (even the kid-related ones), your current circumstances are truly nothing short of a gift. Nothing is more rewarding than more time with the ones you love. Working remotely can give you that.

We’ve been doing it for years, and we’re so glad we finally get to share it with you. As a therapist-turned-entrepreneur/speaker/consultant (Bunny) and a thought leader on productivity and revenue generation (Chris), our combined experience means we bring over 40 years of entrepreneurial and business knowledge to the table, much of it gained while working remotely.

But that doesn’t mean we’re perfect, not by any means.

Truth is, we originally conceived this book idea in early 2016, anticipating our message would serve primarily work-from-home entrepreneurs and salespeople. But… we had other things going on. We didn’t really get going with gusto until the pandemic hit, everyone was sent home, and the remote workforce revolution began.

Suddenly, we had an idea and a message relevant to a huge population. Everyone was in desperate need of the exact kind of knowledge and support we were uniquely equipped to deliver. Talk about motivation to turn an idea around fast!

Still, it’s taken us a little while to bring you this book, in part because we wanted to pack it full of everything we know while still delivering it to you concisely. But despite our hatchling idea, we, too, were unprepared for the pandemic and all its ripple effects. Though we’d both been working from home for years, quarantining and remote work orders impacted us profoundly, just like everyone else.

Fortunately, we learn quickly. As soon as we got our heads back on straight, we got to work. Now, here we are, sharing everything we know to help you overcome the remote work challenges you’re facing.

Through this book, we are confident you will discover how to reach new levels of remote productivity. In addition, we hope the guidance on these pages helps you become a more purposeful, productive, and positive human all around… no matter where you choose to lay your laptop.

Stay safe and stay sane,

Bunny & Chris

WA

RNING: READ BEFORE YOU DIVE IN

If you aren’t serious about wanting to become a remote working ninja, put this book down right now. Really. Now’s your chance. Just walk away, and go back to your normal (cough) life.

Still here? Buckle up, hold on, and let’s dig in.

Six things you must do to get the most out of this book:

Reserve time each week to read and complete at least one chapter.

Do the exercises at the end of each chapter. They aren’t there for fluff. Completing them is what takes this book from concept to reality.

Make sure you have a dedicated notebook or journal to use (there will be plenty of stuff to write in it, promise).

Resist the urge to skip around. Each chapter builds on the previous one.

Change is sometimes difficult, and it takes time. During this book, we are going to ask you to change a lot (more on that later). Your job is to show up, keep doing the work, and be patient with yourself.

Keep an open mind as we explore new ideas. The concepts we’ll be sharing probably look, sound, and feel different than what you already know. At times, it may be tough to take it all in and process it all. That’s expected. Just take a deep breath, keep going, and focus on your opportunity for growth!

Chapter 1:

What Just Happened?

Chris

It was mid-August 2017, a weekday around 11 AM. I’d just completed the finishing touches on a proposal I’d been working on for over a month. It was a beast of a project, and I felt ragged and fried. My wife was headed out of town for the second weekend in a row, and it was the tenth week of my daughter being at home around the clock—no school, daycare, or camp. I was desperate for some alone time to rest my mind and recharge my batteries, but there were still more tasks on the to-do list.

Sighing to myself, I clicked open another window on my laptop and tried to mentally rouse myself to dig into another project. Spontaneously, my daughter crawled into my lap and said, I love you, Daddy.

I stared at the screen for a moment. Without hitting another key, I closed the laptop. My choice in that moment was obvious: It was more important for me to be a good father than a productive entrepreneur.

Looking down at my daughter, I asked if she’d like to go out to lunch with Daddy. The immediate hugs, giggles, and bouncing assured me it was the right thing to do.

We hopped into the truck and started down our dusty country lane, heading to her favorite restaurant. As we rounded a curve, I glanced in the rearview mirror for a glimpse of her adorable grin. But as I refocused my eyes on the road, I slammed on the brakes.

There was an airplane in a heap on the ground right in front of me.

WHY IS THERE AN AIRPLANE CRASHED ON THE GROUND IN FRONT ME??!?

I quickly turned off the motor, told my daughter to stay in the truck, and jogged toward the wreckage. My eyes were fixed on the half-conscious pilot who was audibly moaning, collapsed over his seatbelt. But before I could get too close, I was stopped by a first responder shouting, Get back! This area is not safe! There’s a gas spill!

My heart jumped out of my chest. In full view of the entire scene now, I noticed there were dozens of safety vehicles bearing down on this two-seater plane that had attempted an emergency landing in my neighbor’s field. Unsuccessful, the plane had crashed, tearing through a wooden fence line before coming to a halt in the middle of my road, a mere 400 yards from my house.

I felt frozen. I wanted to do something, but it was too hazardous to get near the plane. How else could I help? Then I remembered my daughter. Oh God! I turned and sprinted back to the truck, jumped in, floored it in reverse, pulled a 180, and sped wildly back down the road to my most trusted neighbor’s house. Frantically pulling my daughter out of her car seat, I banged impatiently on the neighbor’s door until she answered. As quickly as possible, I asked her to watch my daughter so I could run back to the crash site.

By the time I returned, there were over 20 emergency response vehicles parked around the crash, flanking our tiny country road. Emergency rescue workers rushed