Woman Shares Her Top Tips For Working From Home

By Kate Harrold

 

WOMAN teaches followers to ‘up their quarantine game’ by sharing work-from-home hacks – including a BAN on PYJAMAS.

Social media director at Talk Shop, and blogger, Krystin Lee (33) from Toronto, Canada, has become somewhat of a blogging expert over the last nine years. In 2012, Krystin was working in public relations and decided to set-up a lifestyle blog in her spare time to expand her skillset. Krystin’s blog, KrystinLee.com, would go on to become a runaway success.

Krystin now has over 177,000 loyal fans on Instagram and she’s worked with major brands such as Marc Jacobs, Kate Spade, and American Express. Her content – which mainly caters to a female audience – covers a variety of topics including fashion, lifestyle, travel, home, and beauty. Blogging is strictly a hobby for Krystin but the online entrepreneur spends two days a week cultivating her online empire from home.

Like so many others, Krystin has found herself working from home more often due to the current COVID-19 pandemic. Having some pre-existing experience in this area, Krystin put together a list of tips to help her readers adapt to working from home with fans inspired to ‘up [their] quarantine game,’ and ‘step it up.’

Krystin believes that the key to success is to maintain your usual morning routine. This includes putting on your favourite outfit and doing your make-up – no pyjamas allowed. She also recommends setting out daily to-do lists, creating an office space in your home, and setting up virtual coffee dates with your colleagues – something less informal than scheduled zoom meetings.

Krystin has been inspired by the renewed sense of community that has appeared online. This has translated into her content in which she is focussing on highlighting local businesses, encouraging readers to be frugal, and doing her part to raise awareness.

“I’ve been blogging for almost ten years. I was looking to better understand the realm of blogging as I was working in PR at the time,” Krystin said.

“I told myself I’d give it an honest year’s work and then close it down. I couldn’t have predicted how successful it would be.

“I believe that since it remained a passion project for the last nine years, it was something I was always excited to focus my efforts on.

“I was also able to be strategic with my business decisions and vendors I aligned with to ensure the type and frequency of content I was producing was manageable but also, inspirational.”

Krystin has shared her top work-from-home tips with her readers.

The key tip being something that most people fail to do – get dressed for the day.

“I typically work from home two days a week so when efforts to flatten the curve meant I’d be at home the entire working week, I was semi-prepared but not quite ready,” Krystin said.

“I’m definitely not a pro at this but there are some tips I have found useful during this time.

“Get dressed like you’re going to work. I don’t tend to go all out with my morning routine – a simple five-minute face of make-up is fine – but a blouse, lipstick, trousers and even shoes make me feel like I’ve accomplished so much more before 9am.

“Identify a space in your house or apartment where you’ll be working from – this sets physical boundaries between work and play. Having my items set up and organised in a designated space creates a feeling of routine.

“I also try to carve out a fifteen-minute increment in the morning and afternoon to get up, stretch, walk around outside or even climb a flight of stairs to get myself moving.

“Every morning I set out a daily list of items I need to accomplish with their associated priority and deadline. I do the same as a team with my colleagues at Talk Shop. This helps me see what I’ve accomplished and what tomorrow’s priorities are looking like.

“With my work team, we host ten-minute video calls every morning to say hello, get updates and set the tone for a positive and effective work day.

“Continue the interaction with your team or workmates by setting up virtual coffee dates to either catch up on work or chat about everyone’s weekends or new routines.

“Learn to over communicate with your team on deadlines, expectations, check-in dates and more. Every morning, our team drops three priorities for the day in our communication channel. We then update each other on where we’re at with our tasks by the end of the day.”

Krystin’s blog content has adapted recently as she looks to play her part in raising awareness on what we can do as individuals to help during these uncertain times.

“I’m using my platform to raise awareness about small businesses or local causes and try to do some good amidst the crisis,” Krystin said.

“I’m a strong advocate of readers being fiscally aware at times like this and trying to re-wear closet staples or old items rather than consistently trying to sell new products to followers.

“I also feel like the sense of community which was once lost on Instagram feels more real than ever.”

For more, see @krystin_lee on Instagram.