This one goes out to my instructional designers and eLearning developers who find themselves working from home for the first time. With so much uncertainty these days, you shouldn’t have to stress about this transition. That’s why I’ve put together all my best tips for how to be a rockstar remote instructional designer and/or eLearning Developer!

Before I spill, jump down to the comments and share your biggest fear when it comes to working from home.

Did you do it? Great! Now take a deep breath in, and as you exhale try to let go of that fear. Imagine it as a gloomy gray cloud leaving your body. You’ve got this! And I’ve got some great resources for how to beat distractions and be a rockstar remote instructional designer.

Tools and Tips for Staying Focused as a Rockstar Remote Instructional Designer

Have a designated, well-stocked space for work

Ideally, this would be a home office or even a spare room, so if you’ve got one of those, awesome! If not, you may have to get creative. Pushing a desk into a more private place, such as a corner, is a great workaround.

Check out my corner office. On the adjacent wall, I have my bookshelf and printer, but my workspace is tucked into this little corner. It’s perfect and quiet far away from the chaos.

Next step, make sure you gather all your supplies that you’ll need and keep them on or near your desk. The less you need to hunt for items during the day, the better. Here’s what I like to have within arms reach while I work from home to give you some ideas:

My whiteboard for planning
A notebook or sticky notes
Some headphones
My cell phone
A beverage or two (I like to have a coffee before 11 and water thereafter)
Chargers
Pens in a few different colors
My Surface Pro (for on the go and Windows-specific programs)

This last step is not as important, especially if you’re just trying to get your bearings, but I find it easier to be productive when my workspace is more inviting. Grab a picture of your family, use a mug you love as a pencil holder, and relocate some house plants. Whatever you have around that will spruce up your new office without being a distraction.

Stick to a daily routine

This will look different for everyone, especially right now if you have kids who are at home, I’ll give you a few ideas in a moment – but the basic idea here is structure your time. When you’re in an office setting, your day has a natural structure. It can be tempting to cancel all your alarms and stay in your pajamas all day when you transition to working from home, but that won’t work for everyone.

Here are some helpful tips to help you stick to a routine that will help you be a rockstar remote instructional designer:

Set an alarm, workout your body/mind, get showered and get dressed like you normally would if you were leaving your house – at least from the waist up. I can’t tell you how often I am in shorts or sweats while wearing a nice blouse.
Evaluate your plans for the day – do you need to change anything based on what you were or were not able to get done the day before?
Check and respond to emails while you have a coffee or tea first thing in the morning. Did anything hit your inbox that would require you to reprioritize your activities for the day?
Schedule lunch! Get up, leave your desk, go for a walk, get outside for a few minutes. Do NOT eat at your desk, unless you have to. You need to give your brain a break and give your body some movement.
After lunch, check your plan (my whiteboard) to evaluate progress for the day.
Set office hours and let all family members who are working from home know what your office hours.
Set boundaries for yourself. Don’t scan your social media posts or send too many texts to your friends/family.

Now, with COVID-19, my schedule is completely out of whack. We just need to roll with circumstances. This virus will not impact us to this magnitude forever so do what you need to do to survive as a remote instructional designer, mom/dad, and teacher.

Right now, my crazy schedule consists of getting up at 4:30 am to work for 2.5-3 hours, workout, get ready for the day, check some emails, do two hours of homeschooling with my 5-year-old, then give her some sort of solo activity to do so that I can squeeze in more work. At 5 o’clock, when my husband finishes his day, I finish up my work. It’s tiring, but I am grateful that we can work from home and have our daughter home safe so I am willing to do whatever it takes to make it all work. I just remind myself that this is not forever.

Plan your daily schedule

This is different from your work routine because it involves organizing your daily work tasks within your work routine. Knowing what tasks you need to accomplish throughout the day will keep you accountable and prevent you from being tempted away from your desk.

You can do this using a whiteboard or a calendar (like Outlook, Google, or whatever your company uses) or just write it in your planner and cross off each task off as you accomplish it.

I prefer a whiteboard. I use Trello to manage project for myself and my team, and then I use a whiteboard that is hanging right next to my desk to manage my daily priorities. And, yes, I do cross off every single one as I finish my To-Dos. It is very gratifying to swipe a dry erase marker across a task.

Check out some productivity apps

If you’re too tempted by social media notifications or obsessed with checking the news, you can lock yourself out of certain apps or block notifications during work hours in order to remove the distraction entirely.

There are many apps you can use to track your screen time and block unproductive apps during work hours. Moment is really eye-opening – it shows you how much time you spend on your phone then lets you block out certain hours of the day during which you can’t access your most tempting apps.

Forest is another cute app that allows the user to start a productivity timer, which is great for powering through projects. I personally use Top Tracker to manage my time. I turn on the timer at the start and end of an activity so that I can see how I am spending my workday. This is probably more meaningful to a freelancer or a consultant like myself who works on client projects that are billable, but I have worked in organizations that required us all to clock our hours in 15-minute increments to see how we were spending our time.

Those of you who have already tested the telecommuting waters, staying organized and focused is the key to your productivity! Working from home can be a rewarding experience, so follow my tips and tricks to make sure you’re putting in 100% (even if you’re working in your PJs).

If you’re looking for more work-from-home resources, or have any pressing instructional design questions, join me and my Facebook community to keep the conversation going!