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Today’s task is only relevant for you if you work in an office. If this is not the case, then you have today off.

Many people find that they are much more effective and efficient when they are not working at their workplace (e.g., during a long train journey or in the home office during the Covid era). When you are not at your workplace, you automatically escape from many timewasters and often concentrate better (assuming a good working environment).

So, if it’s even remotely possible for you to work partly from home (or in a co-working space), you should try to negotiate a home office arrangement with your employer for one or more days. Due to the many positive experiences on the employee and employer side during the Covid pandemic, today’s chances are very good. Not only will you soon be able to do more of your work in less time, but you will also have more time to work on your own business idea.

By now, your supervisor and colleagues should have noticed how much more efficient and effective you’ve become due to the third week’s activities. This will give you the perfect basis for argumentation to take the next step: Apply for a home office!

So, if a home office arrangement is possible for your work, you will start getting one today.

 

Your task for today:

Plan a day today where you take your work material (laptop, documents, etc.) home the day before and tell your boss and colleagues that you have to work from home. This can also be tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.

On this day, work in a particularly focused way and try to get as much done as possible. Write emails – of course only where it makes sense in terms of content – to show what you’ve done (yes, you may write emails all day long, only check your emails as usual at 11:00 and 4:00).

In doing so, you are pursuing two goals:

  1. You’ll discover what you still need or have to adapt to work optimally from home.
  2. You’ll collect documents for your boss that show how much more productive you can be from home.

Afterward, summarize your home office experiment’s positive results on one page and then arrange a meeting with your supervisor. Explain to him that you have noticed how much more productive you are for the company when you work from home two days a week and that working with colleagues works just as well.

Ask your boss to try this for two weeks with the promise to stop the trial immediately if it doesn’t bring the expected benefits to the company and to discuss the experience at the latest after the two weeks before deciding on further action. By the way, the suggestion “let’s try it for a few days and then decide together whether it makes sense” often works.

If you have permission to stay in your home office for a trial period, make sure that these are the most productive days ever. That way, you will convince your supervisor and gain a little more freedom. Then gradually try to expand the proportion of home officing.