Staying Home
Our home is our safe space.
Our home is an environment we can control.
Our home is comfort.
As a Realtor, my job is to help guide people home.
My daily business requires me to engage with my community.
A normal day for me involves many conversations, shaking hands, meeting new people, frequent meetings with clients and business partners, attending educational trainings, touring properties, meeting inspectors, meeting contractors, and passing keys over at the settlement table.
Right now, we are experiencing an unprecedented global event that is counter intuitive to my daily life. We are all being told that it is our social responsibility to distance ourselves from our community. We are being asked to convert our homes into both schools and offices so that we can continue to be productive while protecting our society’s health.
STAYING CONNECTED
Fortunately, we live in a time of technology and social media which allows us to stay connected, educated, and entertained. We may be isolated physically from one another, but I know I am still very much connected with my family, friends, clients, and colleagues!
My real estate team, VERY Real Estate, is partnered with the most innovative real estate brokerage, COMPASS REAL ESTATE. This partnership is proving to be an amazing asset for both myself as an agent and my clients during this unique moment in time because we can stay productive at home utilizing the Compass tools.
I am confident that my clients will all be ready to hit the ground running when the doors open back up!
Until that time… I will stay at home. I will serve my clients remotely. I will teach my children. I will remain productive. I will stay connected. I will study the market. I will provide guidance to those who need my expertise.
My job is to serve my community. The best way to do that right now is to stay home.
#istayhomefor
My Children. My Family. My Community. My Colleagues. My Clients. My Neighbors.
STAYING PRODUCTIVE
HOW ARE YOU STAYING PRODUCTIVE AT HOME?
My home is serving multiple purposes at the moment. The pub table in our kitchen is my husband’s office. The dining room table is my children’s school. And I sit with my laptop anywhere I can find a quiet corner.
IDEAS TO STAY PRODUCTIVE:
With our commute times drastically reduced, now is a wonderful time to focus on our health. Sleep an extra few minutes in the morning. Go out for a run or a bike ride. Pause throughout the day to rest and recenter your mind.
Take a few deep breaths before rising in the morning. Pause to remind yourself of the current world events for just a few moments, but then push all the negative reality to the back of your mind so that you can focus on a productive and light-hearted day.
Get Dressed! Sounds so simple, but this makes a BIG difference. Act as though it’s casual Friday at the office. Get showered, style your hair, and get dressed in a comfy outfit. This helps get your mind in the right place.
Make a schedule. It is incredibly helpful to write down a general idea of what you need to accomplish each day. Before you turn on your computer, sit with a cup of coffee and a piece of paper and think through what needs to be done. Check the tasks off as you go..
Reward Yourself. I know this sounds silly, but set a reward that you will only allow yourself to have/do if you check off all the tasks on your list. Maybe it’s a glass of wine, enjoying take out, watch a movie, take a nap, play a game…
It’s ok (and recommended) to take some extra time to relax and rest, but we cannot allow ourselves to become lazy!
I challenge you to make a plan right now on how you will thrive from this event. During this time of social distancing, you have been given an opportunity to refocus. How will you choose to use this time?
Trust me… I fully understand that there are many hardships piling on our shoulders as a result of this pandemic. We have valid concerns with our finances, health, and well being…BUT…
We have the choice to let this sink us,
or we can allow it to make us stronger.
STAYING EDUCATED
Like many parents, we are currently navigating the adventure of home schooling. This is definitely not something I was prepared for. I’ll admit that I barely had the energy in my already busy day to sit down for 30 minutes to assist with homework.
Keeping each day interesting and productive is not an easy task.
My family needs a routine to maintain our focus. We sat down as a family and created a school schedule that works for us. We typed it up and stuck it in a frame that is displayed in the dining room/school room.
We are taking this time to fold in some extracurricular activities that we don’t always have enough time for.
Here are a few things we have been doing in our home:
EXERCISE: We are an active family, so with organized sports and activities on hold, it is important that we take time to get our blood pumping! We try to mix it up with kids workout videos, dance parties, walks to the park, and inventing new sports in the backyard. We are trying to be creative and keep moving!
MINDFULNESS: Mindfulness is not a new concept in my house. I frequently tell my children to pause, breath, and regain control. But this extra time at home has allowed us to set aside ten minutes each morning before we start school and work to quiet our minds as a family.
There are many apps available with guided breathing and meditation exercises. We also like to watch some of the GoNoodle mindfulness videos.
If my children aren’t in the mood to participate in the exercise, they are asked to sit quietly with their thoughts for ten minutes.
This simple addition to our routine gives us clarity and focus to begin our day.
CREATIVE TIME: The sky’s the limit! Our daily schedule sets aside a few hours for creative time. We have used this time to work on preparing our vegetable garden, planting seeds, decorating cardboard boxes, making up stories, building lego cities, painting, coloring, playing…
My normal life is often so busy, that I don’t have time to play. I am honestly loving that I have this extra time with my kids to get lost in our imaginations together.
BRING YOUR CHILDREN TO WORK: Many of us are working from home right now. Teaching my children their required school assignments while finding the time to focus on my business is a challenge. So I choose to embrace the idea my team leader introduced to me of BLENDING my work/life instead of trying to BALANCE it.
Invite your children to participate with your work! Teach them what it is that you do each day and maybe give them some small tasks to help. I see this as an amazing opportunity for my children to learn about my career and to understand how hard we work to provide for our family.
Yesterday, I was working on improving my skills on the Compass Real Estate system. I invited my daughter to sit with me so I could show her how the system works. I had her pretend she was a home buyer and together we built a Collection of Homes she is interested in.
I also printed some coloring pages for my children as their imaginations were running wild dreaming of their dream homes.
I attached the coloring pages below and invite you to color with your children! I would love for you to share the colored picture on my Facebook Post!