Goal seven: Dress for success – even at home

You work from home.  So why does it matter what you wear?  And what the heck does that have to do with getting organized?  Let me answer those questions for you.

Whether you are a stay-at-home mom, a career professional out in the workplace every day, or run your own business (or two) from home, it matters how you dress every day.  I’m not talking about the day when you are sick and feel like crap.  OR maybe I am.  Here’s why – the amount of progress you make each day toward your goals is directly related to what you wear.  If you roll out of bed, take your shower, brush your hair, put on a little makeup (I usually just do powder), and put on a nice pair of pants and a cute shirt you will accomplish more that day than if you simply roll out of bed and sit down at your desk.  When you sit down to work still in your pjs, your mind and your body has not made the transition between bed-sleepy-dreamy-comfy thoughts and work-accomplish-organize-get finished thoughts. 

Have you ever noticed how even if you feel like crap if you get out of bed and take a nice hot shower you feel better (even if only somewhat)?  Sometimes it’s easy for us to “wallow” like that hippo in the mud that I mentioned yesterday, and then what happens?  We never get out of the mud.  And trust me, an eagle covered in mud is not going to be flying very far.  You’ve got to make it your goal to spend more days as the eagle soaring than as the hippo wallowing.  Take your day, feel like crap, wallow, and then the next day, get up and MAKE YOURSELF SOAR!

If you get up and dress for success every day, you WILL feel beautiful and you WILL accomplish.  Every client you talk to on the phone will get the impression that you are a self-confident person because even though you aren’t “Facetime”ing with every client, you know that you could because you are dressed for work.

I’m not saying wear heels and a dress around your house.  I am not advocating June Clever behavior.  That’s crazy and a waste of time to get that beautiful for your own mirror viewing.  However, if you wear cute capris and a more form-fitting tshirt and have even a little makeup on, you are in a better mood for accomplishing work than in your loose fitting pj pants and hubby’s tshirt.  You get where I’m going with this?

A career woman working in an office  wears slacks and a sweater in the winter and a cute skirt and blouse in the summer, or perhaps she even is required to wear a suit daily.  This is expected of her by the office setting she works in.  Hold yourself accountable to some kind of dress-code standard.  This will in turn help define your office hours vs your at home comfy hours.  Even on days where I’m not going anywhere and no one will see me, I dress nice during the day.  Then in the evening I put on the comfy pants and tshirt because I’m not at work.

I guarantee that if you make this shift in your behavior, it’s one simple thing that WILL help you be more organized and WILL help you accomplish more in your home and your home office.  It’s worked for me and I KNOW it will for you.