There is no doubt that the global pandemic of 2020 disrupted every industry around the world, forcing many people to work from home. During this time, technologies boomed to support remote work, stigmas around working from home vanished, and many employers were pleasantly surprised to see that productivity increased (Barrero et al., 2021). According to Upwork’s Future Workforce Survey, more than a quarter of North American professionals will be working remotely within the next 5 years (Ozimek, 2021).
If you’re interested in becoming a life coach, it is very likely that you will be assisting clients who work remotely and need support to create healthy and efficient daily routines. At Rhodes Wellness College, our Life Skills Coach Certificate prepares you to use creative problem-solving, structured human relations training, coaching techniques, and life skills to help individuals and groups achieve their goals in various aspects of their lives.
Keep reading to learn how you can help clients create an effective routine for remote work when you become a life coach.
Help Clients Establish Morning and Evening Rituals During Your Life Coach Career
Working remotely can blur the lines between work hours and one’s personal life. During our life coach courses, you will learn about the importance of helping clients set goals and create healthy routines. By encouraging your clients to replace what would be their commute to and from work with daily rituals, you can assist them in creating a solid line between their work life and personal life. This may include continuing to set an alarm to wake up early, making their bed, practicing mindfulness, enjoying a healthy breakfast, having their morning coffee, or exercising. Each client is unique, and as an effective life coach, you will learn to listen and work collaboratively to set and achieve goals that are relevant to their individual wants and needs.
A simple suggestion you can make for your future clients is for them to continue getting dressed up for work in the mornings. ‘Enclothed cognition’ is a term that refers to the positive impact and influence that professional clothing has upon a person psychologically (Adam & Galinksy 2012). In a further study of the concept of remote workers during the pandemic, research showed that choosing and wearing an outfit for a workday increased remote workers’ authenticity and engagement, positively affecting productiveness and attitudes toward the job (Bailey et al., 2022).
You will help clients establish healthy daily routines during your life coach career
Assist Clients in Establishing Dedicated Work Hours as Part of Their Routine
Throughout your life coach career, time management will be an area that many clients request assistance with. As mentioned earlier, every client is unique, and it will be your job as their life coach to help them find the best path necessary to reach their desired goals. Although remote work often allows for more flexibility when it comes to hours, it is important to suggest that your client establishes a regular set schedule. Having an erratic schedule can be both physically and mentally challenging and lead to cramming or unproductiveness. A consistent, predictable, adequate schedule is proven to increase productivity and profitability (Williams et al., 2018).
In addition to setting a start time and an end time to each day, it is also imperative to account for breaks. Without a set schedule, many remote workers allow their work to bleed into their personal life, get easily distracted and procrastinate and then must cram for hours to meet deadlines and feel burnt out after some time. There is evidence of the importance of short breaks to bring back sharper focus to the task at hand (Ariga & Lleras, 2011). Helping your client in creating a set schedule with breaks will allow them to create a balance between work and their personal life and set natural deadlines for the day’s tasks and the breaks in-between.
Taking scheduled breaks as part of a work routine is proven to improve focus and efficiency
Teach Remote Work Clients How to Effectively Manage Their Tasks
Teaching your clients how to prioritize tasks throughout all aspects of their lives is an essential aspect of being a life coach. Remote workers especially need this guidance and instruction on how to do so, since they will often be working independently. It is important to teach clients to get into the routine of planning for their day before they begin to work and prioritizing their tasks in a way that works best for them.
There are many different strategies that can be used to prioritize tasks effectively. One such strategy is referred to as “Eat the Frog”, in which one begins with the hardest task and follows with decreasingly difficult tasks. Research shows that many people often choose to prioritize their tasks in the exact opposite order, from easiest to hardest, but that beginning with the hardest task is much more efficient (Habert & Schroeder, 2020).
Helping your clients create and remain accountable for these routines will not only increase their productivity and decrease stress but, more importantly, will provide for a better work-life balance overall. Whether you prefer to learn online or in person, you can complete your Life Skills Coach Certification in only 12 weeks with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to begin your career helping others the moment you graduate.
Are you interested in getting your life coach certification?
Contact Rhodes Wellness College for more information!
Works Cited
Adam, H., & Galinsky, A. D. (2012). Enclothed cognition. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48(4), 918–925. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2012.02.008
Ariga, A., & Lleras, A. (2011). Brief and rare mental “breaks” keep you focused: deactivation and reactivation of task goals preempt vigilance decrements. Cognition, 118(3), 439–443. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2010.12.007
Bailey, E. R., Horton, C. B., & Galinksy, A. D. (2022, January 11). Academy of Management. Enclothed Harmony or Enclothed Dissonance? The Effect of Attire on the Authenticity, Power, and Engagement of Remote Workers | Academy of Management Discoveries; journals.aom.org. https://journals.aom.org/doi/10.5465/amd.2021.0081
Barrero, Jose Maria and Bloom, Nicholas and Davis, Steven J., Why Working From Home Will Stick (April 22, 2021). University of Chicago, Becker Friedman Institute for Economics Working Paper No. 2020-174, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3741644 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3741644
Barrero, J. M., Bloom, N., & Davis, S. J. (2021, April 22). Why Working From Home Will Stick. papers.ssrn.com. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3741644
Habbert, R., & Schroeder, J. (2020). To build efficacy, eat the frog first: People misunderstand how the difficulty-ordering of tasks influences efficacy. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 91, 104032. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022103120303723
Ozimek, A. (n.d.). Future Workforce Report 2021. Future Workforce Report 2021: How Remote Work Is Changing Businesses Forever. Retrieved July 21, 2022, from https://www.upwork.com/research/future-workforce-report
Williams, J. C., Lambert, S. J., & Kesavan, S. (2018). Stable Scheduling Increases Productivity and Sales. The Stable Scheduling Study. https://worklifelaw.org/publications/Stable-Scheduling-Study-Report.pdf
