5 Work-Life Balance Tips For Working From Home

By Devin Renspie

In times where much of our work and life is forced to occur in the same place, a.k.a, at home, it’s extra important to make sure your work/life balance is maintainable for you. While ultimately everyone's healthy balance will look different, here are a few tips to get you thinking about how you can make this new norm work for you.

Create a separate working space

If you’re working from home, you need a dedicated space to work from. If you have a spare room, say hello to your new office! If not, no worries! Designating a spot with a comfortable chair and enough counterspace that you can center your workspace around works, too. Having a separate space for work is critical in creating a productive work environment at home. Moreover, this separate space makes it easier to switch between work and personal time.

Make transitions to and from work

When working away from home, your commute acts as a buffer between your work time and your personal time, but when you’re working from home, you have to develop this buffer on your own. To do this, think about what your usual commute entails. Maybe that means listening to music or a podcast to mimic what you do on your drive to work, or maybe that involves walking around the block to mimic your walk to work. Whatever you choose to incorporate, make sure that you’re consistent in the amount of time you spend doing your new routine. It’s best if your evening routine is your morning routine in reverse, but ultimately, stick with what works best for you.

Find time to socialize and take breaks

Working from home can be isolating and draining, especially if you’re used to breaking up your workday with the casual interactions that working at an office can bring. To combat the loneliness that working from home can bring, make an effort to reach out to your colleagues a few times a day. At Olivia Management, we have a #random Slack channel where we can talk about anything non-work related, which helps to encourage these casual chats that would usually occur in the office.

Taking regular breaks can also help if working remotely has been leaving you drained. The Pomodoro Technique recommends taking short, 3-5 minute breaks between 25 minute work sessions. After four pomodoros, take a longer, 15-30 minute break before beginning the cycle again. Even if you just use this time to get up and stretch, taking breaks can help your motivation last throughout the day and boost your time management and organization skills.

Disconnect outside of work hours

In the spirit of keeping routines around your work, make sure you stick to your set work hours. You might be tempted to work later into the night than you normally do since you no longer have a commute to worry about, but doing this is a slippery slope to having work take over your entire day. To further separate your work from your personal life, consider disconnecting from the channels you use to communicate for work in the evenings and on the weekends. For me, this means putting my Slack on do not disturb outside of my work hours.

Plan out your down time

Even with the above tips, you might still struggle with separating your work life from your personal life when working from home. That’s why it helps to plan out your downtime so that you’re more motivated to get off of work on time. Maybe that looks like going for an after-work walk, catching an episode of a show you like, going to the grocery store, cooking dinner, or FaceTiming with friends or family. Plan to do something that takes your mind off of work for a while. Bonus points if that something involves a change of scenery, since it’s easy to forget that there’s a whole world out there!

Maintaining your Work/Life Balance

By Emma Martin

Being at home for the past six months has been interesting and quite an adjustment. Balancing work, personal life, and schoolwork has become harder than ever, thanks to the pandemic, because we have had to move our offices into our houses, meaning we can’t leave our work at the office since the office is now the living room. For me, it has taken some time to figure out how to balance my classes, an internship, and my personal life while stuck at home, away from campus and the office, but I have found ways to enjoy my time at home.

Take breaks:

I am sure you have heard it a million times before, but taking a break from work during the day can help you balance your work life and personal life. Consider setting aside time during the day to go on a walk, go for a drive, or call a family member or friend. After the break, you’ll feel much more refreshed and productive since you will have had a change of scenery and a chance to step a way for a minute.

Time Management/Routine:

Something that I have gotten really good at during quarantine is time management. Between summer classes and an internship, I have had to manage time differently than before. Unlike previous semesters, I did not have a set schedule for when classes met, but I was fortunate to have a set schedule for when I was interning, which helped me set aside other times when I needed to be working on my summer classes. I set my weekdays so that I worked on schoolwork and interned on Monday-Thursday which meant that I could have Friday and the weekends to relax. Having a routine has been helpful when trying to make time for myself.

Talk to friends and family:

I have always found it nice to talk to friends and family about what they are up to. In times like these, it can be hard to connect with others since we can’t physically be together, but a phone call or FaceTime call can take your mind off of work for a while. If you can’t talk on the phone, shoot them a text to let them know that you’re thinking of them!

Turn off your phone:

This is something that I need to get better at doing since I use my phone all the time. Before I go to bed, I turn it on Airplane mode so that I don’t get any notifications until my alarm goes off and I am ready to start my workday. Something I have learned while interning is to turn off notifications after you are done with the workday. Constant emails and notifications can be overwhelming when you are trying to have time for yourself. It’s easy for me to get wrapped up in what is happening after hours when I have notifications on.

A Day in the Life of an Intern

By James Muller

The start of this internship was a little bit different than I had expected because of COVID-19 and everything that came with it. You would think that working remotely for the first few weeks of an internship would make for a confusing and difficult landscape to navigate, but it was honestly quite the opposite. Getting started with this internship was about as smooth as a new intern could hope for, and it almost felt like we were all working in the same office despite being physically apart. Part of what made this such a smooth experience, besides how awesome, patient, and communicative our team is, are the systems that we use. I’m not sure if it would have been possible to get things done in an efficient manner if it weren’t for the instant communication that Slack offered us. Slack is basically a virtual office space where we can all come together online and talk to each other in real time as if we were communicating in person. During the first few weeks as an intern, I would start the day by signing on to Slack to let everyone know that I was online, to which I was greeted by everyone online, and it genuinely felt like I was physically there, ready to work. 

Fast forward to the present day, we have transitioned to working at our new office in East Nashville. It is a shared office space from a company called Three One Three, and it has been nothing but a great experience to come in every day to a bright, cheerful space where we can safely make things happen and work together in person. 

Now that I’ve thought a little bit about how this internship has been productive and a great learning experience despite the strange times, let's get down to the nitty gritty of what a day in the life of an Intern at an artist management firm like Olivia Management looks like! 

When I arrive at the office, I am greeted by the smiling faces of our awesome team, and then I get on my computer, log into all of our systems, and get to work! The first order of business is logging into Asana, which is an organized system for tasks that need to get done. I check to see if there is anything pressing that has been assigned to me. This would be tagged as high priority, and typically needs to get done ASAP. These tasks typically involve anything from adding artists’ shows into Artist Growth, a system that allows us to add in information about specific shows, so our artists can have an organized place where they can see all of the details for the show. Although most of the live, in-person shows have been canceled for the foreseeable future, our artists’ have been staying busy doing online shows, and finding other creative ways to interact with their fans. This has been keeping us busy, too! In order to maximize the outreach and exposure of these shows, I often find myself adding Eventbrite pages for artists’, which gives fans details about the livestreams, and a link to buy the tickets. Ruthie Collins recently added four Live Stream From the Airstream dates, so adding these shows to Eventbrite, and editing the show posters in Canva are something that I find myself doing often in my day, not just for Ruthie, but for all of our busy artists!

One of the things that I love the most about this internship is that I never know what I’m going to be doing next. It seems like everyday I am going to be introduced to a new system or process that helps our artists grow, and make money. 

If you had told me a year ago that I would be helping put together a socially distanced tour for Jill Andrews, that effectively brings live music to fans in a safe way during a pandemic, I would have been scratching my head, but it has been one of the most rewarding experiences about this internship. Never knowing what I’m going to be doing next, and then jumping into a new situation where I have to learn as I go has been a great growing experience for me, and I look forward to it every day. 

While I love having tasks thrown my way, and learning new things, one of my favorite parts of my day as an Intern is taking time to work on my semester-long projects. At the beginning of the semester, I chose to take on two semester long projects: writing the monthly Olivia Management newsletter and acting Wikipedia Master. Learning how to draft a newsletter in Mailchimp has been a very insightful experience and one that has really helped me learn about email marketing and writing in general. The Wikipedia Master task has been challenging, but I think a good challenge is important. I had no idea before this internship that creating a Wikipedia page was such an intricate process, but I have learned a lot in the process. 

It’s difficult to explain what a day in the life of an Intern is like at Olivia Management because a typical day is not typical compared to another job or internship. There is always something new and exciting happening, but one thing that stays constant is the positive and encouraging attitude of the team. Everybody works hard day in and day out and is committed to doing their very best work to promote the beautiful music that our artists make! 

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Hey, you!

Yes, you! Liking what you’ve read? We’re currently on the lookout for new interns to join the team for the Fall Semester of 2020 for school credit. Contact us at mackenzie@oliviamanagement.com with your resume and cover letter attached to begin the conversation!

Olivia's Digital Tool Box: Featuring Airtable

By Jackie Minton

When trying to work in a disorganized space, I feel a bit like a fish out of water. Unsorted papers look like abandoned intentions taking up my desk and piano bench. Bring that disorganization into the kitchen and my anxiety can take root when it comes to simply looking for that matching Tupperware lid. If you’re anything like me, a clean workspace is a must. 

However, having a clean physical space isn’t the only key to peaceful and productive work these days. With working from home becoming the new normal, an organized area now includes the digital plane. Today, the Olivia team is going to share our secret weapon to making a few hours of elbow grease look like an incorporated production.

Photo by Robert Bye from Unslpash

Meet our friend, airtable.com.
Whether you’re looking for a system to organize your personal passwords or a sophisticated way to track project deadlines, Airtable can help make your organizational dreams come true. The best part about this trusty tool is that a free account comes with unlimited data bases to dream, build, and track your information.

Here are a few ideas of ways you can use this powerful tool to maximize your digital workflow!

Centralize Passwords

Get your personal information out of the notes on your phone and into a singular location you can reach from anywhere. Include links to your account’s website to have one place to click through. We use this to keep track of all of our artists’ info from PRO accounts to social media.

Log Contacts

Whether it’s from your last business lunch or the booking contacts for your upcoming show. Log contacts and tag them by company and event needs. 

Create a Business Calendar

Or 5! Airtable has a great ability to house different calendars with various sharing parameters, and the ability to overlap calendars in your personal view.  Make a calendar for your social media plan, your travel schedule, or your upcoming co-writes. 

Sort Your Work Spaces

No matter what business you are in, it’s likely that you have to wear a few different hats to make your job happen. In the music business, we know this best! Venue details, marketing operations, and even managing a blog ;) are all small parts of the big picture we paint every day we come into work.

What parts of your process need some digital additions to the cyber-office space you’re building? Don’t be afraid to dream big!

Photo by Nastuh Abootalebi from Unslplash

Disclaimer: Airtable did not approve nor pay us for this article, but they should have.

Rethinking Routine

by Mackenzie Fey

If you’ve been following along in the last couple of blog posts, you might’ve seen me fish out some tips for working at home and making yourself a pro at this. These tips included starting your days with intentionality, spacing things out mentally and physically, and the importance of taking breaks. All of these things emphasize keeping things as normally as possible within the confines of an abnormal time. There’s nothing wrong with this! For people like me, I need to maintain that mindset to continue being productive and get the responsibilities I have taken care of. But this came to a realization that during these abnormal times, it’s okay to have things be just that. Abnormal.

Don’t get me wrong! There is so much value in routine! Right now, however, times are evolving and changing. Nothing is how it was a year ago. I mean, not even a month ago! What’s the harm in evolving your own routine? Doing things a little differently and reminding yourself it’s okay to be imperfect and skip out on getting into normal people clothes on Tuesday morning and just staying in your pajamas. It’s actually kinda fun! This can even look like finally picking up that brush and paints you got forever ago and never actually used it. It could be listening to an artist or genre you haven’t taken the time to listen to during your work hours (see below!). Go ahead and eat cereal and a donut for dinner. Try a new tv show on a Monday night at 11pm. Now’s the time!

Having a hard time deciding what your new non-routine could look like? I can help with that:

Today, Ruthie Collins released her sophomore album Cold Comfort featuring singles like “Dang Dallas” and “Bad Woman”. It has everything you’d want in an album: truth, heartbreak, enchanting melodies, storytelling, incredible production, and a song that can relate to any one of us. Check it out at this link here and give it a listen! Try it out, you won’t regret it.

To further break up the “normal”, tune in tonight at 7pm central to hear the new album live from Ruthie’s couch in New York! Join us on her YouTube channel tonight at YouTube.com/RuthieCollinsMusic.

Work from Home like a Pro

by Mackenzie Fey

Some Tips for working in your new home office

If your kitchen table has seemingly become the hub for all things eating and working, tune in! This post is for you. These days, working from home is becoming the new norm. Your living and relaxing spaces are now coinciding as the same space as your concentration and effort. Check out a few tips on how to make all this crazy a little bit more manageable!

Photo from The Lighting Judge

Tip 1: Start your days off intentionally!

A long time ago (well, not really all that long ago), commutes to work were actually a thing. This could’ve consisted of getting up, starting the coffee, a quick workout and shower, the list could go on and on. Now that our “commute” is from our bedroom to the livingroom, we’ve seemingly gained a few more minutes to spare. It’s easy to fall into a pattern of waking up 5 minutes before you’re supposed to hop online. In experience, this can lead to lack of effort and motivation. Efficiency isn’t as high as it could be, well, because you woke up 5 minutes ago. You’re brain’s not fully awake! It’s possible that setting up your mornings a little bit earlier and setting up a slight routine will help, even if it isn’t much. For me, it’s getting up and still pretending that I’m heading into work. This includes getting dressed (yes, even jeans sometimes) and heading downstairs for a light breakfast and coffee. It starts my days off a little bit more motivated and gets things going!

Tip 2: Spacing things out

Spacing is everything for me. I tend to correlate my physical spaces to my mental spaces. If I’m relaxing, reading, and sleeping in my bedroom, that is no place for me to try and dive into work or homework. I have designated spaces for work, for hanging out, eating, and so forth. If I overlap my work spaces with any other, I find I can never really turn that work “switch” off. My brain really has a hard time differentiating what mode I’m supposed to be in at a given time. When your normal hours of work are over, turn off your computer and hide it away. Outta sight outta mind, I guess!

Tip 3: Take Breaks!

You do this at work, why would you not do this at home?! Avoid cabin fever and restlessness by taking your lunch and eating it outside, away from the screen. Walk to the corner and back with your dog for a quick 10 minute break of movement and fresh air. Do this a few times throughout your day. Maybe even call some family or friends for some outside of work social time and see how they’re doing. It helps, I swear!

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Okay, let’s be real. None of this is purely factual or scientifically researched on our end of things, but more of what seems to help us at Olivia Management that might just help you! Take what you’d like, leave what you’d like. At the end of the day, we’re all just trying to get through this as quickly and safely as possible! Stay well, and wash your hands, y’all.