Many of us, myself included, are getting sort of used to working from home. For those of us with children that may have usually been at nursery or school during our working hours, this means more time with the kids! This is a wonderful thing, and I am loving having more time with my son, however, it means that I have to figure out how to swap from Mum-style, to professional in a flash when meeting with clients or attending meetings via our new-love – video conferencing!
In this article, I wanted to share my top tips for making this transformation quickly so you can be professional in advance of your scheduled meetings, but still maintain the required Mum-clothes for when you are looking after your children.
How to change from mum style to workstyle in snap – my top tips!
When you have a little time for changing then the key point to save you stress and time is organisation!
Reorganise your wardrobe – think about this, in a video call or video recording, the top part of your figure is often the only part that needs to be seen. So, you can make your life even easier by just updating your top half – no one is going to see your lovely slippers and leggings unless you want them to! I recommend organising your tops into two sections – one for with your child, and the other for work.
Put together outfits in advance & photograph them - If you want to wear your accessories with your outfit, such as earrings and scarves, you can put these together and take some pictures of the outfits. This will help you organise and find an outfit in a flash! Simply go to your photos, find the outfit you liked and photographed on your phone and put it together.
Consider your backgrounds – when you are lucky enough to have an office, make sure you have everything set up ready to go for your videos and your meetings. This will mean you can ensure you are always ready and set up in advance of your calls, so all you have to do is change your top and your accessories, then sit and get started. If you are someone who is new to working at home or perhaps doesn’t have the luxury of a home office, walk around your house and check your WiFi connections, then your backgrounds. You want to make sure it is as clear as possible, as well as, if you are like me with a young child, as far away from your sleeping young one as possible so as not to wake them. If you have older children, I recommend a room with a door you can close, and set up a “Mummy’s working” sign, that the kids know means they cannot come in when that door is closed.
Another part to this is that the background being as simple as possible, will mean that it won’t clash with any of your outfits or cause strange movement in the video.
Hair accessories can be a Mum’s best friend – we all have even less time to get ready in the morning if we have kids running around all day, and let’s face it, we are the last into the shower! If you are due to have a work call at a certain time you can make the most of your scrunchies, headbands, or even scarves, to make your hair look prepped and professional in a flash simply by updating your hairstyle.
Hang your shirts up with one button undone – This is a quick and easy tip so you can simply throw on your shirt over your head without having to fiddle with all the buttons! When you put your clothes away after doing the laundry, button up the shirts all the way up to 1 or 2 buttons to the top. This will not only help keep the shirt from falling into a strange shape, and help you in the rush to change into professional clothes. I love being able to put a professional shirt on, but the faffing with all the buttons can be a nightmare! Don’t get in a pickle, just plan in advance 😉
I hope these tips to help you transform from Mum Style to Professional Style will help you during these times of working from home, or even just for helping you with videos and video conferencing. If you would like some help with styling yourself as an entrepreneur, I would love to help. I offer online styling sessions which you can book right here – so you can treat yourself to feeling confident and boosting your business brand.
