Today is the beginning of a 30 Day Try-on-athon where I try to answer the question: How do the clothes we wear affect our productivity as remote workers?
You can track the progress here!
DAY 1: Me
I felt more professional during my meetings throughout the day – probably because I could see myself as I was meeting with people (via Skype and Hangout). As remote workers we see ourselves in ways that most people don’t get a chance to see.
I never need to dress up, because all my clients see me from the chest up and I can get away with a simple long-sleeved shirt and still look relatively professional. However, I was inspired by my remote collaboration partner’s stylish outfits and started wondering how much does dressing up matter when we work remotely? Does it affect our psychology? Does it affect how people interact with us? Does it affect our productivity? So I decided to challenge myself to 30 days of different outfits.
One of my remote collaboration partners, Gretchen Wegner, will be joining me for parts of the try-on-athon to check in on the progress and add her genius.
DAY 1: Gretchen Wegner
I’m learning that wearing a tie as a woman makes me feel both spunky and authoritative. This outfit really energized me while I was making videos alone in my living room … for my new course “The Anti-Boring Approach to Powerful Studying“.
Join us by posting your photos or thoughts in the comment section of this blog post. If you want to post an image but don’t know how, just email me and I will help you. But here are some instructions:
- Post your photo somewhere online where you can link to it (you can upload it to Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, etc)
- In the comments section type the following: <img src=”paste the URL to your photo between the quotes”>
I definitely notice a shift according to what I wear. Sometimes the comfy clothes are exactly what I need to motivate myself. Other times, the time I take to choose an outfit, do my makeup, and get “prettied up” definitely boosts my performance. Today, I am sick and so I’m definitely in my comfy attire. Maybe I’ll post some pics when I’m not so grungy and snotty. 🙂
I’ve also considered this aspect of remote work.
Though I wonder whether the remote has very much to do with it – at least for myself. I dress how I feel and know that certain outfits put me in a certain frame.
Much more relevant for me, is how I feel physically. So if I’m fit and healthy – as in I’ve done some Yoga or a HIIT workout – I could be in jodhpurs and braces and still be in a hugely dynamic state of mind.
Would be interested in how it works out for you. If nothing else – choosing the outfits and getting dressed up oughta be lots of fun!
That was exactly my thinking. No idea if this experiment will be useful… but it will for sure be fun! And sometimes, that’s the only reason that is needed.
I agree with the statement that the more professional you dress the more professional you feel. I do not think the way you dress makes you more productive though.
“…all my clients see me from the chest up and I can get away with a simple long-sleeved shirt and still look relatively professional” – What happens if someone does this and they are wearing shorts or something not so professional and they standup by accident? Does this ruin a customer/client relationship?
Hi Geoff! Fun to see you here on my blog 🙂
I have actually never needed to standup during a client meeting. But I always have something appropriate on. I can’t imagine a client relationship would be ruined by seeing someone in shorts. It would more likely be one of those moments that would be forever told stories and laughed about 🙂