Hey everyone!
I hope everyone is staying safe and sane throughout this whole crazy environment we are living in. This week is the 3rd week I have been working from home and I can’t lie, there are some days where it has been relaxing and other days where I definitely miss being at the office. But nonetheless, it’s the situation we are in right now which is why I’m sharing my tips on how to make the best of it! Comment below your favorite tips & tricks on how you manage to work or study from home.
Change out of your Pajamas
I find myself being more productive when I actually feel like a human being. The first day I started working from home, I stayed in my PJ’s all day and for the life of me, I could not focus 100% on what needed to get done that day. I found myself too distracted by every little thing, I just felt the urge to want to cuddle up and just relax. I’m not saying that you need to get all dressed up to work from your couch, but I do recommend showing, throw on some leggings and an oversized sweater of some sort and feel like a human! I definitely feel more productive when I make an attempt to be showered and dressed over staying in my PJ’s while I work.
Make your bed & leave your bed for sleeping
Once Nick is up and out of bed, the first thing I do is go into our room and make the bed. This has helped me feel more at ease during the day and has decreased my desire to crawl back into bed during the day. The way our apartment is laid out, I can see the bed from our couch. It’s weird, but if the bed is not made and I’m working in our living room, I can’t help but keep eyeing it if it’s not made, which in turn creates more distraction throughout my day. So the moral of the story is, make your bed in the morning! Just do it.
Wake up earlier than your designated work time
I have talked about this extensively on my blog about the importance of waking up earlier and trying to start my day earlier even though I may not have to log in on my computer till 9 am. The first day I worked from home, I slept until 8am or close to 8:30 because I thought, “this is great, I can wake up a little later and not have to worry about getting ready.” Boy was I wrong. I felt sluggish all day, my mind was not 100% ready to work just yet when I had to log on. Long story short it was a struggle! Some of you may think I’m crazy for waking up at 7 to start my day before working at 9 am, but truth be told, not all of us will be working from home forever. So I found it important for me to still wake up semi-early to try and maintain my normal routine when I have to commute and go back to work in our office. Waking up early allows me time to sit with my cup of coffee, sit and unwind, and just allow myself to wake up at my own pace!
Create a designated workspace
Since Nick and I have a very small 480sqft apartment, there was not a lot of room for a desk, which has made working from home a little difficult. But, we are adjusting and making it work while we are self quarantined at home. My advice to you is to find a designated workspace where you feel like you can sit and get work done in a productive way. Since we don’t have a desk, I have opted for our couch. My bed is meant for sleeping and I try to keep my bed as my relaxing space over my productive space! Every day, I burn a candle, set up my work station at my coffee table and I focus on what needs to get done for the day.
Have a set plan for the day
I try my best to have a plan of action set for my day. I typically split my to-do list into ‘work’ and ‘personal’ to-dos in order to separate the important things that need to get done for my job and the personal things that can wait until I have a break or once I have logged off for the night. I also write out the 3 most important things that need to get done first and foremost for both work and personal and start there, instead of writing out 10 things that need to get done for each and end up not focusing on the most important tasks at hand. I also aim to schedule everything out for the day. Not just to-do’s but also my lunch breaks so my team knows when I plan to take a lunch, schedule time to do small chores around the apartment (if my day allows me to), etc. Mapping out every aspect of your day definitely sets you up to have the best productive day you can have and I highly recommend doing it!
Put on some tunes or podcasts that help you focus
When I really need to focus on something, I love to put on music to listen to. It helps me get in the right focused mindset for the day. My top focus playlists or motivating podcasts would be:
Playlist – Productive Morning
Podcast:
Take 10-minute breaks throughout your day
Something I have learned while working from home has been the importance of taking time for yourself and taking breaks away from your computer for a few minutes at a time. For the sake of your sanity and wellbeing, be sure to take a break away from staring at your computer screen and go for a short walk or do a few yoga stretches to unwind!
Stay active throughout your day
This kind of goes hand in hand with my last point about taking breaks throughout the day. Especially with everything going on in the world, and a lot of places closing temporarily it can be difficult to go to the gym nowadays. I also believe that because I am not walking every day to work for the time being, I have found myself becoming lazier when it comes to keeping active. You almost have to force yourself to get up and get moving throughout the day to keep semi-active for the time being. Whether you get up and walk, run, do yoga, or do a quick ab workout in your living room, you want to make sure you are keeping your activities up while we are inside!
Manage your time on your phone/social media
On the first day working from home, I definitely found myself more distracted from my phone than normal, which did not do great things for my productivity. So I decided to designate specific times where I can check my phone for a social media break and when I need to put it away and use it only for music. There is also using your phone in a productive way over just using it as a form of distraction. If you find yourself mindlessly scrolling through your phone and you have refreshed your Twitter or Instagram multiple times, then you probably are not using your phone productively. Sometimes it’s best to just put it away and only break it out during a break or for music!
I hope this post gives you some ideas to incorporate into your own routines while you are working or studying from home. I can’t wait to talk to you all again soon and I hope you are all staying safe and healthy out there!
XX,