With the spread of Covid-19, people are now encouraged to work from home for at least a month. If you’re new to the work-from-home lifestyle, this can definitely be challenging. You will need to change some of your habits and routines to turn your home into a productive working environment.
Here are some tips that worked for us:
- Set yourself up to succeed. Organise your space. Ideally have a sit/stand option to keep you moving.
- Prepare like you are going to work. If you normally get up, shower, have breakfast and leave for work, keep the routine the same or similar. Dress like you are going to the office. Our bodies crave routines. If you can keep in a routine, you will be more productive.
- Chunk down your day. Do things in blocks of time…an hour set for this task, 30mins for emails etc.
- Make a task list.
- Turn off your notifications. Nothing disrupts us more than a binging device. Check at the end of each chunk of time.
- Don’t get sucked into checking media – you will find out at the end of the day what the magic Corona virus number is!
- Shut the door. If in a separate room, this will help to remove distractions.
- Take regular breaks. Every hour, move! This can be organised around the “chunks” identified in step 3. Do the upper body exercises on the stretch page, in these breaks…should only take a few minutes. Do what you can. Do them regularly. Little and often is better than not at all. Save the lower body exercises for the end of the day.
- Get outside at lunchtime. Never underestimate the value of fresh air. Research has shown that a 10min break outside, disconnected from all technology (no phones here folks), makes you much more productive in the second half of the day.
- Have a finish time. Know when your day will end so you don’t just drift on aimlessly while at home.
- When finished, if you are working in a separate room, close the door when you leave. If working in a communal space, throw a sheet over the workspace. This means you are not staring at work 24/7.