Working from home sounds like bliss at the beginning. Escaping the daily rush-hour traffic is good for your peace and your wallet. And frankly, there are those colleagues that you dislike having to deal with on a daily basis. Let’s not even get started on deciding what to wear every day.
Once you get down to work or attempt to, you realize that it’s easier said than done. You wake up with a schedule in mind, but you can’t seem to follow through. Days later, you’ve hardly done anything significant. Then you realize that working from home is more challenging than it sounds. In this article, you will find crucial pointers to help you stay productive at home. Thanks to the quarantine, jobs are scarce, so you’d better do justice to what you’ve got.
Get Ready in the Morning – Just as You Would If Going to Work
Have you been working in your pajamas since the quarantine kicked off? While it may be reducing your laundry load, it’s not helping your productivity. While the office environment has changed to your home environment, you want to give it just as much attention as you did while working from the office.
Don’t be one of those folks who select a business appropriate top but are still in sweatpants. You can be sure that a fancy top will go off the minute the meeting is over, and the pajama top will get back on if it wasn’t beneath the shirt the whole time. Preparing for your work-from-home day means that you get ready just as if you’re going to work, short of walking through your front door.
Dressing up Affects You Mentally
Your morning routine helps you get ready for work—your mind shifts from the nitty-gritty of your house to your work-plan for the day. Getting your mindset right while in a soup-stained t-shirt from two days ago is a lot harder. Even a good old shower is becoming optional during this quarantine. There isn’t quite the motivation to shower when you are staying in all day; is there? Well, if you intend to remain productive during the lockdown, there is. A shower clears up your mind while dressing up shifts your focus to your work. As soon as you step into your work clothes, you feel more confident to tackle the tasks of the day.
Don’t Start Working Until You’re Settled
Avoid your phone and laptop during your morning routine. Imagine you’re going to work, where you’d be in such a hurry preparing and getting the kids ready for school that you’d have no time to get online, and you only get online once at work or at least on the way.
What’s wrong with reaching for your gadget first thing in the morning? To begin with, you’re prone to idle scrolling. After all, you have all day, right? A few memes and cat videos never hurt anyone, did they? Before you know it, you’ve been scrolling for hours, wasting the most productive part of the day.
Secondly, you may just start working. You’ll come across an email and decide to send a quick reply, or edit that document that you drafted yesterday. Once you start working while still in bed, you’ll convince yourself that you can sleep longer since you’ve already reduced your workload. You feel you’re ahead of schedule. You destabilize your timetable so early in the day, and from there, it’ll be difficult to catch up. Start working only when you settle down at your desk.
Take Your Breakfast
Why bother with breakfast when the kitchen is an arm’s length away all day long? Others will even say that they’d rather not eat in the morning. Skipping breakfast, tempting as it is, will have you making trips to the kitchen barely an hour after settling down. The hunger pangs encourage unhealthy snacking as you’re likely to reach for the nearest ready option. Chances are you stocked up with processed foods as they last longer and are easier to prepare. You just throw them into the microwave and they’re ready to go. But we know many of the preservatives used aren’t the healthiest choice.
Instead, go for natural unprocessed foods that can last just as long, such as natural grain cereals. After a bowl of whole-grain cereal with nuts, you’ll be full till lunchtime. In addition to the health impact, you will also save the time that you could have spent in constant snacking. Eating just as you would if you were leaving the house for work gives you an energy boost and enhances your focus on the job.
Set up a Routine
Remaining disciplined when you don’t have a boss glancing over your shoulder is a tall order. The power of routine comes into play here. Once you decide what you’ll be doing every day, and in what order, you’ll be less likely to give in to every other whim.
Use a planner to allocate time for chores, eating, recreation, and most importantly, working. Write a clear to-do list so you can have clarity on what needs to be done at any particular time. It may be tough at first, but it gets easier with time. Remember, routines eventually evolve into habits.
Psychologists say that behavior repeated for 21 days becomes a habit. This may not work for everyone, but it does make a point. We’re uncertain how long the quarantine will last, but in most parts of the world, it’s approaching the 21-day mark and counting. You can create a new habit which will make this period less stressful and make you more productive.
Your Body’s Internal Clock
Have you disabled your usual alarm clock? Most people have. You’re free to sleep as much as you want, as long as you get your work done at some point during the day, right? It’s not that simple. Your sleep routine affects the trajectory of your day. Your body has an ‘internal clock,’ better known as the circadian rhythm, which regulates your sleeping and waking hours.
Waking up at the same time every morning and maintaining a similar bedtime routine helps your internal clock to adjust to your body. You will find yourself waking up at the set time, even without an alarm. Then you’ll be sleepy at bedtime, and you’ll proceed to have a deep, restful sleep.
Sleeping and waking up randomly messes your body rhythm. You may be drowsy during the day when you should be working, then lie awake at night when you should be asleep. Your internal clock also affects your appetite, mood, and even heart function. A destabilized circadian rhythm will definitely compromise your productivity. Get your alarm clock back on; waking up on time is a crucial pillar of the work-from-home routine.
Exercise
The quarantine may have denied you access to the gym or the jogging track, but you can do some light exercises at home to boost your energy. Establishing a routine requires discipline, which is simply doing what needs to be done irrespective of your mood.
Exercise immediately after getting out of bed. Skip, jog on the spot, run on the treadmill, stretch, do sit-ups, or whichever other workout routines you prefer. Physical activity triggers the mood-boosting hormone endorphin, which instantly gets you out of that half-asleep state.
You can then rush through the rest of your morning routine and get to work. Office hours are to be respected at all costs. Millions of jobs have been lost during the coronavirus outbreak. If you still have yours, give it your best.
Set Up a Designated Working Area
Some people can be productive anywhere; on the porch, couch, dining table, or even in bed. But they’re the bare minority. Besides, you can only work for so long on the sofa before you start flipping channels on TV. Seeing that the quarantine period is extending indefinitely, you need a proper working area away from the usual domestic distractions.
While some are privileged enough to have an entire room as a home office, others have smaller apartments where the working space is limited and has to be shared. Either way, you can make that available space work for you and give you the peace required to work.
Customize Your Space
Unlike in the office where you have to contend with a generic working space, you can add your personal touch to your home office. A customized workspace significantly improves workers’ mood, increase productivity, and contribute to better health. A vibrant worker is a productive worker.
Under normal circumstances, you can invite an interior designer to help bring your ideas to life. But with the prevailing lockdown, that may not be an option. Incorporating your own style does not have to be difficult. It can be as simple as including wall hangings or items that keep you happy and motivated. It could be family photos or other keepsakes that are significant to your work. If you’re in a position to go all out, you can incorporate a theme and even a color scheme. Utilize what is in your hands to make your space reflect your personality and work ethic.
Capitalize on Natural Light
The refreshing quality of natural light cannot be underestimated. Even a small space appears more substantial when the sun shines. Research carried out in school showed that students studying in classrooms with larger windows improved 15% faster in reading and math compared to those exposed to less daylight.
The effects on adults are no different. The moments you pull back the curtains and the sunlight floods in, you feel that rush of energy. The same applies to your working area. Choose a spot that optimizes natural light levels. If you have picture windows, even better. You can enjoy the views of the landscape as you work. Windows San Diego come in different styles, shapes, and sizes. Make good use of them. Poor lighting causes eye fatigue and drowsiness, which in turn reduces productivity.
Consider Partitioning
If you can’t use an entire room as your home office, you can partition one of the rooms and create a suitable place. A shoji screen is a popular partitioning option. It’s a translucent film held by a wooden frame to form a sliding panel. Privatizing your working space keeps out distractions from your kids, pets, TV, and so on. It also helps you prepare mentally for work, as opposed to just having a desk on a corner. Teach your kids to respect your working space; they can’t walk in and out at will. Perhaps you can create similar partitions for them, or you can switch around with what’s available. Just be clear that that space is a working office, and should be used for only that.
Socialize
Many people feel lonely in these social distancing circumstances. If you live with your family, you’re fortunate to have company. Many people live alone, or with housemates with whom they have no meaningful interactions. Make deliberate efforts to socialize with others. Instead of sending emails, set up video calls so you can have face-to-face interactions. Whether you’re talking to an individual or a group, interacting with someone will leave you feeling better. The nature of the call may be business, but when people converse, they can talk about anything.
You may find yourself opening up on the anxiety that the Covid-19 epidemic is causing. Probably for the first time in history, the entire world is facing a similar problem, first-world and developing countries alike. Share notes on how your country is coping, precautionary measures, how the situation is affecting you personally, and so on. Don’t be one of those people going for days without hearing the sound of their own voices. Open up. We’re in this together, so we need to find solace in each other even as we work.
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