It's all about our top 10 work from home tips today! Covid_19 is affecting almost everyone in this world. Here in California, we are "sheltered-in-place" for the next 2-3 weeks. All our workplaces require us to do work from home.
It sounds like a blessing in normal circumstances, many people (including me) felt that it is a punishment. Many times, we don't feel productive and inspiring. Not all jobs meant to have work from home.
It is challenging, but for public health, it is vital to have social distancing.
During this tough time, I thought let me write down my top 10 tips which can help all of us when it comes to "Work from Home".
I work from home since last Monday. Last week, I learned so much about me when it comes to discipline and work commitments.
It is scary to hear. When employers are encouraging or requiring people to work from home for an indeterminate amount of time. This will be our new routine for quite some time. And If you're new to the work-from-home lifestyle, whether due to coronavirus, you'll need to change some of your habits and routines to make working from home a success. So let's dig in!!
Here are my top 10 Work from Home tips
1.Sleep Night Before in set time
Think about you want to catch that 7.30 a.m. train so that you can be on your desk around 8.30 a.m. So, if that's your goal, you won't be watching Netflix till one in the morning. Initially,
I am not a morning riser, and when I don't need to go to work, I often work a little bit late on "Glow & Green." I research more on beauty products, content ideas, and so on.
But after working from home for a week taught me that if I don't set the alarm to go to bed, I will end up ruining my next day.
I started setting up an alarm to go to bed by 11.00 p.m. I ended up reading a book for 10/15 mins and then switch off lights. I wanted no "blue light" meaning no phones or iPads. This gave me time to switch off and go for sound sleep.
2. Morning: Ditch those Sweats
It really helps me to work with my morals. Frankly, first two days, I was so happy that I get to work in my sweatpants & shirts. I even thought of buying a few loungewear as we all know, we are in work from home for longggg time.
But believe me, clothes make a difference. Get dressed in real clothes. By wearing loungewear and be on my sofa, I quickly learned it was a great way to feel like a depressed hermit.
Again, when you are working from home, you don't need to put on a three-piece suit (although don't let me stop you!), but you should at least wear real clothes which make you feel better. Save your sweats for the weekend to help create a boundary between work and life.
3. Define Dedicated Workspace
I frankly believe that, when it comes to working from home, self-disciplined comes into play. By having a dedicated workspace, you are disciplining yourself to work from home in that particular space instead of working from your bed or sofa.
The best-case scenario is likely a dedicated home office with a door you can close. This allows you to closely approximate your actual work environment, with a desk and other typical office supplies.
However, it is not possible for everyone. But having at least a decent chair helps a lot. Nothing wrong in having a laptop on your lap and work from the couch in your living room.
But that is also an area that is likely to offer the most distractions during the day and will kill your posture. You can totally set up a small desk in the corner of your bedroom, or setting up in the dining room that you don't use very often.
By having a semi-permanent location that you can identify your work area, it will help you to maintain that separation from the rest of your home.
4. Morning Rituals: Breakfast, Exercise & Makeup
I am one of those people who likes to procrastinate about having a good breakfast and exercise daily. Believe me, I am still struggling with these two. But here I am, with my two cents.
After a week of working from home and thinking about my struggle to be productive, I decided to have a decent morning ritual.
This ritual can be different for different people. Such as it might be making a cup of coffee, it might be returning home after a jog. It might be getting dressed etc.
For me, having light makeup and good hair enlightens my day along with a 20-minute jog. I frankly hate wearing those hair buns.
I don't feel motivated at all. This is me, but feel what best for you! A dedicated morning ritual can be more potent than a clock at helping you get started each day.
5. Keep a water bottle on your work desk
Hydration is necessary whether you are working from home or not. Drinking an adequate amount of water daily is essential for overall good health because of water aids in digestion, circulation, absorption, and even excretion.
Since we are at home all the time, and we don't move that much, digestion and constipation can become a problem for us. Some studies show that even mild dehydration (1-3% of body weight) can impair many aspects of brain function. (referenced) In a survey of young women, fluid loss of 1.36% after exercise reduced both mood and concentration and increased the frequency of headaches.
To keep our self healthy, it is essential to have a bottle of water with us all the time!
6. Schedule Breaks
One of the draw breaks of having work from home is not to go for coffee breaks with your office bestie! We totally get it. But every two hours, going for short walks, enjoying your patio/balcony or backyard is not at all bad things.
Don't be locked in the room or corner all the time. For every two hours, you work, have a 5-10 minute break. Give your mind time to digest what it's just done, then come back. You'll improve the quality of what you produce a hundredfold.
7. Track your time
So many of you know that, I work in public sector. For us, working from home is not a thing! We usually are not allowed to work from home.
For that reason, I need to be very diligent about time I spent each day. In other cases, you might ended working more hours than you should in a day.
None of these scenarios are good. To conquer both situations, again, self-discipline is the key to the self-isolation time. I know this app called gtimelog. I use this tool to enter what I've done when I've completed.
It is very simple and stay out of your way. By end of the week, I can see a summary of work I did. It also allows me to break out work time vs. fun time in simple manner.
8. Be Social & FaceTime with your friends
Well, due to Coronavirus pandemic, everyone is working from home. Human being social animal we need some social interactions. I felt tensed and bored at same time.
I seriously needed some human interactions. Thanks to technology, we can do FaceTime or use hangouts! On Thursday evening & Friday evening, Kunal & I decided have FaceTime and host online happy hours! We ended up taking our drinks to backyard and chatted with our love ones for hours.
9. Incorporate Self-care & Self-love time
Since we all are going towards some tough times, we need some extra pampering to ourselves. Before we burned out, I totally feel having self-care & self-love time is exceptionally vital.
I love making my own DIY skincare recipes and applying to my own skin! We have so many easy recipes on our website, if you are interested in having some self-care & self-love time then check ours here!
I made schedule for myself, Monday for Masking; Wednesday for Body Scrub & Friday day for mini facial. These kinds of little things can make life enjoyable. I would take positive spin on this situation and think about having some spa moments 3-times a week.
10. Be Positive, Be Kind and Be Helpful
A positive & kind attitude is the key to have successful work from home situation. As I mentioned earlier, not all the jobs mean to be working from home.
That's why many times, you do not have enough tools and programs which can make your work successful. In my case, I realized that since we do not allow us to do work from home, our IT infrastructure is the lack of enough VPN access.
In this kind of situation, it is better to be helpful and kind. Since everyone is going through the same struggle as you.
Also, it's not just technology problems, some time working with your partner is also challenging. If you are living with your roommate or partner, that's also very challenging. Especially you both have to conduct a meeting from home, having a great understanding and positive attitude towards each other will help.
So these are my tips to make your work from home experience better. I would love to hear from all of you that what kind of lifestyle changes you have done to make your life normal.
Stay home! & Stay Safe!
Hope to have you soon here.