Are you among those lucky folks who work from home? Do you follow a good work from home routine? Or you are one of those whose ‘work from home’ routine sucks as you are unable to get things done?
I am sure you always dreamt of such a job where you can work without stepping outside your home, where you don’t have to shave and then get dressed each day, where you don’t have to drive all the way to office and then drive back battling the daily traffic, where you don’t have to attend meetings face to face and so on so forth.
Well I think work from home can work for everyone only if you know how to make a best work from home routine. If you are unable to work effectively from your home, then consider following tips for a perfect work from home routine.
9 tips to make your ‘work from home’ routine super productive.
1. Set Up a designated work area
To concentrate better, you need a proper space to work from. That is the reason offices are designed in specific way so employees can be more productive. It can be your favourite corner of the house or you can place a table and chair near a window to design that area exclusively for your work, think creative and find your own space. Keep your laptop, pen holder, a notebook, clock, water bottle and a plant on that table. The look and feel of the space will alert your brain to switch to work mode.
You can buy your home office furniture from Ikea and decorate it like I did.
2. Follow a timetable
It is extremely imperative to follow a timetable to keep your day under control and structured. In my last post also I have suggested how it can help you make a super productive day, hope you have benefited from that. You have to assign a stipulated amount of time for your core work, breaks, reading, work-out, cooking, cleaning up space, video calling family-friends or whatever is relevant to your day. Once you have made the time-table then stick to it and assess in evening your performance, and then you can learn from your mistakes and enhance your time table further.
#Tip: Do keep some buffer time between 2 tasks, to avoid impact on your time-table due to the spillover from 1st task.
3. Change your pajamas
Second biggest mistake is that most of the people continue wearing their night pajamas while working from home, or even if they have had a bath they wear lounge clothes or night suit. Its proven that your brain works according to your mood, when you are dressed up your body gives signals to your brain that you are ready to work now. As per human psychology we feel like doing different tasks when we are dressed up. Pajamas make you binge watch Netflix, munch on snacks and doze off all day. You don’t have to put on your office formals but any comfortable clothes that makes you look presentable in the mirror or at least makes you feel that you are not dressed to be at home.
4. Eat Healthy & light
In my opinion our body and mind are like a couple, they go hand in hand and do exactly as the other does. If you will fill your stomach with unhealthy food (junk, processed, burnt and overcooked) then your mind also becomes sick. Do not underestimate the bonding between this couple. Eating healthy, fresh and light helps strengthening your mind as well. More conveniently healthy food is the simplest, quickest and easiest meal to make like salad, lentil soup, oats or porridge, fruit yogurt, salmon etc. You can find many videos on youtube for healthy quick recipes which you can make during work from home with very less time and effort.
5. Keep distractions away
Oh, is that even possible? Yes it is if you are willing to keep your phones notification off. I have started using my phone wisely now and have turned off all the notifications except phone call and office video call app. I use my phone when I genuinely need it for my work, not when someone else needs my attention for his/her requirement. Try using your phone like this and stop using it unnecessarily, take my words you will love being in the control. You can set some time like checking your whatsapp or gmail or social media accounts in 3-4 hours.
6. Take frequent breaks
An average person can’t pay attention to something for more than 8 seconds. Now imagine how difficult it is for your brain to stay focused for hours. Frequent breaks play important role to boost your short attention span and improve focus. Our brain needs a time out from the work in every few hours. You can take a 5-10 mins break after every 1 hour or 15 mins break after every 2 hour. See what works best for you and schedule your time in and time out accordingly.
7. Take care of yourself
Since you have privilege to work from home, why not think about a skin care routine. You can put a facemask or hair mask while working and wash it off in your break. Second thing is work out, there is no way you can neglect this. In my every post I stress more on work out regime. It is as important for our body to function properly as breathing to stay alive. Figure out a work out type that you enjoy the most (dance, yoga, pilate, intense exercises) and make it fun with your favourite music. Start your day with a good 20-30 min exercise and you will feel more focussed during the ‘work from home’ slot.
8. Find or revive a Hobby
Take out sometime from your daily routine to do what you truly love. It might be your childhood hobby that you no longer pursue due to fast paced life. But now that you have organized your day I am pretty sure that you are able to see those magically appeared extra hours. Give yourself what it loves in this extra time and you will thank me later. You can preferably do this during your break time to unwind yourself.
9. Challenge yourself
With that said, I am trying to push you to do something new. Start something new, learn something new for your personal or professional growth. Focus on your future self with new skills and new possibilities. Be an active learner and gain new skills to keep yourself ahead of others in the game. Having more knowledge and skills can make you face any difficulty in life. Try to know your real potential through new experiences. Be creative, confident and experiment with yourself.
“The best investment you can make is in yourself. The more you learn, the more you earn.” – WARREN BUFFETT
With these tips you can rock your personal as well as professional life. I hope these 9 habits will help you change your ‘work from home’ regime and make it more fun. If I have missed something please share with me in the comments below. I would love to hear from you.
Catch you in the next post.
#StayHome #StaySafe
#StayHealthy #StayProductive