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5 Ways to Keep It Together While Working From Home

We’re all in this together—literally, in the same apartment, in the same room, trying to be productive.

By Leigh FisherPublished 4 years ago 5 min read
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Illustration Courtesy of VectorMine

We all see those smashingly successful entrepreneurs out there living flexible lifestyles. We stare them in jealously, practically salivating over their seemingly Instagram perfect lives.

Then we all end up quarantined and working from home and all of our good habits go out the door. Does this sound familiar?

When you’re in college, it sounds funny and cute to procrastinate or get distracted. When working from home, it creates a strain on your relationships with your colleagues and supervisors. If you let it get out of hand, it might have serious ramifications on your productivity.

I really wanted to title this piece “How to Keep Your S#!! Together While Working From Home.” Then, I remembered my coworkers might read this. That title really made me want to put that word in the title because I think they’d find it hilarious, but I’m going to maintain my professionalism instead.

Why, you may ask? Because that’s inherently what you need to do when adapting to working from home—you need to keep your professionalism. It’s not just enough to show professionalism at your job and to your coworkers, you also need to show it to yourself.

Maintain a routine sleeping schedule.

Illustration Courtesy of VectorMine

This is the true nuts and bolts behind running your body and your routine like a well-oiled machine. You don’t have to operate your sleeping schedule perfectly in line with what you did when you were still in the office, especially if you hated your old routine. But it’s important to keep something close to it because eventually, we will go back to normal life. It’s a little soon to think about the next transition when we’re still getting acclimated with the first one, but keep this in mind.

For me, to have ample time to catch my 7:35am train into New York City, I usually get up at 6:30am. Since I’m going to be remote until early May, possibly longer, I’ve inched my alarm to 7am because I love waking up when the sun is already up a little. It’s a nice compromise between normal and something that makes me happy. See if you can find a happy medium like this between your old and new normal.

Create your dream routine at home.

Was there a specific morning routine you’ve always wanted to follow but couldn’t because of commuting and other obligations? Now is the time to make it happen. If you’re struggling to keep it together while working from home, try to add pleasant things to your routine. It’ll help you feel more motivated to get out of bed and start your day.

My mornings are quite delightful currently. I cook breakfast for my cats (yes, I’m that cat mom), make espresso for me, then cozy up to read and write until 9am hits and it’s time to get to work. I usually don’t have time for such leisures before work in the morning, so it’s really enriching and delightful. Being able to make the most of my fresh mind in the morning is incredibly stimulating to my writing productivity.

Introduce a little regular exercise into your life.

Illustration Courtesy of VectorMine

Keeping active is important, even when you’re in quarantine. If you’ve always worked from home, you can still benefit from a little exercise.

You don’t need to transform yourself into a protein-packing, gym-goer fitness fanatic. Making a massive lifestyle change is hard and if that isn’t something you truly want, you’ll probably be one of those folks who spend a bunch of money on a gym membership or fitness equipment only to quit a week or two in.

You can reap the physical benefits of light exercise and the feel-good rush of endorphins benefiting your mental health without dramatically changing your day. Walk a mile, go for a brief run, copy a yoga routine from YouTube—just do something. Find a type of light exercise that you enjoy and sneak it into your daily routine. It doesn’t have to be long, even twenty minutes can help.

Figure out what your biggest distractions are and make dealing with them part of your routine.

This might sound harsh if your biggest distractions are partners, kid, or pets, but this can actually be really fun. If you can go completely AFK for a lunch break, take that chance to spend some time with your loved ones. You can make that time dedicated to keeping them busy or tiring them out—it’s still okay to go out for walks, runs, or play sessions as long as you stick to the CDC’s guidelines on social distancing.

If your biggest distractions are more external and out of your hands, you can still find ways to work around them. First, identify them. Second, make a plan for still getting your productivity time in.

For me, my biggest external distraction is my upstairs neighbors. They’re nice people, but their toddler is incredibly loud when he runs across the ceiling. It’s amazing how a small, waist-height human can make so much noise. Subsequently, I try to do my creative writing in the morning while he’s still asleep, and I keep lo-fi music playing throughout the day to keep me zen even when there’s noise.

Get dressed up once a week.

Illustration Courtesy of VectorMine

Whether you love or hate getting dressed up, do it at least once a week. This is where showing professionalism to yourself really comes in. Even if you don’t have a reason to do this, do it anyway. Once a week, dig out a nice shirt from your closet, maybe do something with your hair. If you’re working from home with your partner, you could even use this day as a little indoor date night.

For the rest of the week, even if you stay in pajamas all day, remember to change them with reasonable frequency. It’s sometimes nice to change into workout clothes or a fresh set of pajamas in the morning. Essentially, do whatever floats your boat and keeps you comfortable, but bringing back that echo of normal life can help you keep it together while working from home.

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About the Creator

Leigh Fisher

I'm a writer, bookworm, sci-fi space cadet, and coffee+tea fanatic living in Brooklyn. I have an MS in Integrated Design & Media (go figure) and I'm working on my MFA in Fiction at NYU. I share poetry on Instagram as @SleeplessAuthoress.

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