How to Set Yourself Up For a Productive Work-From-Home Day
You’re used to the office life: being surrounded by coworkers on the reg, an office manager (who might as well be a super hero) brewing fresh coffee by the minute, and a desk with two monitors that keep your productivity at max capacity. You never imagined that working remotely would be part of your reality (even though the cool new start up that employs you offers unlimited PTO).
Yet here you are—home, lonely, and completely lost.
If you already desperately need to take a shower, have forgotten that jeans exist, or are wondering how early is too early for a glass of champagne—this blog post is for YOU.
The truth is: change is scary but working from home doesn’t have to be. There are boxes you can check and routines you can put in place to make this transition smooth, productive, and even a little fun.
It all starts with perfecting your morning routine.
Here’s how you can set yourself up for a productive work-from-home day:
Simple hygiene practices can easily be forgotten when you have no reason to leave the house (trust me: this is true for remote workers even when a quarantine isn’t in place)—but please, for the love of sanitation, wash your body.
According to Dr. Janet K Kennedy, a clinical psychologist and sleep expert in New York, taking a cool morning shower can dramatically boost alertness.
Plus, showering in the AM has other benefits, too:
you won’t look like a complete slob during your 6+ scheduled video calls (the + dedicated to the hours you’ll spend teaching your older co-workers new technology tricks)
you’ll have 5-10 minutes alone to get your head in the work-from-home game
it will force the start of your new favorite, regularly scheduled morning routine
Working in your comfiest clothes can be oh-so-tempting. After all, you’ve worn slacks and a real bra every weekday for the last 5+ years (and nobody on your Zoom calls will be able to see your bottom half anyway). You feel like you deserve a break from your corporate clothes.
Not so fast.
While working in your comfiest clothes may seem like a dream, it can actually be detrimental to your productivity. Take this little tip from Forbes, “A work from home outfit can still be comfortable, but the act of changing into your day clothes will help you remind yourself that it is time for work.”
You can give into the temptation of binge watching Netflix in your pajamas while eating an entire pint of Ben and Jerry’s when that slide deck is finished.
For now, just throw on some jeans, will ya?
Now that you’re working from home, you’re feeling like an IT wizard, an office manager, a housekeeper, a teacher, and a CEO all wrapped up into one __________ (insert your job title here). It can be difficult to remember to put your needs first when your email account is in overdrive and your phone is ringing off the hook with questions that would have been answered in person (ya know, like back in the day when being quarantined wasn’t a normal thing).
Work From Homie- meet your new best friend, Self-Care.
Set aside 15 minutes each morning to do something you enjoy:
write in a journal
sip your coffee in silence
read a few chapters of a book
create new content for your side hustle
go for a walk
practice a new hobby
listen to music
play a video game
meditate
etc. etc.
Taking care of yourself will inherently boost your self-esteem and keep your attitude in check.
“When you look for the upside in a downside situation and figure out what you can do and what you can't, it's easier to accept whatever is beyond your control.”
—Forbes Career Contributor, Bryan Robinson
There will be a lot of mornings in which you would prefer to hop straight into work instead of eating a healthy breakfast. There will also be a lot of mornings in which you would prefer to drink 3-5 mimosas (minimum) rather than getting straight to work.
Unfortunately, mimosas for breakfast aren’t an option in a successful work from home office (at least not early in the AM—save ‘em for the evening). With everything that’s going on in the world, your brain is going to need more energy to digest new information.
Foodist Author, Darya Rose explains that “when you’re tired and hungry, the last thing you want to think about is something brand new, even if it’s not hard.”
(She ain’t wrong.)
Leave the sugary cereals and granola bars in the past-- they’ll taste great but have you feeling sleepy, like, 20 minutes later. Use this WFH period to prep a few breakfast meals you’ll look forward to eating before you get to work.
Thank your new BFF Good House Keeping for looking out: Check out these 55 Quick and Easy Healthy Breakfasts for Your Busiest Mornings
Check out the super cool productivity tool below!
Using this handy guide to map out your work day will help you prioritize your to-do list without getting side tracked on less time-sensitive items tasks.
(double click the image to save it!)
Here’s the bottom line:
New routines are exhausting (especially when they involve working in the comfort of your own home). Do yourself a favor and take an extra hour out of your morning to get into a healthy WFH routine:
Hop in the shower: basic hygiene is a necessity.
Get dressed in something other than sweatpants: your productivity depends on it.
Set aside 15 minutes for YOU: use the time to do something that you enjoy.
Eat a solid breakfast: your brain needs food and so do you.
Plan your day: don’t forget to save the productivity tool above (you can thank me later).