Covid-19 is forcing a lot of us to stay home for the next few weeks and people who have never had to work from home now have no other choice. Here are some tips for everyone from office workers to students on how you can stay motivated when working from home.
The first thing you should do is continue to get up at the same time you always have. Don’t lie in and just get up 10 minutes before you’re due to start as I can assure you, you won’t be productive in that first hour. Instead use the time you previously would have had on your commute to go outside for a walk or make yourself a fancy breakfast. This will help you be fully awake and ready to start your day.
You should continue your usual routine in the morning if you can, get up, wash your face and your teeth and brush your hair and, of course, get dressed. Getting dressed is hugely important when you’re working from home. You don’t need to put on fancy clothes, you can wear your comfy baggy tracksuit bottoms or even just pop on a clean pair of pyjamas. But the act of taking off your pyjamas and putting on something fresh will help you to not feel too sluggish and you’ll have more motivation to get work done.
Set up a little office space that is off limits to everyone else in the house. Find a desk or a table and claim that as your workspace for the time being. Having a certain spot in the house dedicated to work will help you focus and stop you turning your whole house into a workspace. If it’s possible try not to do it into your bedroom so you don’t have to sleep in the same room you’ve been doing work in all day.
Take a lot of breaks and stay hydrated. One of the perks of working at home is it gives you more freedom. Make yourself a cup of tea every hour if you want to, don’t be too strict on yourself. Remember in college or an office you wouldn’t usually be by yourself for this long, so ring your friends or your colleagues and have a 10 minute chat, like the ones you would have at the break of a lecture or on your way back from the toilet. Nobody is 100% efficient when they are working anyway so don’t put too much pressure on yourself just because you’re at home.
Plan what you are having for lunch the night before, or better yet make it the night before, like you usually would. That way you won’t spend half of your lunch break deciding what to make. Leave the area you’re doing work completely and spend your break how you usually would. Facetime your work friends who’d be on the same lunch as you or watch a quick episode of something light-hearted. Don’t start watching something too gripping or the temptation to watch more than one episode could leave you behind on your work.
This one is probably the most important, when the end of your workday comes, stop working. Seriously, stop working. It’s very easy to just keep going when you’re at home and they aren’t locking up the building at 6 o’clock or you don’t have to run out to get the bus home, so make sure you force yourself to stop when you usually would. Sign out of everything, turn off your work mobile and go enjoy your evening.
If you’re not feeling the most productive at home, remember to go easy on yourself. These are unprecedented times and there are a lot of people in the same boat as you. You’ll get the hang of it eventually.