Make the best of working at home

What a year… and we are only in March! We are at the middle of the COVID19 Pandemic, but as always we must focus on what we have in the moment. One of the changes this event makes in our lives is that you will have to work from home. For the people that haven’t worked from home, this might be new for you, but if you already have done it, I will give you my tips to make the best out of it.

The first thing you need to know is that this is an opportunity to bring the best out of you, to really know yourself and to be a little more independent with your time and your responsibilities.

So…this is up to you!

First of all you need a lot of focus. This might be hard at the beggining because you have a lot of distractions when you are home. Here are some tips to focus:

• Have a space or office for work
• Have a clear desk or setup, you need a clear space, a zone that makes you feel productive and motivated.
• Put your phone on mute, turn off notifications that aren’t important.
• Turn off any distractions such as TV
• Stay off social media, this is the biggest distraction
• Communicate to your family, housemates or partner that you need to focus on work, so they respect your time and help you focus.

You are focused, now its time to organize your day.

• Make a daily routine
  • Ex. 8am coffee and breakfast, 9am organize the day, answer emails…
• Make a to-do list
  • Make it color coded (ex. red: urgent, blue: important but not urgent)
• Fill up your calendar
• Organize your workspace, have everything you need within reach and get rid of the non-essentials.
• Don’t multitask, this will only slow you down. To do two or more things at once can release the stress hormone cortisol in the brain.
• When you are working, stop doing household chores.
• Have a clock-out time.

Remember, this is your opportunity to be independent and getting to know how you work when you are in your personal space.

• Have a mindset of success.
• Meditate from time to time, you can just focus on your breathing for 3min.
• Enjoy little breaks between tasks (you can have a 5 min break every 25 min to stretch or go to the fridge and drink some water in peace)
• Dress up, don’t work in your pj’s.
• Work in a bright space, don’t work in the dark.
• Light up a candle, aromatherapy is important (I recommend lavender, peppermint or sandalwood)
• Celebrate what you have accomplished so far.

And remember it’s up to you!

“The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential… these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.”