Working From Home: Motivation & Wellness

Have you ever thought about the possibility of working from home? Skipping the commute and waking up right next to your office? If your answer is “yes,” you’re not alone. This trend has been growing in popularity and has seen a recent explosion in our society.

Perhaps you’re worried about maintaining motivation in such a relaxed climate, or how you’ll make the most of the newfound freedom inherent in working from home.

While working from home includes plenty of benefits, like the ability to meet a deadline in your pajamas, maintaining productivity can be difficult—if you aren’t properly prepared. This guide will teach you everything you need to know about how to make the most of your at-home office.

Tips for Working at Home:

Build A Morning Routine

Self-care is important whether you’re working from an office or your own home. Your morning routine is one of the best ways to set your intentions for the day and promote a positive attitude. It might be tempting to sleep in and wake up five minutes before you have to start working—after all, it’s so much easier when you don’t have to participate in the morning commute.

It takes each and every person time to adjust to the day, and a morning routine is essential for wellness and balance. Meditation, yoga, workout routines, positive affirmations, and cleansing shower rituals are all excellent additions to your morning routine. Just be sure to start the day with a set of activities and practices that bring your grounding and emotional stability.

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Maintain A Regular Schedule

One of the easiest ways to keep yourself engaged in your work is to set specific working hours each day and stick to them. This sense of routine will improve your time-management skills and allow you to feel a separation between work and home life.

While flexibility is one of the benefits of working from home, it’s important to maintain a semblance of routine. If you have to work late one day, try starting later the next day. Drawing a clear line between your work and home life will help you maintain balance and mental wellness.

Create A Permanent Workspace

Many people might think that the benefit of working from home is being able to work from your own bed. While it’s not impossible, working in bed is not ideal either. Creating a permanent workspace will help you separate your sleeping area from your working area, increasing motivation. This can be as simple as setting a desk up wherever you have free space, or as creative as setting up an entire office. Making the commitment to work in this designated space will help you stay motivated and productive.

Set Rules for Working Hours

A lot of people are staying at home right now in light of everything that’s happening in the world, which means that you’re probably sharing your workspace with a spouse, children, or even roommates. It’s important to set some ground rules for those hours that you’ve scheduled for work.

Make sure that your family members and housemates know not to disturb you while you’re working, as tempting as it may be to pop in with a funny meme or a new drawing. Ask that TV and video games are played at a reasonable volume, so you don’t become distracted. It may be a difficult adjustment at first, but in time everyone will jump on board.

Stay Organized

Use planners, apps, and to-do lists to keep yourself on track each day. It may be tempting to wing it, but opening your planner each morning and taking a look at your to-do list will make it that much easier to accomplish your goals.

There are also plenty of apps that can help you record your hours and stay on track. Maintaining organization will prevent you from falling behind or letting your work creep into your time off.

Put Some Tunes On

It can be hard to concentrate in silence, so try playing some music while you work. There are so many streaming apps to choose from, you won’t have a hard time finding something that helps you feel motivated and relaxed. Classical music is excellent for focus and concentration.

Stay Connected

While you won’t be seeing your colleagues in person, it’s important to maintain a connection with them. Try using chatting applications like Slack, or schedule a video chat every now and then on applications like Zoom. Spending so much time at home can feel isolating, so make sure that you’re finding creative, safe ways to connect with those around you.

Stay Healthy

There’s something about working from home that encourages a sense of relaxation, almost like a day off. This can influence a relaxed attitude towards diet and exercise, and you may feel like skipping the yoga and reaching for the ice cream. But maintaining your physical health is crucial during this time. It’s important that you stick to your regular workout routine, even if you have to substitute your trip to the gym for an at-home workout video.

Make sure that you’re refueling with healthy snacks throughout the day, and taking in plenty of fruits, veggies, and whole grains. Exercise and healthy foods will actually provide you with even more energy and motivation throughout the day. Keeping your body healthy will also help you maintain optimism and positive vibrations.

Follow Your Intuition

No one knows you better than you. This is the time to build an even deeper connection with yourself, uncovering your habits and patterns of behavior that could use some tweaking. When you begin working from home, you’ll start to notice your strengths and weaknesses.

You can use these observations to your benefit. If you start to realize that you lose focus during a certain time of the day, you may want to plan to use this time to stretch your legs or take a walk around the block. Or perhaps you begin to see that you’re even more motivated and productive during the last half of the day, which can help you plan to work on your bigger projects in the afternoon.

Getting in touch with your personal working style and patterns of behavior can help you make your habits work for you.

Don’t Forget to Go Outside

While most of the globe is practicing social distancing right now, it’s still important to get outside and spend some time in nature. It can be as easy and relaxing as going for a walk around the block. Getting a bit of sun will help you get vitamin D, an important vitamin for the immune system.

Spending time in nature will help you feel more connected to the world around you right now.

Practice Gratitude

Practicing gratitude and appreciation for the things, circumstances, and relationships in your life increases positivity and optimism. Even if you prefer working in the office, it’s important to find the little things that you enjoy about working from home. Make a list of the things that you feel happy about in this moment to encourage uplifted energy and higher vibrations each day.

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