Tips to Live Your Best Work From Home Life
Are you staring at the calendar in disbelief that you began working from home over a year ago? So are we! Whether your office has adopted a hybrid model, or made the announcement that the physical space is closing down, it’s clear that we’re in this for the long haul. So, to make the most of your work from home experience, read on for some career maven tips below!
Set up (or Spruce Up) Your Dedicated Workspace
Are you still doing work while laying in bed? If this sounds familiar, it’s time to level up your space! Setting up a dedicated workspace accomplishes two things: First, it helps you to be more focused and avoid distractions that may exist in other spaces. Second, it helps preserve work-life balance. Just think about how nice it would be to sit down at the kitchen table and not have your brain bounce back and forth between what’s for dinner and what emails you need to send! Your space doesn’t need to be an entire Pinterest-worthy home office room either. If you have the space and the budget, have at it by all means! But setting up a dedicated workspace can also be as simple as grabbing a folding laptop desk from Target or HomeGoods and going to work in an empty corner of the living room. A bonus of this is that you can literally tuck your work away at the end of the day, making it easier to leave the office behind when 5 o’clock hits!
Maintain a Regular Schedule
When you don’t have the framework of a morning commute to get to the office by 9am or a set time to go to lunch, it can be easy to start just “going with the flow” and hoping for the best. However, one of the best ways to avoid burnout and increase productivity is to have a set schedule for yourself. There are many ways to do this, a wall calendar, a notebook planner, or even a digital calendar like the app on your iPhone or Google Calendar. When times get hectic, you’ll be so grateful that you have a structure to fall back on instead of just winging it.
Schedule Breaks
Speaking of scheduling, the golden rule of working from home is to make sure you schedule breaks! As we’ve mentioned before, burnout is real. And one of the fastest ways to reach burnout is to work yourself nonstop without any time to rest. While you’re scheduling time to answer emails, Zoom with your boss, and finish projects, make sure that you also schedule time to eat a snack, take a walk, and watch the latest YouTube video from your favorite creator. Taking a break doesn’t have to pull you away from work for hours on end, and it frankly shouldn’t. But sometimes you need to stand up and walk from one room to another or get up and dance around to your favorite song so you can sit back down and refocus. When you give your body and brain the rest they need, you’ll find that they can better serve you much better in your work!
Some people think of working from home as a godsend, while others can’t wait to get back into the office. Whatever side you fall on, we hope these tips will help you to flourish while working from home so that you can perform to the best of your ability!
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