Anyone out there ready to lose their mind because they wake up and it’s another day of working from home? Me, me, me! I love my home, but never envisioned working and living from it for 6+ months, but here we are. Staying sane while working from home is challenging. It’s taken me a long time to figure out how to stay sane working from home and I have to share my ideas with you. I know several of you are in the same boat, so I’ve pulled together my best tips in one post.
How To Stay Sane Working From Home
Get Dressed
The best advice I can give you is to get fully dressed for work each day. This will set the tone for the day and your mood. If you are wearing something you love you will be happy, even if you are stuck indoors. Getting dressed also puts you in the mind set that you can leave the house and should. If you are already dressed you have no excuse to not leave the house. And lets talk about my dress for a second. It’s the perfect house dress and it’s only $35! You can find it here.
Leave The House
You have to leave the house, at least once a day. When you don’t leave the house your days and nights start to blend together and this is where it all goes down hill. I am completely guilty of not leaving the house during the work day. I feel like I have to be tied to the computer. But that is not true, you can leave for a little bit.
Take a walk at lunch or treat yourself to an afternoon latte outside the house. I view it this way, if I was in the office I’d gather up my co-workers for a Starbucks run round 3pm. I’m doing the same thing, except alone 🙂
Define Your Space
I’m guilty of working from the kitchen counter. It’s the center of my home and I like to be in it, but it’s not the best for working. Instead of working in the center of your home find a defined space, like a bedroom. I recently shared how to add a home office to your bedroom, you can read the full post here.
If you don’t have an actual room to go to, find a quiet corner with no distractions. In my house we have a “lounge” and the chairs face outward to the view. While it’s in the main room, its a defined space that is separated. And it doesn’t hurt that the view is amazing!
Set Boundaries
This is a huge one and I wish I did this earlier. Set boundaries with your co-workers and adhere to them. My biggest pet peeve right now is not having my time respected. Just because I’m working from home doesn’t mean that my schedule doesn’t matter. When calls run over and people say it’s not a big deal because we are all at home it drives me up the wall. My schedule is still my schedule and my time should be respected.
When meetings are coming close to ending and someone utters those words that make me cringe “I have more time to keep going” I simply say I do not and I have a hard stop and need to end at the scheduled time. Now there are times that I do need to stay longer on a call, however not EVERY call needs to go over.
Scheduled Your Day
I find that the day gets away from me a lot quicker at home then it does in the office. I think that is because I’m comfortable at home and there is no rush to leave the office. My office is my home so I’m always here. At home, I have a harder time getting those annoying projects done. I also don’t have the pressure from my co-workers to get it done. So now I schedule block my calendar.
When I have a project due I put time on my calendar and label it with the project name. This way I know I have a dedicated time to work on it. It’s helped me gain control of my day and complete larger tasks more efficiently.
Take Breaks
I’m guilty of feeling that I need to be tied to the computer. It took me months to break this! I do not need to be staring at the computer for 8+ hours straight and neither do you. You have to take a break for your mental health. If I was in the office I would get up walk around, grab a tea or check in face-to-face with a co-worker. I try to replicate that at home too. You can step away from your computer to stretch, grab a coffee or FaceTime a co-worker. I didn’t realize how much I missed seeing my co-workers 🙂
Are you looking for more WFH tips? Check out how I set up a home office in this post here.
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