5 Tips For Staying Sane While Working From Home

​Many of us are working from home—whether you want to or not.

And even if you’re used to working from home, chances are that right now is anything but ordinary as other family members who aren’t usually around maybe home too.
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​It can be a tremendous challenge for many of us to work from home during these unsettling times. With that in mind, I wanted to share some of my top tips for working from home productively without destroying your health or sanity.

Establish a routine
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If you don’t have to show up at the office at a certain time and you don’t have anyone watching, it’s tempting to just let go of having a schedule at all. This is usually a mistake. Having a routine maybe even more important when working at home. Consider:

• Waking up and going to bed at a regular time.
• Getting dressed before work (just as you would if you were leaving the house).
• Scheduling your week with periods for work, exercise, meals, rest, and personal/family time.

​This will help create some much-needed stability and focus in a very chaotic and challenging time.

Take breaks
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This is always important—not just when you’re working from home. The Pomodoro Technique is a popular time-management method, for example, that involves using a timer to break work into intervals, usually 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks (for example, 3 - 5 minutes). During the breaks:

• Do some bodyweight exercises.
• Go outside.
• Do some stretches.
• Refill your water.
• Play with your pets.

​Taking breaks helps to release the pressure valve and keep you fresh and productive throughout the day.

Create and maintain boundaries
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When you’re working from home, it’s all too easy for work to simply take over every waking moment (and maybe some sleeping moments too!) of your life. You must establish boundaries between your work and personal life—for your benefit, and your family’s too. This can involve:

• Setting a time to start and end time for work each day.
• Putting away your computer, phone, etc., when you’re not working.
• Communicating with your family about when it is/isn’t okay to interact during the workday.
• Turning off notifications on your phone when you’re not working.
• Doing a digital detox/screen-free day on Sundays.

Eat well
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Again, this is something we ought to be doing no matter where we work. But it’s particularly relevant when working from home because the pantry and refrigerator are always just a few steps away. Establishing set meal times can go a long way toward preventing stress-related overeating. Since you’ll be at home, do your best to make healthy food options convenient and readily available. On the flip side, limit temptations by not having junk food around, or at the very least, create obstacles to accessing it (i.e., out of sight, out of mind).

Go easy on yourself
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Working from home can be a big adjustment if you’re not used to it, and that’s even more true given our current circumstances. You were probably not prepared for this. You may not have a home office or a dedicated workspace. You may have kids at home, rather than at school. The house might feel crowded and not conducive to work. Maybe you’re under a lot of stress with work, facing financial difficulties, or dealing with illness in the family.

Many of us are being stretched in countless ways
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And in a situation like this, it’s important to cut ourselves some slack. It’s okay not to be as productive as you normally are. It’s okay to spend more time with your family. It’s okay to do a little more self-care than you typically do.

And if we allow ourselves to simply go with the flow, we might be surprised at what we discover.  ​