Simple and practical tips to ease your life while you work from home

Working from home is a necessity for many of us now. We have adopted the new lifestyle and are all geared up to ace it. But every coin has both sides to it and here too, as much as working from home is a blessing, it messes up your schedule too. I also work from home and have simply enjoyed my work-life balance until one day the cosmic rays changed their direction and everybody started working from home. I have experimented with some simple and practical tips to ease your life while you work from home. Let me know which one works for you the best.

Divide your days and time while you work from home

This trick actually works and keeps you sane most of the time. I have learnt it from my team members at work. Never say that working from home can be anytime. Strictly follow 5 days a week to work and 2 days to just sleep, eat and enjoy. Of course, there are exceptions but seldom should we break this rule.

This working schedule clearly divides your days and also time. If you purposely sit at your desk from 10 AM to 6 PM then you realize that you have worked fairly enough for the day. Now you can spend the rest of the evening with your family and look after household chores.

Following the above schedule helps you sort your work for the day and you don’t end up doing overtime with fatigue to follow by.

Create a working space and lock yourself

It’s important to create a corner only for work. Set a table chair and do sit at it for the maximum working hours. I understand that the beauty of working from home is to work from any corner of the home. But new places often distract you and you end up wasting your time just gazing outside your window.

Open WhatsApp web for official messages only

The phone is very distracting and for work, we need to open WhatsApp. To solve this problem, my hack is to open the WhatsApp web and communicate only work-related messages. Keep other messages as notifications only. This will remind you that later you have to check those informal messages. Also, don’t dare to reply to any informal message during work hours. You may think it’s just one reply but it often continues to longer conversations. You are driven out of track then.

Create a to-do list or stick-on notes on your laptop

I have put stick-on notes to good use. I always wanted to use them on books and notebooks but couldn’t use them very purposely. But recently, I added them to my laptop as a to-do list.

This keeps me aligned with work and when I take off a sticker after finishing the task, I feel so good! My laptop also looks so colourful in that stick on. Remembering small tasks is very easy but don’t shy away from marking even the smallest of the job to finish.

Strictly follow the rules and forcefully go out and socialize.

Setting rules is interesting and you feel disciplined. But, life is not being robotic and we humans often tend to feel de-motivated. I am following all the above rules of discipline religiously but still, on some days, I feel burnt out. No matter, however, I train my subconscious to feel positive and finish my to-do list of the day, I fail on a few days.

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That’s when I look out for alternatives. I know that I can’t keep on working on the laptop for endless hours. So, I strictly go for morning walks and in the evening I practice Bharatnatyam for 30 mins. My fitness routine also alters according to the situation but I try to continue at least one form of exercise a day. It rejuvenates me. Dancing with my friends online gives me the energy to laugh out the hardships of work.

Also read: Do you yell at your loved ones when you miss going out to nature?

It’s important to converse with people outside your family and work environment. I am an introvert to a large extent but I too feel suffocated sometimes between the same set of people. It’s a trick to look out of the door for a few hours and come back all motivated.

Do you follow any of the above said disciplinary rules?