12 Ways to Stay Sane When Working From Home

Working from home ideas and tips:

1. Get up, get dressed, get going. Doing as you would on any normal day will help you treat each day as a little bit more ‘normal’.

2. Set regular hours, and stick to the schedule. Keeping a structure and order to your life helps to make the day seem short and keep you productive.

3. Create a routine e.g. Exercise at 7 AM, Breakfast at 8 AM, start work at 9 AM, etc.

4. Separate work from home. Having dedicated spaces helps you to keep your work life separate from work and helping you continue some normalcy.

5. Set regular hours, and stick to the schedule. Keeping a structure and order to your life as well as imitating your previous working. Keeping your day consistent and defined as a workday can help you enjoy those 'weekends' and 'days off' properly.

6. 20,20,20 every twenty minutes look at something 20 meters away for 20 seconds. Reduce the strain on your eyes, it is very easy to get sucked into what you are doing when no colleagues are around to distract you.

7. Keep Tidy. A tidy desk means a tidy mind… Or it will help you waste a few minutes in the morning before getting to business!

8. Three lists of three. A simple but effective method - The first list has three things you will do today. The second is three things you’d like to get done but aren’t essential. The third is three things that need to be done at some point. That way, when you’ve gotten through your days’ work, you don’t end up sitting twiddling your thumbs. Lists are always handy, keeps you on track.

9. Have a good chair. A simple one but extremely important. Anywhere that you will be spending the majority of the day needs to be supportive and comfortable.

10. Give yourself breaks. As you would normally in an office, you should get up and make yourself a hot drink or walk over to the window for a minute or two, give your brain a rest.

11. Team Chat (Not Just for Work). Make sure you are communicating and keeping social, even if it's just a text here and there or an email to check up on a colleague. This may be more beneficial for the other person than you know as some people can struggle a lot more in isolation.

12. Exercise - pick something you enjoy; if you hate running, why force yourself to run? You’ll be less likely to keep it consistent if you don’t look forward to it.

13. Family Time. Again, it is very easy to get focused on some spreadsheet and you miss out on valuable family time. Make sure you take the time to stop and have conversations or quality time with those you care about. Staying happy and motivated at this time is crucial and your loved ones can help you with this.

Most of all, don’t put too much pressure on yourselves. Some of these tips will work for some but maybe not all. This is a stressful time and its okay to be a little bit scared, what is important is staying connected and safe through this time.