Enjoying the freedom of working from home is something that many of us have always dreamed off. The comfort of staying in your pjs , the smell and accessibility of fresh coffee and the quite and peace time at home is all intriguing but I wanted to tell you that’s it’s not always that pretty! It’s got its own pros and cons.
Just to give you all a little background about my work life and what led me to writing this blog post. So, I have been working from home for the past 2 yrs. now. It’s been great cause I was pregnant for 9 months of that and then my baby girl was born, so I was happy I didn’t have to leave her and go to work. I hired a full-time nanny at home to take care of her. However, prior to that I always worked from an office. That’s about 9 years or so. So, like you all I always dreamed off a work from home job and the ease of it, but when I actually did start working from home I realized that there are so many aspects that I never really thought about.
So today, I just wanted to share some tips on how to make working from home a happy place . I admit it, the first 6 months I hated it, I felt isolated, I wanted people, I wanted to dress up. But I quickly realized that those feelings are because I was doing it all wrong. I needed to change something!
- If you are a little bit of an extrovert like me, you should plan to step outside at least once a day. Be it a 15-20 min walk or a 30 min run or just simple picking up a salad from outside. Block your calendar for that 30 min to 45 mins to get some fresh air. I mostly go workout. This is absolutely essential, because I was really not doing this. ‘I am working from home and a break is really not fair’ but that’s not true at all. We take all the coffee breaks, lunch breaks, chatting with colleague breaks at work so why not at home.
- Don’t get tangled in chores throughout the day. It just simply exhausts you. Try to keep the house chores like laundry, cooking, washing etc. after work. I like to keep my mind free of all those things during work because I was really not good at multitasking in my mind. I want to end a meeting or start a meeting not thinking I need to keep a check on the stove or keep track of what’s baking.. unless it’s a slow cooker.
- Get ready! It doesn’t mean to wear makeup and work clothes. But it just means to get out of your pj’s and wear something else. I wear my workout clothes. That just keeps me motivated to work out that day! But what you wear definitely makes a difference in your attitude that day. The days I wear pj’s all day long, I feel sluggish. So yes get ready….whatever ready means to you!
- Create an office space for yourself. I really feel if you work from home it’s important to have an assigned space for yourself. Be it a small corner in your bedroom or an office room it’s a space you can focus without distractions. The first things I did when I started my WFH job was to create this space that gives me energy.
- Fresh flowers or an orchid makes me happy! So I always keep something that live in my office! I don’t have a green thumb so they all eventually die…but I try! 🙂
- Setup lunch dates with friends once in a while. We all need to hang out with friends!
The above are just tips I feel I had to share with you guys that have helped keep my sanity when working from home. I know I don’t abide by all of them 100% , but I try my best when I can.
If you have any tips that you use , that has made you embrace your work from home life, please share! I would love to learn more…