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Work From Home Habits
Working from home seems to be the dream come true for many employees, and indeed it is. Because if you consider all the benefits, remote working is a luxury. You don’t waste time commuting, you spend more time at home, you have a flexible schedule and you can stay all day long in comfy clothes. But you also sit all day long, work next to the fridge and most likely mix your professional and personal responsibilities. So that’s the other, less exciting side of remote working that can lead to procrastination, lack of motivation, and various health problems.
To help you avoid that, today I’m sharing 10 absolutely awesome work-from-home habits that will maximize your productivity levels and help you maintain good health!
So let’s dive in!
Habit 1: Start The Day On A Positive Note
The temptation to check your phone first thing in the morning is real, especially if you use your smartphone as an alarm clock. When the alarm rings you grab your phone to turn it off and then you end up checking your emails, messages, breaking news for the other side of the globe, and of course, social media profiles for about half an hour.
It may not seem like a big deal but by checking your phone when you wake up to catch up with other people’s lives, ideas, lifestyle choices, drama or nonsense you rob yourself of your own creative potential, greater success, and happiness.
The magic of the early morning is strong, yet so many people never take advantage of it. The first 20 minutes after you wake up determines whether or not your day will be successful, productive, and exciting. But if you give your full attention to other people’s lives instead of fueling self-focused behaviors you’re missing your chance of reaching your full potential.
So if you want to set yourself up for a successful day use your mornings wisely. Start your day with a positive morning ritual that feeds your soul, puts you in an instant good mood, and boosts your energy levels. Need some inspiration? Here are my absolute favourite morning rituals to boost mood, energy levels, and focus:
- mindfulness meditation
- gratitude journal
- self-reflective journal
- positive affirmations
- visualisation practice
- stretch
- morning walk
- ice-cold shower
- morning cardio
- coffee!
Habit 2: Have A Morning Routine
Morning and evening routine are the keys to success in creating a healthy work-life balance. They guide you through the day in a planned and well-organized way. They help you to manage your time effectively, simplify your decision-making process and get things done on time and well without sacrificing your wellbeing. They help you to maintain high standards and a healthy work-life balance so much needed for leading a fulfilling life.
But perhaps the greatest advantage of having a morning and night routine is that it strengthens your self-discipline muscle without you even noticed that. Because while developing a routine requires time, effort, and making conscious decisions, once it is formed it becomes an automatic behavior. And that automatic behavior is what helps you to stay on track with your goals. Not to mention if you manage to create a healthy and balanced daily routine a work-life blur won’t be an issue.
Habit 3: Plan Your Day In Advance
The secret to a better work-life balance while working remotely is to plan everything in advance. This simple strategy will make you confident that you’re focusing on the right things instead of falling into the urgency trap, or even worse, the trap of procrastination. Not to mention that, if you plan your day according to The Rule of 3 you can be sure that you have enough time for family and friends, “me time”, exercise and hobbies or even side hustle.
Success is determined by your daily agenda. So instead of waiting for things to happen, take a proactive approach and plan out your work week, day by day, in advance. Take some time on Friday evening or Saturday morning to make an effective schedule for the upcoming week.
When planning your week do not rely on your memory. Instead write down everything you need to accomplish in a new document (Google calendar, Outlook), on your phone or on a piece of paper to make sure you will not forget about any of the tasks. Then prioritize your tasks and set deadlines for each of them. Don’t overschedule. Be rational and always negotiate with yourself. Do not be your own tyrant. Design your ideal week and set yourself for success.
Habit 4: Have a Daily Planning Method
Having a planning method that works for you is crucial if you want to maximize your time, set the right goals, and focus on the things that pay you most instead of making everything your top priority.
There are many different apps, tools, and powerful methods available that you can use to get organized and make your productivity skyrocket. However, it’s important to remember that just because some method is extremely popular and loved by many it does not mean that it will fit your expectations and personal preference. That’s why you should choose the ones that will work best for you. At least is what I always do.
For instance, there is this new method to organize your thoughts, time and life called a bullet journal. Personally, I find this tool inspiring, fun, and very creative but it just does not fit my personal preferences. I find this journaling system is excessively cumbersome and time-consuming. And considering the fact that you get the results by taking action, not by endless planning, I always choose the simplest options. My favorites are Google Calendar, Notion, Asana and of course Trello. You can try those ones or look for others that will suit you better.
Best Productivity Apps In 2021
- Asana work management here
- Notion the all-in-one workspace here
- Trello - project management app here
- Any.do - get seriously organized here
- Todoist - task management software here
- FocusList iOS / Android - productivity app that helps you get more DEEP work done
- Y Productive here
- TickTick: ToDo List Planner, Reminder & Calendar (Android / iOS)
- Hours - Time Tracking App Online here
- Toggl - Free Time Tracking Software here
- RescueTime: Fully Automated Time Tracking Software here
- Google Calendar
Work From Home Productively Workbook
Habit 4: Set The Right Priorities & Simplify Your Tasks
Mastering the art of making things much more complex than they ever need to be is something we all do, even if we do it unconsciously. We overthink, over-analyze, and overcomplicate pretty much everything as if simplicity was a bad thing. When it’s completely the opposite. Only by simplifying and prioritizing your tasks, activities, and ideas, you will boost your motivation, develop laser-like focus and increase your chances of success.
“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.” Even though this famous quote from Albert Einstein was closely referred to the science, it works well in pretty much every sphere of life. Because by simplifying your tasks you avoid confusion, boost your mental focus and increase your efficiency. And isn’t that exactly what we need to make progress in life?
So if you want to improve your workflow and maximize your productivity levels without reducing sleep hours, you should start to develop a habit of simplifying and prioritizing your tasks. Make everything as simple as possible and get the work that matters done first.
Habit 6: Batch Similar Tasks Together
According to a University of California Irvine study, “it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back to the task.” That’s an awfully long time to switch your brain into productivity mode again. Not to mention that waiting instead of doing is one of the main triggers for procrastinating. And once you fall into the trap of procrastination, a momentary lapse of self-control can snowball into hours and hours of wasted time. So just don’t take any chances.
To avoid procrastination and stay focused on your professional tasks when you work from home you need a strategy to create momentum. From my personal experience, one of the best methods to achieve that state is to group similar tasks together and doing them all at once. Trust me, it works wonders for both pleasant and extremely boring tasks.
Batching similar tasks together such as responding to emails, making important phone calls, doing meetings, doing errands, or getting administrative work done is exactly what you need to develop laser-like focus and increase your efficiency at work.
Prioritize & Simplify Free Worksheets
Habit 7: Have A Midday Reset To Reboot Energy
The mid-afternoon slump is perfectly normal, natural and pretty common. But it doesn’t mean that you should give in to it and fall into procrastination-purgatory mode. Because that would only increase your feelings of fatigue, sluggishness, feeling run down. Not to mention that the tasks on your to-do list will not just disappear only because your cognitive capacity is significantly reduced and you feel disinterested in everything. But with the right plan in place, it doesn’t have to be this way.
There are many different ways you can beat the afternoon fatigue and shift into action mode again and one of them is movement. So if you feel a sudden attack of sleepiness in the afternoon and you cannot control your sugar cravings, it means that you need midday to refresh your mind and reboot your energy – in other words, you need an active break.
There’s a tendency to think that taking frequent work breaks ruins workflow and triggers procrastination. When in fact, the opposite is true. Several studies have shown that taking regular breaks at work is a powerful strategy for increasing self-motivation, boosting productivity levels and accelerating your results.
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Habit 8: Plan Your Meals Ahead
The next life-changing tip to stay healthy and productive while working from home is to plan your meals in advance. Because healthy and nutritious meals don’t just happen. Unless you are extremely self-disciplined and both your fridge and pantry are stocked with only healthy options. But even if that’s your case you still need to decide on what to eat and then prepare your meal. And we all know that this whole decision-making process can take hours.
To avoid standing in front of the fridge and deciding what to eat every single time when you’re hungry you should develop a habit of planning and preparing your meals in advance. That simple practise will not only help you to follow a nutritious diet but also saves lots of money, especially if you’re slowly becoming addicted to Uber Eats.
Healthy Meal Planning Worksheets
Habit 9: Move Your Body
Physical activity is one of the best ways to accelerate your mental performance, enhance your thinking skills and boost your motivation. It happens because during the exercise your blood pressure and blood flow increase in the entire body, including the brain. As a result, you become more alert, attentive and focused during the day.
Another great benefit of being physically active during the day is that physical movement stimulates the release of dopamine, norepinephrine, serotonin and endorphins. These neurotransmitters, also known as “happy hormones” are directly responsible for your mood. So if you want to boost your energy levels, improve your overall sense of happiness and fulfilment during the day you should incorporate a little bit of physical activity into your schedule.
However, if you’re not into high-intensity workouts, don’t force yourself to do it. Opt for low-impact physical activity such as walk, stretch or even do a little dance to your favourite uplifting song.
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Habit 10: Set Clear Work-Life Boundaries
Without a doubt working from home offers many advantages compared to working from the office. First of all, you don’t waste time commuting, which can be quite stressful especially if you live in a crowded city where the traffic is an absolute nightmare. Second, you have a flexible schedule what makes you more in control of your time, work and day. And third, we can create a work environment that stimulates your creative and productive thinking. Not to mention that you can wear comfortable clothes like a T-shirt and sweatpants. And who doesn’t love that?! I certainly do!
However, there are also some disadvantages of working from home, such as the risk of blurring the boundaries between work and life. And when work-life blur becomes a real issue for you, your physical health and mental wellbeing and family life will be affected. To prevent that from occurring, you need to learn to balance productivity and happiness, have a regular start and finish time and avoid mixing personal and professional responsibilities.
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- How To Upgrade Your Life For Maximum Results & Happiness
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- Discover 10 simple ways to train your self-discipline muscle
- Use best time management apps to keep you on schedule at work
- Organize your day around your goals
- Use the Eisenhower Box to identify your top priorities and avoid the urgency trap
- Create and maintain a powerful morning routine
- Develop morning rituals to make your motivation flow effortlessly
- Create motivation through action
- Start before you are ready
- Improve your decision-making process
- Overcome your self-limiting beliefs that block your progress
- Balance productivity and happiness
- Cultivate self-care routine
- The 3 x 8 rule for Perfectly Balanced Day & Life
- Create rituals to induce a flow state
Stay positive, be mindful and develop powerful habits to stay productive and healthy while working from home
xo Kate
