With the global pandemic spreading around the world, most of us are forced to work from home. Some employees love the idea, some people don’t. Some companies are glad, some, well, not so much.

No matter if you’re for it or against it, we all have to prepare ourselves for working outside the office. Believe it or not, most people thought it would be easy, but after a couple of weeks of working away from the office, most of their productivity levels are down. It’s understandable. An office is a place we go to for work. Our home is where we go to for relaxing. The clashing of these two environments is bound to confuse and affect us.

Today, we are going to talk about ways to make us adapt better and work more effectively.

Dress for Success

Dressing up in the office makes us feel ready for anything. It’s our natural response to being clothed appropriately. At home, the need to dress up disappears, which means it’s tempting to stay in our pajamas the whole day especially if we are living alone. Not dressing up for work even when you’re at home may be the first mistake of the day.

Dressing up at home for work establishes a routine. It gives the mind a signal that it’s time to switch from rest mode to work mode. It gives the mind a sense of normalcy. The global pandemic annihilated the definition of normal. With a proper routine, it gives us our power back. It gives us the ability to control what is within our power.

Dressing up for work at home keeps us focused and productive. Being dressed up fights the temptation to go back to bed or slouch on the couch. Being in pajamas all day makes it difficult to switch to work mode. Dressing up maintains the all-important boundaries between home and work. There are many things you wouldn’t do in the office, dressing up keeps it that way.

“Dressing up makes me feel ready for work,” says Pipa from Boston. “It gives me an armor to fight off the temptation to go back to bed and get a quick nap.”

Follow a Timetable

Start each day by writing down the things you must accomplish. Give each task ample time, and give yourself breaks in between. Go over the schedule in your head and set your expectations for the day. This will align your body and mind which will make it easier for you to enter work mode.

Make sure you don’t read social media updates. It’s also a bad idea to read the news at the beginning of the day. Don’t answer yet to any messages in your inbox unless it’s an emergency.

Before you begin your day, meditate. Imagine yourself doing all the things on your timetable. By doing this, your tasks will seem easier to accomplish because your body and mind are in sync.

Before working, try to eat some food. It’s the perfect time to get all the energy you can get for the day ahead.

Prioritize the major tasks. Make sure you finish them as early as possible. Set that less important task for the second half of your day.

Never forget to take breaks in between your tasks. No matter how tempting it could be. You need time to relax and recharge.

Prepare a Workspace

Create a workspace. Your workplace is crucial in making sure that you can be productive. Your workplace must be a place where you can step away from the homely atmosphere and enter an area where you can work.

Your workplace need not be an entire room. It can be an area around the house where you can work in peace. No matter where your workplace is, just make sure it’s distraction-free.

Your workplace must have a proper desk with the perfect height. Using a desk with the wrong height might give you physical pain after a day’s work. Flexispot’s Adjustable Standing Desk Pro Series is the perfect solution. It can work both as a traditional desk and a standing desk.

Your office chair must also be ergonomic. Using ordinary office chairs will do you no good. Your chair must be able to support your body while working to prevent lower back pains and stiffness on the shoulders and neck.

Working means doing your job while taking care of your body.

Remove from your desk anything that might distract you from work. Make it clutter-free and extremely minimalistic so you can focus on the work at hand.

Prepare for Distractions

Employers around the world are hesitant to send their employees home. In the office, it’s quite easy to monitor people. At home? It’s a different ballgame. Internet is the reason why so many companies and corporations are surviving during the global pandemic. Without the internet, so many of us wouldn’t be able to work at home. But the internet is also the source of all major distractions when working. In the office, this is prevented by the IT department. At home, well, it’s not that easy.

With just a click of a button, anyone can access social media sites designed to keep its users glued to their screens. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have algorithms designed to keep their audience interested so they would keep scrolling for hours.

Employers are aware of this and the fact that there is virtually no way for them to stop these distractions.

So, it’s really up to you. Yes, you. If you want to keep the job done, if you want to be productive, then it’s up to you to decide. You must decide to not be distracted. Keep your head focused on the list of tasks. When done, of course you are free to do whatever you like. 

It’s all about preparation. Setting your expectation is the key to never losing focus. Work is 90% mental preparation. Failure to prepare is preparing to fail. So, go ahead and start anew tomorrow. Good luck!