Feeling tired, overwhelmed and a little (or quite a lot) unfocused at the moment? You are not alone!
With so many of us still working from home, I keep hearing the same comments from my clients, “I’m so tired and I haven’t even been anywhere”, “it’s so hard to focus”, “my sleep is rubbish” , “I am struggling to prepare meals, so just snacking instead”. Anything sound familiar?
There’s dozens of reasons for feeling this way right now, and also dozens of solutions it seems on various blogs like this, social media and webinars. So if you’re wondering where to start, I thought I would bring it right back down to the basics needs, the stuff that doesn’t require lots of effort, but it’s the stuff that can really pay you back positively – IF you choose to do it.
Here’s goes, my top 5:
👔1. Get dressed. This helps to get us in the right mindset, you don’t have to rock up to your home office suited and booted (although you can, if it helps), but just feeling shower fresh and in new clothes for the day kick starts the motivation. Do this as early as you can.
☀️ 2. Get out into direct sunlight. If you still can leave the house, then do it, if you do need to stay indoors then open, sit close to a window, have your morning cup of tea there and spend as much time as feasible sitting close to natural direct light. If you can move your desk/table/chair to be closer to natural light whilst working. The morning exposure to light is particularly important for our energy, brain chemistry and to set our daily rhythm (circadian rhythm), this will also support your sleep later on
🥘 3. Stop to take lunch. No eating at your laptop or on the phone, you have the luxury of being at home with a fridge, a kitchen and it’s all close by. Sit at a table, eat, take a break and enjoy the food. This break in the middle of the day makes a huge difference to how your body metabolises food and creates the energy you need from it. It’s not just what you eat, it’s the way you eat it! Believe me, I wrote a whole chapter about in my book Work Fuel. It’s science, not my opinion. It will help to curb the snacking, boost focus and also hopefully stop that slump at 3pm, it may even have a knock on effect to your sleep quality too. What other single act can you name that would have so many of these benefits?
📝 4. Schedule breaks and move. Breaks don’t happen by chance, they happen by choice. If they are not in the diary they generally don’t happen. In an office you would have more prompts to take a break – a colleague comes over to chat, you see other people perhaps taking a break or someone invites you for coffee, etc, etc. So, at home create these natural movement opportunities for yourself, by adding a reminder or agreeing with a friend to a do walk and talk at 10am, maybe do a quick @youtube video, or even just a virtual coffee. Make the tech work for you, not the other way around. Oh and sleep….yep this will help that too, can you see a trend?
⏰ 5. Set a home time (finish work!). It’s easy when you don’t have to get home, to just carry on working. But not only is your best work potentially long behind you, it’s likely to mean you haven’t eaten, drank or moved for hours. Set a time, stick to it and close up your desk like you would in an office. Maybe even take a walk outside and do a pretend commute to mark the finish of the day. The more you make this part of your day the better, the better for all 5 of these in fact. How many did you manage so far today? Which one can you do right now?
😃 What are you doing that’s helping you to work from home? I would love to hear or see, please share