I have been working from home for almost five months. The company I work for was one of the first ones to implement this back in early March when the fear for the Coronavirus started to really set in.
At first, I thought it was only going to be for a few weeks … two months tops. I do enjoy being at home. I’ve done it a few times a week for the last two years and having a little more flexibility is pretty amazing, but I was never aiming to work from home every single day. I know myself and I felt that after a few weeks of this amazing flexibility it was going to get harder and harder to stay motivated. Knowing that (sadly) things won’t be how they used to be for a long time – if ever – I had to really think of ways to stay motivated.
Some of the things that I did to stay motivated include the following. Pictures included below.
- I have a specific area – that isn’t my room- where I work. I try to limit working on my bed or on the couch. I used to sometimes stay in bed all day and I ended up feeling crappy. Sure, the idea of waking up and staying in bed sounds great (and sometimes it can be) but it might not be the best idea doing it often. I have a little area in my living room. With lots of natural light coming in.
- Comfortable chair. This was a game changer for me. I had a non-ergonomic friendly chair and the constant back and shoulder pains were brutal. I got an affordable one at Ikea and i’m in love with it!
- Blue light glasses. I have two pairs of these. One pair I got from Amazon for about $15 and another pair I got at Walmart for around $50. They both work pretty much the same. Honestly, I can’t really tell just how helpful they are but I like wearing them and they don’t do any harm.
- Ergonomic Keyboard. I never thought I was going to get used to this keyboard. It’s weird looking hauh. You get used to it though and now I like it much better than the regular keyboards. It’s way more comfortable 🙂
- Airpods/headphones. I like to listen to podcasts, Music, or audiobooks whenever I work so these come in handy. Also for online meetings.
- Binder/Notebooks/Planners. I was able to get some helpful documents from work and bring them home. I like keeping them in a binder so I always know where they are. I also bought a notebook with three subjects from Walgreens for $11 that I use as a planner and task checklist to make sure i’m up to date on all my tasks and projects.
- Pink mug. Okay, this one you don’t really need but its cute. I also bought a cute pink mug from Ikea where I like to keep my pens, highlighters etc.
