Three Steps To Staying Sane While Working At Home

For some people working from home seemed like it would be fun at first. The idea of being able to work in your residence wearing legging seemed like it would be less stressful and be more freeing than sitting in your office all day.

I generally work remotely, so I understand the feeling, I even might have thought the same way for a few days, but it’s honestly the worst. From everyone, I speak to the luster and sparkle of being able to work outside the office has pretty much worn off. And it’s also an increasingly scary world out there with a global pandemic that’s raging, so everything is pretty stressful.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve had to adjust to being stuck in my apartment, and as anyone who knows me will tell you, I’ve been a bit grumpy about it. I had to have WIFI installed, actually stock food in my fridge, and the feeling of isolation has set in and has been less than stellar. I have, though, come up with a few strategies that have helped make this extended self-quarantine just a little bit easier, and I thought I’d share those tips and tricks with our readers.

3 Helpful Habits

So here are a few ways to make staying at home easier during the COVID-19 pandemic:

• Have a detailed daily and weekly menu of meals: This is important for so many reasons, one of them being that while people are allowed to go out and buy essentials during this pandemic, it’s best to minimize excursions as much as possible. Knowing exactly what you and your family will be eating will allow you to purchase accordingly and will cut down on both exposure time in the grocery store but also stress. Have fun with this! Be creative, so you don’t get bored and make sure you are preparing healthy, nutritious meals to boost immunity.
• Have a daily exercise routine: Everybody knows that exercise is essential, and its impact on stress and mental health. This becomes especially important during this crisis when there is little opportunity for other outlets of stress relief, and going to the gym is impossible. Having a daily routine that includes an exercise practice will help with the stress that seems to be an ever-present fixture in everyone’s lives right now. This can be both useful and fun, and there are several brands like Peloton and PopSugar Fitness offering free virtual fitness classes to help people stay fit during this pandemic.
• Make sure to take breaks throughout the day: It may feel like because you are working from home, you should be working all day and all night to get everything done. Time may seem to have wholly disappeared, but that doesn’t mean that it has. Make sure to have specific times where you are working, times where you will be taking breaks, and having a set time where you put away your computer (at least for a little while) and do not forget to eat lunch. It’s imperative to maintain a sense of normalcy throughout all of this, even though it’s such a crazy time.

These three things have helped me maintain some sense of normalcy throughout the last two weeks, and I hope they help you a bit as you figure out how to navigate this new reality. I hope everybody is practicing careful social distancing, staying safe at home, and feeling okay. It’s a terrifying world out there, and it’s crucial to take the government guidelines seriously and take all necessary precautions to ensure we flatten the curve and come out of this chaos as safe as possible.