Healthy work from home 101

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The topic in trend these days is the corona-virus outbreak and as a prevention measure you may have heard the term- Work from home

In absence of a vaccine, the best preventive measure suggested is social distancing which includes:

  1. Staying at home unless there is an absolute need to step out
  2. Shutting down offices and schools
  3. Closing restaurants and pubs
  4. Minimizing public transport and gatherings at public spaces
  5. Avoiding physical interaction as much as possible
  6. Work from home
work from home

The first day of work from home was pretty bad because my entire routine got messed up. I am the sort of person who performs best while following a certain routine. Research also suggests the same specially for people who struggle with mental health. A routine literally means sleeping, waking up, exercising, eating, reading, playing and working at the same time every single day. Regardless if its a weekday or a weekend, consistency is a must.

One thing I am specifically proud of us that I journal each and every day, first thing in the morning. Journaling is more like self therapy for me and its recommended to be done in pen and paper, if you want to have an idea how I go about it, please follow the link: https://reasonstolivefor.com/self-therapy-session-1/

Given the situation, I decided to fix my routine starting today. To start with, I slept on time last night around 10:30 pm and woke up around 5:30 am in the morning. Had a quick breakfast and headed to my rooftop with a book: Short Cuts to Happiness: Life-Changing Lessons from My Barber. Its a good read; I walked for around 20 minutes as well. I just want to utilize my time in the best possible manner by doing productive things and not just wasting time playing games and watching movies.

I have always been interested in learning more and more about how google ads work so I enrolled myself in an online course on Search Engine Optimization on Udemy. By the way guys, this is such a great avenue for learning and that too for FREE! So regardless of whatever your interest, I would strongly recommend doing these online courses in your free time.

The early morning time is the only time in the entire day that is free from all distractions: no phone buzzing, no notifications on social media and no noise. It has been around 6 months now that I have tried waking up early on most, if not all days.

Next, I was just remembering the time when I used to post on my blog almost daily. I miss that time because writing about your thoughts makes you feel better. Although I do journal everyday but I miss the blogging community. Sharing my personal experiences with everyone and in-turn learning from theirs. So I have decided that this is something I want to get back at, although I might be doing it weekly to start with but I will make sure that my posts are well researched and they have some valuable learning for readers.

Another thing I was missing on while staying at home was listening to podcasts. While commute to work or gym, I would consider my car being a knowledge source as I would play podcasts of my interest. These included self help and development. Now that I am not travelling anymore, I dedicated some time for it in my day routine.

All this work pretty much takes up my morning. After which I have my lunch and then engage in some leisure activities that include play station games, netflix and movies. I don’t know when this situation will improve. I pray its sooner than later because there is only so much we can do while being with ourselves. Human beings have the innate quality of being social. we crave conversations and interactions, although some of us may deny it but that’s just how it is. I pray for all my readers, friends and family. May we all be safe and fight this together!

I would love to know about all of your routines with reference to social distancing and work from home so do let me know in comments below! If you want to learn more about work from home you can follow this article from BBC: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200312-coronavirus-covid-19-update-work-from-home-in-a-pandemic

4 Comments

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  • I am someone who has to have routine! I go a bit nuts without it. With all of this going on, my whole entire routine or literally my whole world as I know it is different. We don’t go to the store when we normally would, we don’t have the same work hours, and this throws off my morning routine with my vitamins, and the kids are home ALL OF THE TIME etc… I am all out of whack, and I don’t like it. Although, trying as best I can to adapt.

  • It’s been four weeks since I decided to do the 100% self-isolation and since the first day I tried to take a full advantage out of it. In the beginning that meant reading three books, more frequent walks outside (I’m currently not situated in the city), attending the live seminars on FB, YouTube etc. And after two weeks I started to work on project. To do things by myself at home has never been an issue for me actually. I could maybe even say, that that’s the kind of lifestyle I like.
    And about not being able to hang out with people and friends: I started to use the social platforms to reach out to the inspiring people like you and after just two weeks I found so many. I realized that if this corona thing wouldn’t happen, I would maybe never get to meet you and many others. So, even tho I don’t have a physical company of people, I’m working on developing precious, valuable relationships using social platforms. Moreover, I’m starting to realize, that it’s this kind of people that I need to surround myself after the situation calms down.

    • You’ve spoken the absolute truth. This ‘pause’ gave me time to think about everything. Whenever I come across amazing individuals like you, I add a goal in my bucket list to meet them in person. Idk when or how that’s going to happen but I know, it will ?