Work from home is the buzzword now because of the coronavirus pandemic.

This is one of the good things the virus gave to us. We were always expecting to stay out of the monotonous office environment.

Although it seems that working from home is straightforward, there are a few things that you need to pay attention to.

These simple steps will help you stay healthy. They also enable work-life balance.

1. Plan and organize your day

You need to have clearly defined work hours when you work from home. Often, your work and home life’s boundaries tend to merge. To avoid this, you need to have a plan. Working without a plan is dangerous.

Even for a small thing, it is better to make a plan. When you are planning, it is better if you can do it the previous day or night. So, you are aware of the next day. All your work may not be able to plan on the last day.

When working for an organization, you must attend to unplanned work often. What is needed is that you have to be ready for this emergency work also.

The next thing is you must stick to your plan. Your work schedule needs to include time to serve yourself for a short break and time to have meals. This plan assists you in avoiding dragging your work into the night. When this happens, it destroys your work-life balance. It is not suitable for our health when you stay late at night.

Prioritization of work is another aspect you need to think of. Most challenging work needs to be planned when you have more energy, usually in the morning. When doing things, most hard jobs need to be done first; keep this in mind – “when you have to eat a frog, eat it in the morning.” And “if you have to eat two frogs, eat the bigger one first.” Read more about procrastination from here.

So, spending a few minutes planning gains you more than you think.

2. Set up a home office

Even if you live in an apartment, you must separate physical space to do your office work. Sometimes, this seems to be a bizarre idea, but this will increase your productivity. And it helps to separate your home life from office life.

Think of the ergonomically. Your chair needs to be comfortable, height-adjustable and rotating. Space shall be to be appropriately lit. Arrange it near a window… what a great idea, to enjoy the surroundings while working. You will get in touch with the environment if you commute to work. So, arranging your workplace like this will help to capture some of the interaction with the surroundings.

Another good thing is that having a separate location or home office will give you the impression of getting into and off the office. So, you are mentally prepared for working when getting into the home office and feel set off when you leave that space.

Making a home office an excellent way to balance your work and life.

3. Allocate time for meal prep to avoid unhealthy foods

When working from home, it is equally important to think about health.

We can do so many things, and some tips are discussed here, too. When at home, we are free. So, we tend to eat more; it has been shown that most of us eat unhealthy snacks regularly while working at home.

The key to eating healthy at home is to have a stock of healthy foods in your kitchen. So whenever you feel about eating something, you eat healthy foodstuffs and must allocate time for meal prep, including snacks.

4. Take a break and have a short nap

Rest is of so much significance, especially for those who do professional work from home, which is mentally demanding. You can have short intervals from your work for yourself. When you plan your day, pay attention to these resting times also. So, you can make provisions for it without affecting the flow of your work.

• You can have a nap for about 10 minutes, especially after lunch. This will supercharge you, and your productivity will go up.
• Whenever your back is paining, it’s time to take a short break to stretch out. You can also take a short walk around the house to breathe fresh air.
• You can do push-ups in between your work. You only need to squeeze at least 10 minutes after every 2 hours of work to do push-ups.
• You also can get out and play with your kids or pets in the yard. You can take your kids to the yard during your planned breaks and play outdoor games, even briefly, before returning to work. Apart from your fitness, 15 – 30 minutes of playtime with your kids does miracles for your family relationships.
• You can also carry your pet out for a stroll if you have one. Walking is a good exercise; you should always do it often to stay healthy and fit.

5. Socialized to catch up with co-workers and friends

We interact with our friends and other people at the office. You can no longer have these companions when you start working from home.

Thanks to technology, now there are several social media platforms to keep in contact with friends. You chat with your co-workers and check how things are going on. When you are bored, one of the best ways is to chat over social media with a co-worker or a friend.

The Bottom Line

The best part about working from home is setting your own hours.

You don’t have to get up or leave early to go into an office so that you can spend more time with friends and family.

Working from home also gives you the freedom to work whenever you want. You could even work on weekends if that works best for you.