10 Ways to Stay Sane and Productive During a Global Pandemic

It’s no secret that the world has turned into a different place over the past few weeks. Even if you’ve been living under a rock, someone has likely come by to let you know that you should probably stay under that rock due to the Coronavirus. The global pandemic has upended many people’s lives, and lots of us who are used to driving or taking the train to the office have found ourselves having to work from home. Turning the place where you sleep, eat, and binge Netflix into the place where you also have to do your job can be disorienting, but you don’t have to go it alone. Here are 10 ways you can achieve a good work-life balance when your home suddenly becomes your workplace.

1. Ease Into It: Not having to clock in means that you can approach your day in a somewhat more relaxed way. Allowing yourself to ease into wakefulness will center you and make you more attentive and prepared for the work ahead. Take some time to savor your first cup of coffee instead of chugging it, and soak in the first few pages of a book you’ve been meaning to get around to before you hop over to your computer.
2. Stick to a Schedule: If you have a report you need to get to your boss, give yourself benchmarks like reaching a certain word count by a particular time of day. And if you find yourself sitting down too much, mentally mark a place on the clock to let yourself know it’s time to get up and stretch for a few minutes. Making sure your day has checkpoints like this allows you to produce work in a measured and efficient way.
3. Maintain Your Routine: Don’t take the fact that you don’t need to go out in public as an excuse to be a slob. It might seem like a luxury to be able to get to do your work in your PJs at first, but anyone who works from home consistently will tell you that staying in your bed clothes or not shaving the whole day will exacerbate your feelings of cabin fever. Making your bed and changing into proper clothes like you always do will help you to ground yourself in the long run.
4. Go Outside: You may be socially isolating, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to get a little sun to stay healthy. Visit your yard or walk out to your stairway every so often to remind yourself that the outside world is still there, and get a little Vitamin D in the process!
5. Keep Work Time and Break Time Separate: Don’t mess around on Twitter when you’re supposed to be filling out a spreadsheet, and by the same token don’t be running to your laptop to check for spelling errors in your progress report in the middle of an episode of Narcos. Making sure your work and leisure time are as quarantined from each other as you are from the local bus stop will help you keep your sanity and make the day flow more naturally.
6. Stay in Touch with Friends and Coworkers: If you have questions for your boss or your workmate, send them an email or, better yet, give them a call! No matter how much you can handle by yourself, you’re bound to need help at some point, and besides, all of us are social animals. Keeping in contact with other people will do a lot for making self-isolation feel a little less, well, isolating!
7. Eat Healthy: You’ll probably have to break quarantine to make a trip to the grocery store at some point, and when you do, make sure you minimize the amount of snacks you pick up and prioritize stocking fresh fruits and vegetables. It might be tempting to blow your grocery bill on ice cream and Dortios for comfort food, but your body will thank you in the long run if you focus on produce. This isn’t only a good idea for helping you to focus on your work, it will boost your immune system and hopefully play a small role in helping this whole thing reach its conclusion that much quicker!
8. Keep the End in Mind: Remember that while self-isolating might feel like a gigantic pain right now, it’s still only a temporary measure, and things will go back to something resembling “normal” soon enough. Keeping in mind that there is a light at the end of the tunnel will make it easier for you to plow through those days when you just don’t feel like doing your work. And hey, that makes for a pretty good segue into our next point:
9. Limit Your Exposure to the Info-Feed: These are weird, stressful times, and the constant bombardment of bad news can drive you out of your skull and make you feel paralyzed. Staying informed is one thing, but if you find yourself facing down an anxiety attack every time you check your news feed it might be a good idea to close some of your tabs and refocus on the task at hand. Sometimes devoting your nervous energy to your workload can make for a strangely excellent form of therapy.
10. Take it Easy on Yourself: Finally, it’s important to remember that you’re going through a new experience with this work-from-home thing with a lot of other people right now. If you find yourself overworking, underworking, or just plain stressing out over your new situation, take a moment to recenter yourself and dedicate a touch of energy to solving your issue in a rational way. Breathe, think, then act!

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