12 Ways To Maintain Your Stay At Home/Work From Home Sanity

I don't know about you, but I have never been at home this much in all my life. Don't get me wrong, I am welcoming the much slower pace, and the additional time to spend on things that always fall to the bottom of my to do list. However, it's also a complete lifestyle change; a transition that's taking some extra time and effort to figure out how to navigate without going crazy.

Last week when I asked on stories what you'd be most interested in this week, I got an overwhelming response to "how to stay sane while being at home". So, I'm here to share 12 ways that have helped saved my sanity the last couple of weeks!

• Open your blinds when you wake up! Having natural light throughout our house does wonders for my mood!

• Open your doors and windows when you can! It's finally started getting warmer here in KC, so being able to have fresh air flow through your house can make a world of difference when you're home all day.

• Take your laptop/work outside when you can! I have started working from our back porch in the afternoon and it has been amazing. It gives me something to look forward to while I work in the morning and it changes up the scenery for half the day!

• Put fresh wallflowers/scent plug ins in. Having your workspace/house smell fresh and clean helps so much. I'm a creature of habit and always order the same scent plug ins, but I decided to order a new scent for spring and it's been so nice to change things up! I'm linking our new wallflowers here!

• Take two walk breaks per day! I try to walk for 15-20 minutes twice a day. It helps break up your day, gives you something to look forward to, keeps you moving, and I always come back to whatever I'm working on feeling more refreshed!
  • Tip: take your pets with you when you can! Tiring Poppy out twice a day makes for a much more productive work day for Taylor and I!

• Spend 10 minutes each night/each morning cleaning your house. You'd be surprised at what you can do in 10 minutes, and I always feel better when my house is clean first thing in the morning!

• Make a to do list for each day! I have been using this to do list and I absolutely love it. It has a schedule box, a list of priorities for the day, meal section, water goal section, and a to do list. This has helped me focus on each day, not so much long term, and I've been so much more productive since I've started using it. I fill it out for the next day, each night. That way it’s ready to go the next morning!

• Keep a good playlist going while you work/during the day! We keep our JBL speaker on throughout the day so we're not sitting in silence. I think it helps our WFH morale a lot.

• Give yourself one thing to look forward to each night. It could be a zoom call with your friends, a glass of wine and your favorite netflix show, a face mask, a fresh coat of self tanner, takeout, a game night with your significant other, anything. Schedule it in your day like you'd schedule anything else! Before COVID-19, I thrived one a busy schedule, one where we had something almost every night of the week. As much as I love not having commitments each night of the week, I miss the business, so this helps make life seem a little more normal to me.

• Choose one small project each day; just something constructive to work on! Today I cleaned all of our stainless steel appliances. Yesterday I polished the floor in our office. They both took less than 5 minutes, but they’ve been on my to do list forever! It’s tempting to create a huge long to do list of things you want to get done right now, but even with so much extra time, a long list can be overwhelming! Break it up into daily tasks and it's so much more manageable.

• Create a schedule, and work your normal hours, even at home. Working from home means there's a lot more flexibility in a work schedule for many of us. But for me, it's better to work the exact same hours I was before; it feels routine, and makes things feel a little more normal! Sleeping in the first few days I was home was nice, but it threw off my entire day. Waking up, getting ready for the day, starting my work day like I used to, and working until 3:00pm, has felt so much better to me. Creating some sort of structure and routine is the best advice I can give you as far as getting through the next couple of weeks!

• Take a lunch break! This piggy backs off of the previous tip, but I know how easy it is to get caught up in something that you forget to step away to go have lunch. Especially when you don't have coworkers leaving for lunch, inviting you to go grab a bite to eat, etc. Take a minimum of 30 minutes, and go eat, get outside, scroll your phone, do anything but work for at least 30 minutes.
  • If you're working from home with your significant other or a roommate, schedule lunch with them, get take out from somewhere close by, make it feel like an out of office lunch for something different once or twice a week!