It’s been six months since I wrote my last blog post on working from home during a pandemic. I highly suggest reading that first — I biasedly think it was good advice — but here are an additional five, concrete steps that I use to help me work from home.

1. I invested in my home office. I bought a second monitor, a monitor raiser, a laptop raiser, a foot rest (because I’m short and can’t touch the ground easily), a Bluetooth mouse and a Bluetooth keyboard. This helps me stay pain-free as my days have increased sitting and decreased walking.
2. My phone is nowhere near me when I work. The lines between work, sleep, mental decompression times, working out, fun are blurred. Not having my phone on me aids in transitioning into “work” mode. Also, I turn off notifications on my smartwatch.
3. I exercise before sitting down to work. I’ll eat breakfast. While that digests, I’ll check my email so that I know what I have going on that day, and then get ready to go to the gym. I cannot concentrate unless I start my day by burning off a bit of extra energy.
4. I tell friends that I need 24 hours notice to make plans*. My days are structureless unless I create the structure myself. My current workflow is: wake up, email, gym, work, nap or stretch, work, dance or hike, work, bed. If someone contacts me about same-day plans, it results in me losing my work-time or the things that I need to keep me from mental burn-out. Give me 24-hours notice such that I can start my day with a workflow that is productive and sustainable for me. (*All plans are socially-distant and outdoors.)
5. Schedule work meetings on a recurring basis. I meet with my adviser multiple times a week at the same time. Personally, I like my all of my meetings to take place on the same days (Tuesday/Thursdays/Fridays) while my other days are my get-things-done days, so that I have the freedom to run errands or spend a little more time outside, depending on what I need. I’m thinking of trying to schedule something every day—but I feel like I’d dislike that rhythm. It is worth trying on your end if you think it will suit you, though.

Hope these five tips (in addition to the advice in my last post) will help anyone looking for help in adjusting to work from home.

-A.Y.