Want to improve how to work from home? Is Coronavirus affecting your motivation? This post will guide you on how to effectively work from home.
If Covid-19 has made working almost impossible, I’m here to help! Try seeing the coronavirus pandemic as an opportunity to develop your habits whilst working from home.
Clear Your Work Area:
Why is this important?
A study conducted by Princeton University Neuroscience Institute suggests that our brains like order. Visual reminders of disorganisation reduce our ability to focus. This means that an untidy desk could be affecting your focus when working.
But how can you clear out your work area?
Simple, when looking at your desk, consider the things that live there. Consider each individual item on the desk, do they A) get used every day? or B) Bring joy daily?
As a rule of thumb, if there are too many things that bring you joy, I would suggest a limit of 2 items that bring you joy to live on your desk.
Furthermore, for items such as special pens which don’t get used every day, you should buy a storage box and keep them there. This gives you a place you can find them.
Habits:
Sean Coveys quote ‘We become what we repeatedly do’ is often quoted as a supportive statement for forming habits. For the best part, psychological research agrees with this statement.
Oxford research Encyclopaedias state that ‘Everyday behaviours shape human health’. This means that our habits and the formation of such habits, should not be undermined.
How to Kick your bad habits and form better ones…
In my experience, the best way to create a new habit and follow through with it is by creating an effective instigating habit.
What is an instigating habit?
An instigating habit is a behaviour built into your routine to prompt the initial action of the habit. This may sound confusing, so here’s an example to explain.
If you want to build a habit of going to the gym as soon as you wake up, before you go to bed at night, pack your gym bag, and place your gym clothes in your eye line. This means that when you wake up earlier than usual, wanting to go back to sleep, the sight of your motivation will help you get out of bed.
If you think about it, this is a practical way to reach your goals. You are more likely to complete your goals with no obstacles in the way. Furthermore, this makes the enactment of your habit automatic.
This tactic to form a habit has been tried and tested by yours truly. I decided that I wanted to learn German. After downloading Duolingo, I was ready to go! But I found it very difficult to remember to practice German every day. So, I built it into my daily routine, setting an alarm for the same time every day to practice Duolingo. Now, it is built into that part of my day, so I no longer need an alarm.
Humans are creatures of habit, so it is extremely important to implement habits into our daily routines. Which brings us to our final tip…
Establishing Routines:
The reasons to establish a routine align with the reasons to create habits. We are what we constantly do. So, we should build our habits so that they eventually form a routine. A brilliant reason to form a routine is that you can take any thinking out of your day. You don’t have to try and figure out what you need to do every day, because you have a routine.
This will vastly improve your work ethic as your mind automatically knows that at a certain time of day, following your shower, it’s time to work.
A top tip to creating a daily routine? Wake up at 5 am. This may sound gruesome, to begin with, but by establishing a wake-up time of 5 am, you are able to use the first two or three hours of the day however you like. I find that these hours are my most productive hours- no distractions, nothing else to do but work.
This is the first step to forming habits and creating a brilliant routine. For example, if you wake up and eat your breakfast then work, that is establishing a habit.
Then if you have kids and they wake up at 7- you can go about your morning with less stress, knowing that you have already completed a prioritised task on your to-do list.
This technique is implemented by successful CEO, Jim Kwik. Kwik swears by his morning routine helping him prepare for the day and follows it religiously. He also wakes up at 5 am, claiming that the hours before other people are awake are the most productive.
Make Working At Home, Work!
After hearing the success of so many others, I decided to wake up at 5am. I can truly say that this tactic has changed my life for the better. I love waking up and focusing on my work- it gives me an excellent advantage for the rest of the day.
That’s it for today- please remember that our circumstance is only temporary. In the meantime, please stay safe. Thank you for reading.
Links:
Princeton University NeuroScience:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12144-017-9682-9
Oxford Research Encyclopedia:
https://oxfordre.com/psychology/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190236557.001.0001/acrefore-9780190236557-e-129