Since the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, the highly infectious virus has inflicted more and more damage and disruption all over the world as the weeks have passed. This outbreak has evidently impacted our lives and productivity both as individuals and as a global community.

Large cities have all but shut down and more and more people are being advised to work from home to curb the spread of the disease. Not surprisingly, for many people, making the switch to working from home has been tough.

Therefore, in this article, I want to share some tips to help you not only stay productive if you are on lock down and working from home, but to actually help you boost your productivity and well-being while we weather the storm of COVID-19.

Tip #1 Maintain or even improve your sleep schedule

It might be tempting with the Coronavirus work from home arrangement to stay up late, wake up late and just let things fall to pieces with our sleep.

Having a physical place to go at a specific time adds structure to our days. With that gone, our sleep is usually the aspect of our lives we sacrifice first. But maintaining your sleep schedule can be immensely beneficial to keeping you rested, grounded and productive when working from home.

Instead of allowing large disruptions to your sleep, stick to your usual sleep pattern and try to pad your sleep a bit with the time you have saved from commuting—either by going to sleep a bit earlier or waking a bit later.

What you don’t want is randomness in your sleep and wake times because disrupting your sleep schedule will disrupt your energy patterns and productivity.

Padding your sleep instead and catching more Zzzs will keep you well rested and keep your immune system in tip-top shape. If you ever needed a strong immune system, you need it now. Don’t compromise it by upsetting your rest and sleep rhythm.

Tip #2 Keep your morning routine, even when working from home

I know that now that you are working from home, you might feel tempted to skip breakfast (the kitchen is right there after all if you feel peckish) and skip your morning ablutions and make up (no one is going to see you anyway so why bother?), or to just generally become loose with how the first few minutes and hours of your day unfold.

It’s tempting, but please don’t do it.

Those of us who have spent time working from home know that we are most productive when we behave as if we are going to work—because, truth is, we are.

Get up as usual (see the point above). Do all the things you normally do. Get dressed. This might be tough for some, but if you have doubts about how much this impacts your productivity, you can read this article where I ask the question – does dressing up make you smarter? You can also read my articles about the power of the morning here and morning routine mistakes to avoid here.

The point is that going through your usual morning routine including getting dressed for work can impact how you feel and how well you work.

You can dial down the formality a notch or two if you need to. For example, if you are usually in a business suit, maybe wear a clean, pressed dress shirt or blouse instead, but still dress professionally based on your profession.

This will not only trick your brain into being productive, it will also communicate at a subconscious level to the other people in the house (especially children if you have them, and even those bigger children we call spouses) that you are working. Also, on a video conference (which is more likely when you work from home) you will command more respect and send a strong signal of responsibility and productivity when you are well dressed.

But even if you never have a video-conference, during this Coronavirus lock down, keep your routine and avoid the temptation to work in your pajamas or underwear. It will hurt your productivity. Also, not a good look overall.

Tip # 3 Uphold the separation and keep personal space sacred.

When I was in university, I worked part-time as a work from home call center agent. I remember in the interview for the job, the hiring manager asked me what I thought the advantages were of working from home.

I resisted the urge to yell TV AND NAPS!! Instead, I listed off the few professionally acceptable ones I could think about—not needing to commute especially with Canadian winters being what they were (this meant that I could be more punctual) and saving on the cost of travel—the usual stuff.

And then she asked me a question I did not expect: What are the disadvantages? I was taken aback.

I honestly could not think of any at the time. For a college student, working from the (relative) comfort of my apartment and earning quite a bit more than minimum wage made this a dream job—the next best thing to a professional internship which would have been difficult anyway while schooling full time.

“I can’t think of any” I said finally. There was a pause. And then she asked:

“You don’t think you would struggle separating your work space from your personal space?”

She went on…

“A lot of our agents work in their basements or spare rooms just so they can have the much-needed separation. Otherwise, they struggle to switch off from work and be present with themselves and their families.”

She went on to explain that knowing I lived in a small apartment she wanted to be sure I understood this dynamic and would consciously address it.

Finally, the question made sense. And it helped me immensely not just in that job but in every other job I have had since then, whether they were from home or not.

I share that story with you because it highlights the importance of separation—separating your work space from your personal space.

I suggest that you have a place where you work separate from where you do everything else. A place or area separate from your living, eating and entertainment space. Separate from where you play with your loved ones and definitely separate from where you sleep. On that note, never take your work to bed with you.

A basement is ideal or a spare bedroom, but not everyone has those lying around. If all you can do is cordon off a corner of the apartment or living room, do it. Separate it. What is most important is having a way of physically ending your work day and putting all visual or auditory reminders of work out of sight and ear shot.

If your company provides you with a work computer, use it and avoid using your personal computer. That way, at the end of the day, you can put the work computer away and out of sight and use your personal computer for your entertainment. This helps psychologically to separate your mental work space from your personal space.

If you must work in a common space of your home like a dining table, then configure it for work differently. You might clear it bare while working with only your work computer on it and any other tech you need. And then at the end of the work day, clear off all work-related items and replace them with a vase and table mats. Make it unrecognizable and it will be easier to keep that much-needed separation and give you closure at the end of your work day.

That way, like Christine, my former manager from my college call-center job told me, “you can be present with yourself and your loved ones.”

Tip # 4 Work only during your regular work hours

Related to the tip above, when working from home, it is easy to overwork because work is so accessible. You wouldn’t travel an hour back to the office just to put in 20 minutes worth of work into a report. But when the report is right there on your dining table or within sight at your home office desk, it is tempting to want to work on it “just a little” even though you “closed” from work an hour ago.

Again, it is tempting, but please don’t do it. This holds true Coronavirus or not.

Unless it is an explicit (or implicit) part of your job description that you be available and on-call after work hours, I urge you to resist the lure of working longer hours than you need to while working from home.

Giving in to the temptation to do so could really throw off the balance of your life. And at times like this, balance and perspective are critical to our productivity and health—physically and mentally. In addition, unlike our laptops and cellphones, we need to unplug to recharge. So, do it—unplug decisively. Because while it may look like you are doing more by not unplugging, you are actually wearing down your batteries and decreasing your ability to focus when it matters.

Keeping separation of work space and personal space mentioned in the point above will help, but you ultimately have to decide to be firm with yourself and to start and stop work when it is time. On the topic of starting and stopping, let us move on to tip #5.

Tip #5 Take frequent breaks

With the disruptions to your routines and with your “office” being right there in your home, there is a tendency to skip breaks and work through lunch.

This is in part because, due to the Coronavirus lock down, there isn’t much to do otherwise. Social interactions in general are cut back and social distancing is in full swing in many parts of the world reducing options for activities. And we are not around the physical cues that we are used to.

It is easy to take for granted how important cues are for the good habits we have developed. Not having these cues because we are not in the places we would usually be leaves us with only the cues related to work—our computer screens, email and work-windows. So, we keep working. Without social cues from colleagues to go for coffee, or take lunch, we keep working.

On top of that, if working from home is new to you or you do not have a good office chair, then you might be using makeshift furniture like your dining chairs and tables not set at the right height for good posture. We are not sure how long this Coronavirus lock down is going to be, so all these factors can do a real number on your health and wellness both short and long term.

The solution is to intentionally intersperse your work with regular short breaks and a few longer breaks.

I have an article here that explains this technique in more detail. But here is a short version—set a reminder on your phone so that for every 25 minutes you work, you take a 5-minute break. During the break you can get up, stretch and perhaps take a short walk. If your house has stairs, go up and down a flight or two. You can even just lie down with your eyes closed for 5 minutes to give your eyes a rest from the screen, and your mind a chance to recenter.

The key is to take a real break from the work and to rest or move, before returning to work again for another 25 minutes. Read about the technique in my article—how a tomato changed my life.

Tip #6 Exercise and kick Coronavirus to the curb

In Alberta where I live, as well many other parts of Canada and the world, gyms and fitness centers have closed to help contain the Coronavirus. As a result, many have lost the powerful psychological cues of their gyms for keeping up with their exercise and fitness.

Thankfully, if you are willing, you don’t need a gym to exercise.

I know the cues from the gym are powerful, and the exercise equipment is nice, but there are effective at-home workouts for all fitness levels in abundance online. They come with instructional videos, require little to no equipment, and oh, they are free too! Just do a web search and hundreds will pop up. And if you find yourself feeling overwhelmed with the choices, then honestly, just pick one! And follow it.

How long do you need to exercise for? Depending on your current fitness level and the intensity of the workout you pick, anything from 20 minutes to 1 hour will do the trick. But if all you can do is 10 minutes initially, start with that! You can always build up as your routine normalizes.

I used to exercise at lunch as a nice way to break up my day and maximize my principle of two peaks. But with this lock down, I find the morning to be better. You might do your exercise in the morning, at lunch or after work. Truth is, I am not as concerned about when you do them as I am about whether you do them.

I want you to come out of this Coronavirus lock down stronger and healthier than you did going in as a thumbs up to your resilience and commitment to your health and wellness, and a middle-finger to this dirty bug.

Tip #7 Breathe, just breathe

This last tip is one from my heart to yours. With all the changes to our lives resulting from this outbreak, it is easy to focus on all that is going wrong and forget to be grateful for all we have. The loss of lives is devastating and my heart goes out to all who have been affected. I hope you find the strength to carry on.

For the rest of us, I draw hope from the fact that thanks to the miracles of modern science, cases are being treated and many are recovering.

Thanks to communication technology, we can stay connected to loved ones and still transact business to some degree. Thanks to efficient supply-chain systems and organized labour, we can still get food and supplies, and have not descended into chaos. There is much to be thankful for. As early as a few hundred years ago, a virus like this would have wrecked a great deal more havoc.

If for nothing else, the fact that you are reading this means you are alive. And that itself is something to be grateful for. Just take a minute each day and reflect on what you have to be grateful for. It could be anything—big or small. But at times like this, we should remember to just breathe and be thankful for life.

Stay grounded, healthy, and positive

All the tips in this article will help you maintain stability. In times like this, we need anchors that keep us grounded. The point here is to keep the locus of control over your life in spite of the disruption this Coronavirus outbreak has created.

You can continue to live a healthy, fulfilled and productive life even if it is in the context of spending more time indoors and working from home. And when all of this is over, you can emerge better than you were when it all started.

Until the next article, be your best.

Coronavirus lock down—7 Tips for productivity and well-being when working from home