7 Tips for working from home during Coronavirus times

While many people are effectively unemployed because of the situation, SEO and SEM, like other internet-based tech fields, remain active. As the quarantine becomes mandatory and not just advisory, most of us are continuing their work from home. The bad news is it looks like this lifestyle is going to be around for a while longer (possibly a few months). The good news is that brains are very flexible, and we can adjust, so we decided to make you this little guide with tips for working from home.

The brain is a slave of habits and patterns. If you have never worked from home before, for extended periods, you might find your patterns disrupted, which will result in difficulty finding your regular workflow and rhythm. So, to help you adjust, we have some tips that will help you “trick” your brain into thinking everything is normal and help you better deal with this new (and temporary) work style.

The internet is full of various workflow methods, and we are sure you already have the style that works for you. So, before we begin, know that this one isn’t about workflow or task and time management. It is about small changes you can make that will help whatever method you are using, becoming more applicable.

1. Don’t work in your bedroom

This location is an old trick that many who work from home use. The bedroom is meant for sleeping and relaxing, and it should not be included in your work environment. Years of using the bedroom as dictated by the official Universal Bedroom Manual, have programmed your brain to address it as a space with its own rhythm and habits. These may include: Sleep, chill, Netflix, food, video games, NOT work, etc. So, if you attempt to work from your bedroom, you will find it extra challenging. Many of us keep our PC in the bedroom, so the ideal solution is to temporarily move your workstation to a place that has no bed in it. If that is not a viable option, the second-best thing you can do is cover your bed as soon as you wake up. Also, reposition your worktable, so that you are facing away from the bed and not looking at it.

Because it’s so simple and obvious many people forget about it paradoxically. Not mixing work with sleep areas is also important for keeping proper sleep hygiene. So instead of both your sleep and work taking penalties, just move out of the bedroom for now!

2. Keep a basic healthy lifestyle indoors

Nutrition – Eating healthy is now more important than ever. Because of the new conditions and the added challenge of adapting to new work habits, your brain will require some high-quality fuel. It is also important for protecting yourself by keeping your immune system in shape to protect you from any viruses, as per the general recommendations of the WHO.

Proper nutrition also includes adequate hydration. Anecdotal findings seem to suggest high levels of hydration are important in fighting this disease. And even without any looming plagues, proper hydration is known in helping your immune system better handle infections in general.

Sunlight – Sunlight is one of the key ingredients that keep us sane and mentally sound. Because of sunlight, our skin synthesizes the essential vitamin D3 that is required for healthy body and brain functions. You might not be able to go to your park, but you can probably take a walk near your house, maybe check out your roof, or even stand for 15-20 minutes in your balcony/window with your cup of coffee.

Enough sleep – This one is another that directly keeps our immune system fit. Countless research has linked poor sleeping habits to a weaker immune system. Bluntly speaking – people that sleep less can get sick easier than people that get those 8 hours a night.

Fitness – You don’t need a gym to do some basic bodyweight exercises or Yoga. YouTube is packed with videos about exercise at home that requires no equipment or if you don’t have much space.

Speaking of SEO, one of the niches currently booming are various home fitness methods and classes. Now’s your chance to promote, AND practice, one of those methods!

3. Vitamin D3

There are countless supplements which various lifestyle blogs recommend. But we will focus on the one that is truly essential if you are stuck at home most of the time, and that is the one we mentioned above – D3. The others you will likely get by observing a proper healthy and balanced diet. But this is the only one that requires actual sunlight for our bodies to produce in enough quantities. The general recommendation from examine.com is that you don’t take more than 10,000 UI per week. Whatever brand D3 supplement you go with, make sure you are not taking huge doses that might potentially harm you. Many people buy supplements that have therapeutic doses, thinking more of something good, will be better for them. This type of thinking is a fallacy and a preconditioned bias you had better avoid.

Also, there is broad agreement among medical professionals that D3 might have something to do with how our immune system handles COVID-19:

Basically, the current correlation seems to be – D3 deficiency makes the sickness harder to beat.

4. Tips from prison – routine and workouts

We are currently stuck in a very comfortable house arrest, and we only lack the leg bracelet to show for it. You might be tempted to think, based on various prison dramas, that what keeps a person safe in prison is hope and staying positive, but that is just regular Hollywood fantasy.

If you scout the web for anecdotes from prisoners on how they kept their sanity in an imprisonment far worse than ours, the responses are diverse. But one thing is almost unanimous to all – they all adopted a routine and stuck to it. Often, this routine included working out, which we mentioned above. Setting yourself up with a daily routine, will not only get your workflow going, but will help keep you sane.

5. Starting momentum

So, we know the trick to help you stay busy and sane in imprisonment, but how can you get that started? Keeping momentum is easier than starting it, and you will discover this the hard way.

Even when you worked from the office, you always had to jump-start your routine, and you just didn’t need to pay attention to how you did it, until now. Waking up and starting work right after eating is like jumping straight into 3rd gear. You need something small to start up your engine and then keep the flames going by transitioning into your work schedule.

Working from the office, the action that would generate momentum would be going outside and taking the car or some form of public transport to work. Unfortunately, this time it’s not possible, so you need something else that will get the ball rolling and create inertia.

Instead of commuting to work, you can invest the same amount of time into a simple daily chore. That way, you will get to complete a small essential chore AND start the needed momentum, making it easier to start work.

6. Don’t forget to take breaks

You maybe never considered breaks as part of a workflow, but as more of a work flaw. But here’s the truth: breaks are an essential part of a healthy workflow. Hence, you better make it an “official” part of your “prison routine.”

Taking calculated breaks is a part of many productivity methods. One of the more popular time management methods is the Pomodoro Technique.

7. Emulating office space

Whether you are aware of it or not, your workspace back at the office is set up a certain way, which is probably very different than your casual PC station back home.

Remember, we need to “trick” your brain into thinking this is just a regular day at the office, so try your best to emulate the office space you are used to.

Start from making your casual PC station look like a proper workstation. After that, change your PJs to whatever you would wear to work even if it feels silly at first. Next, you can buy the same treats you would usually get at work during breaks to remind you that you are “at work.” You should try and pay attention to the small details, such as getting the same coffee brand that you have back at work. This is also a good lesson in the power of branding. Try it as an experiment; if your home coffee and office coffee are different brands, try both and see which one gives you more of a boost.

Here is a good YT channel to follow with some solid tips on working from home:

Summary

These tips are not a magic solution, but if you incorporate at least some of them to some extent, working from home will be easier to handle. We need to see what helps us instead of what doesn’t. The added value of every little change can amount to a big noticeable influence.

Having said that, even a 10% boost in productivity is better than nothing. Also, having 80% of your regular office productivity is better than just 50%.

And of course, these are only our humble suggestions, YouTube and Reddit are full of practical working from home advice, so be sure to explore further if you need, and find the tips that work best for you.

This plague is not near the peak yet, and other than keeping yourself and your family safe, you also need to adjust to this new working from home lifestyle. Some of you might find it lacking, but you might also be surprised and even become fond of it!

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These are times of uncertainty, and it’s only natural to experience some hardships in adapting. If you have flimsy clients, please read our article with some advice on how to keep clients during times of crisis.

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