6 Tips to Stay Productive (Covid-19)

Trying to stay productive, especially during COVID-19 is no easy task. With children in virtual schooling and parents and adults operating from virtual platforms, the stress of life has only increased with very little direction. Keeping up with the change in pace is difficult, no doubt. While you have a Zoom® meeting at 10 am, and your child has a Language Arts class at 9:45, and your spouse has a virtual meeting at 10:30 trying to maintain what little sanity we have left seems impossible.

While we all go through this experience together, there’s ways to help you stay on top of your A-game. Or, at least get the motivation back that you had once before.

Here’s the top 6 tips to stay productive during Covid-19.

Tip #1 Make a Schedule

Before COVID, our weekdays had routines. And those routines provided a bit of order to the chaos of life. Kids in school during specific hours, you’re at work during specific hours, all of that allowed us to remain content for the most part. With everyone being at home our routines have imploded into chaos. By establishing a routine it breaks the days into segments, which can really help overcome the monotony of day to day life. 

Tip #2 Don’t Slack on Hygiene

I used to wake up at 6 am every morning, showered and dressed by 7:30, and off to work by 9. Now, working from home makes taking all that time to get pretty and smell better seem pointless. But in reality, it’s not. We might feel that cleanliness and looking our best was for everyone else, but you may be surprised to know that having good personal hygiene and dressing for a ‘typical’ workday actually increases productivity.

It helps us pretend we’re in that routine again. We have to trick our mind into thinking in a way that puts the obvious stresses and disappointments of today’s world in the back seat, and instead focus on what we need to get done. Much easier said than done, but taking the first step is the only way to stay productive.

Tip #3 Designate a Workspace

Many people I know have their work-life spread out on the dining room table, eight to ten hours a day. Then they have to cook dinner and eat at that same table. I don’t know about you, but spending 10 hours a day in the kitchen doesn’t sound like a healthy work environment.

It is recommended to designate a specific area in your home to focus on your work. Whether in a small closet with a light and power outlet or in the basement near a window, you need to find a space that can handle the type of work that needs to get done.

Tip # 4 Customize your Space

Creating a calm and well-lit ambiance is incredibly important when working full time from home. Jobs are stressful, a family can be stressful, so having a quiet and peaceful place to sit comfortably increases productivity.

Set up your space tailored to your needs. Declutter your workspace. Organize and prioritize your materials for easy tracking and assign a space for everything so it can easily be put away when you’re done with the day. This promotes a sense of finality when the workday is done, so your brain can set that stress aside and focus on your home life. 

Tip #5 Take Your Breaks

Pre-COVID you were allowed two 15 minute breaks and a half-hour to an hour lunch. Don’t forget to take that time for yourself. You aren’t limited by the cafeteria or the fast food place down to road to make sure you’re back at your desk in time.

Go outside and take a walk to let the smell of work wash off you. If you have the opportunity, maybe spend one day a week working out of the house like at a coffee shop or place with a quiet enough setting that you can concentrate on your task.

Don’t forget to set a time limit. Experts say that to effectively study for a college exam, it is best practice to study for 40 minutes, and take a ten-minute break. Why would sitting in front of a laptop organizing spreadsheets or calculating costs be any different. Take Your Breaks!

Tip # 6 Separate ‘Work from Home’

I used to work a 9-5. At 5 pm, I was logged off, chair pushed in, and heading toward my car. Why should working from home be any different? It is definitely more difficult to walk away when you don’t have to commute home or pick up the kids from school.

By not setting a definite time to conclude the workday you’re not allowing your brain to separate what you have to do and what you want to do. This subconscious separation of work and life is imperative. By setting a specific time to be done with work, and sticking to that schedule you’ll soon realize the weight being lifted off your shoulders. And stress is heavy.

Getting back to normal someday

We all want to get back to some sort of normalcy. Personally, I’m not a fan of commuting to an office building where I have to pay to park, just to walk half a mile to my company’s floor to work for 8 hours. Maybe this remote-employment will stick around as the corporations realize that without the stresses of actually going to work people are more productive and happier.

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