Working from home – how to unplug?

Dear Ms Anonymous,

I feel like during this quarantine time, we’re all struggling with our new lifestyles. So I’m going to be answering some very common questions you might be having right now.

I just started working from home

About 3 weeks ago I started working from home full-time. The company I work for had first given us an alternating day schedule. But we then went to just straight working from home.

Now, let me tell you – working from home has been a goal of mine for a very long time. I love the idea of getting up when I want, slowly getting my day started, and then doing my work.

Unfortunately, that’s not really how this working from home gig works. The only thing I don’t have to do right now is sit in traffic. I still have to wake up in the morning, and get started. There’s nothing leisurely about it!

How does your working from home life differ from the way your day usually goes?

I hope that you have a lot more freedom with your time.

I do love the fact that I can work in my pajamas, or work from my front porch, or with the television on if I so choose. (Usually not.) And I get to spend more time with my kitties and husband.

Where does the work day start or stop?

This question is one that I’ve been struggling with a little bit. The problem is, I’m working from home at my usual full-time job, and I’m working on building a business from the ground up. So I’m constantly working. I start my day before 8am, and then I work straight through at least 8 or 9 (or longer) in the night.

I can’t even go to sleep at my normal time because my body has decided that because I don’t have to “go to work” that it wants to stay up half the night. So I find myself scrolling my phone at 2 or 3am. I can’t turn off my brain, and put any of the working tasks away.

Perhaps you feel like this as well! Share with me in the comments some of the ways you’ve created a scheduled working day.

Scheduling my day

So I’ve decided that I need to figure out how to unplug. Because I can’t be constantly working. At some point the work day has to end, and tired eyes need to rest!

I was talking to a student of mine yesterday about creating a schedule for accomplishing tasks. She told me that she struggles with being motivated. And also that she has a problem with procrastination.

Enter my success coach mindset. I asked her why she didn’t create a schedule so that she could feel more productive, and motivated. So we sat down and outlined a very basic schedule that she could follow for the next few weeks. I’m excited to follow up with her to see how it went.

That got me to thinking that I myself need to create a schedule. The full-time job part is easy – pretty much work during the hours of 9 and 5.

The hard part is telling my brain that I’ve done enough entrepreneurial work for the day, and it’s time to rest. So this week, I’m taking my own advice. I’m setting a schedule for the work that needs to get done. I also am going to create a task list.

I listen to a podcast called the Life Coach School podcast. If you haven’t heard it and you are seeking motivation in changing your mindset, you should check it out! There’s an episode called Monday Hour One, where she talks about brain dumping all of your to-do list items onto a piece of paper, and then putting them as calendar appointments in your phone/computer.

I’m going to give it a try. It should help me focus on the tasks I need to complete, without jumping from place to place. It will also help me become more accountable for my time. I can’t wait to see how it helps me with scheduling my day.

Working on unplugging

The one thing I definitely need to build in, is time where I’m not looking at a screen. I realized today that I rarely ever look up to enjoy the natural beauty that surrounds me. So, I’m going to challenge myself to stop working, and unplug. No phone, computer, IPad, television. I’ll either be sitting in nature, enjoying the sunshine, looking at the trees, listening to the birds. Or I’ll read a book on something that interests me.

Unplugging from our devices is something that we always seem to struggle with. It’s become more of a problem right now as we are obsessed with the news coverage of Covid-19. I feel more at peace when I’m not constantly consuming the news regarding this virus. I’m not hiding under a rock pretending it’s not all around me. Instead, I’m choosing to distance myself from it, in order to maintain my sanity.

I invite you all to take an hour a day to unplug. One hour during a part of the day when you would normally become so consumed with the news that you find yourself in a trance. Think about everything you could accomplish in that hour. And then get started doing it.

It’s time we all took a break from working, and instead enjoy whatever freedoms we do have right now. I’ve never had this much time on my hands to work on projects that I’m passionate about. So I’m choosing to do that. And in the off times, I’ll be sitting out on my porch, listening to the wind chimes, with a glass of sweet tea. I’m officially a Southerner.

With love,

P.S. – I hope that you do make time this week to unplug. Even if it’s to take a long nap. Your body needs rest and rejuvenation. Maybe this stay at home time is God’s way of reminding us to slow down.