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For the past few months, thanks to massive construction projects taking over my office, I’ve gotten to work from home almost exclusively. It’s an awesome perk, but it can lead to less-than-ideal habits.
Living in your pajamas, never leaving bed, forgetting to hydrate… it can turn ugly quickly. So how do you take care of yourself when you work from home?
Dress up as if you were going into the office.
One of my biggest mood-lifters when I work from home is dressing up as if I were going into the office. My goal is to dress up 3x per week, whether I’m going into the office or staying home.
There’s something motivating about putting on a professional outfit (this winter my go-to is a J.Crew Factory pencil skirt and sweater combo. #brandloyalty) that gets you ready for the work day. If I stay in leggings and a tshirt, I feel much more lethargic and less likely to accomplish as much.
Plus, being dressed up makes surprise video conferences less awkward.
If you struggle to get ready in the mornings, I really like the Stylebook App on my iPhone. I have my entire wardrobe in it and can plan out my outfits way in advance. It allows me to decide which days I’ll dress up for work, and when it’s already planned out, I’m less likely to change my mind.
Remember to shower, even if you’re not going to see anyone the next day.
Sometimes it can be way too difficult to shower every day or every other day, especially if you aren’t going to see anyone in real life.
But here’s the thing: if you forget, you start to feel gross, and you stop feeling like yourself, and everything feels off. And that’s bad for productivity and your self-worth. Take care of yourself! Try to make it a habit by committing to showering at the same time every day. That consistency will help the habit stick.
Make a healthy lunch.
The beauty of working from home is the access to your own private kitchen. Literally. So use it!
Even if you’re just whipping up some tuna salad with fresh veggies, make yourself a healthy lunch! You’ve got access to your whole fridge and all of your kitchen tools, so try to avoid reaching for a freezer meal (or worse, grabbing take-out).
Eating healthy is an amazing way to take care of yourself, so utilize the tools available to you to make it happen!
Keep water easily accessible.
One of my biggest challenges with self-care is remembering to drink enough water. And for some reason, when I’m sitting at my desk and the fridge is all the way downstairs, it seems way too far to get a refill. It’s probably about the same distance as the drinking fountain to my desk at work, but those stairs, man. They make everything more difficult.
So, to encourage hydration, keep water easily accessible. The more readily available it is, the more likely you are to drink it and stay hydrated!
Get up and walk around.
And finally, don’t forget to move! It’s so easy to stay in literally the exact same spot when you work from home, because you can grab your laptop and start working without even leaving your bed.
But movement is such an important way to take care of yourself. If you’ve got a Fitbit or other fitness tracker, utilize those reminders to move around every hour! It can be easy to shrug them off, but try paying attention to them every day for a week and see how your day improves.
It’s so easy (and tempting!) to by lazy when you work from home, but it can lead to a lot of problems down the road. So take care of yourself! Your future self will thank you.
What are your favorite wellness tips for working from home? Let me know in the comments so I can implement them myself!
