One problem with working from home is the monotony. Everyday can start to feel the same as yesterday, and with no clear end to the quarantine in sight, it looks like tomorrow will be the same as well. So, what can we do to break up the all the sameness?
While it may seem counterintuitive, creating a routine can really help the monotony. Why? It can make it easier to spot the differences between the days, knowing when you’ve started and stopped a task. Creating structure cuts down on the feeling of floating through the day.
Once you have a routine in place, you can see the times when your allowed to be spontaneous. Follow your whims. If your missing human interaction: call a friend. You will have enough routine to know what you need to come back to.
It will also help to shore up your goals. What do you want to accomplish on a grand scale that you can work towards today? How about just today’s goals? Is there a hobby or skill you’d like to learn? Having clear written goals and things you can cross off a list will help you feel accomplished.
Wendy Wood is a professor of psychology in business at University Of Southern California. She says: “In our daily lives before, we automatically did things that exposed us to new people, events, and ideas, and we lost that. We have to go back to a series of deliberate decisions, and that takes effort.”
