Wake Up And Smell The Routine…
In March it will be three years since I’ve been working full-remote 😱
Although not everyone likes this work model, I believe that people should have the opportunity to choose.
In my opinion, I found remote work to be highly convenient and flexible. It allows me to work from anywhere, balance my work and personal life more effectively, and save time and money on commuting.
I live in a big city, and I used to spend a lot of time and energy on public transportation, working in the comfort of my home seemed, right at first sight, the ideal solution for me to monetize and be able to enjoy more of the hours of the day. However, not all that glitters is gold 😂 and I quickly realized I needed to find strategies to keep me productive and be able to separate my personal life from my work.
I’m a person of routines, and it was in the routine that I found many of my solutions.
1. Start your day easy:
Although I have some freedom to manage my working hours, I have chosen to always work with a fixed schedule.
I wake up every day at a time that allows me to start the morning with some calm and tranquillity, allowing me to have a good breakfast — something that, before, with the rush to catch the train, I often ended up not doing.
Telecommuting made me start to enjoy the first meal of the day more!
When I say starting your day smoothly with a good and healthy breakfast doesn’t need to be food related, you can take a long shower, meditate, or do some yoga for example.
2. Make mandatory breaks
In the beginning, I often had the habit of eating in front of the computer, for convenience and because I could do small tasks while I ate.
I realized that it was important to maintain office routines and take breaks to eat, relax and disconnect from work. The first thing I did was stopped having lunch in front of the screen and take advantage of my lunch hour to do other things related to my personal life.
Not every type of break is productive, and it’s important to be flexible about the kind of breaks you need throughout your day.
While it’s important to plan out your day, don’t hold yourself to it too strictly. If you are on a roll and working productively, don’t break the flow.
3. Exercise!
This third topic took me some time to start, but today I consider it essential: exercise!
Usually, those who work at home sit all day and move very little during the day/week. This obviously poses risks to our physical and mental health. I made a personal commitment to exercise several times a week. I realized that doing it many times during lunch hours was a strategy for me:
It’s still daylight and there’s sunlight, it allows me to leave the house and disconnect from work during that period and makes the days feel less like a routine.
(A tip that helped me maximize my time at this time was also having lunch meals ready: made on the weekend, or the night before).
4. Organize a dedicated workspace.
There are people who like to work in several different places, even throughout the day. I also like to change where I work from time to time. But at home, I have a specific place where I sit every day and which I associate almost exclusively with my professional life. It could be your desk or a specific room. This space allows me to visualize and delimit, inside my house, the work area, and the leisure and personal area.
Your productivity is mostly affected by any possible distractions around you, so it is ideal to look for a calm work corner. You should ensure that the workspace is as functional as possible and you don’t need an entire room, it can be an extension of any wall, your kitchen counter, or your coffee table.
5. Disconnect!
When we work from home, we tend to need to remember to switch off. In fact, we are often in the comfort of our homes, we don’t leave the office in a hurry because we have a bus to catch or because we want to avoid traffic. And all this means that we often don’t disconnect from work and spend more time than necessary sitting in front of the desk.
It’s important to be strict with ourselves, although there are always exceptions, as soon as my workday is over I disconnect.
Some tips that help me:
- Turning off the computer.
- Putting my professional cell phone on silent.
- Tidying up the desk from the mess I created at the end of the day.
- Turning off the lights in that room of the house.
Conclusion:
Time is one of the most precious things we have. And I realized that many times, even if we are given the opportunity to make the most of it, we often end up keeping habits that prevent us from doing so.
As a routine person, I believe people tend to be creatures of habit. We get comfortable in our daily patterns and certain inertia can creep in if we’re not careful.
Keeping a routine and some rules allows us to organize ourselves and find the strategy that works for us. Working remotely will always be an incredible opportunity to have more time for what we like and what gives us pleasure, more time with friends and family, and more time to dedicate ourselves to being the best people and professionals.
Routine helps us to set up healthy patterns and an environment that’s focused on getting work done.
As in all routines, there must be exceptions: whenever there is the possibility and desire, have breakfast or lunch out, drink a coffee in a place close to you, arrange to work in the same space with other colleagues or friends who are also working remotely. I like routine, but I recognize the enormous importance of getting out of it!
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About Inês Chaves:
Our dear colleague Inês is an incredible girl, we are lucky to have her because she almost made it into showbiz as a kid! Nowadays she loves her routines but she loves, even more, to break them by travelling and exploring new places!
She has her values very intrinsic and she’s not afraid to share her opinion or speak out. Our first half-Azorian & half-Madeira 😅 She’s an IT Talent Acquisition Specialist working in our RPO service and is a colleague who works very well in a team! She likes to help others, to listen and improve procedures.
A vegetarian that knows really cool places where to eat, she loves Lisbon but finds peace in Azores — Connect her and say hello 👋
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About Damia Portugal:
We are an international innovative IT recruitment company that kick-@s$ at Tech Recruitment.
We came to Portugal with the promise to shake up the market and redefine how one engages with clients. Our core goal is to develop relationships across the market, and offer a disruptive (but positive!) approach with both clients and candidates, always based on open and transparent communication.
We take the stresses out of recruitment and engage the right professionals who will excel in your organization.
We use out-of-the-box sourcing techniques.
We are innovative, disruptive, transparent, and relaxed.
We came to the market to do it differently and we love it!
