Welcome to the Small Steps Podcast. I'm your host, Amy Sue. I'm a nutritional therapy practitioner, blogger at Small Eats, author of Not at My Dask Lunch, designer, and avid learner. In my nutrition practice, I help you cut through the health and wellness noise to find what works for you.
This podcast is here to educate, inspire, and empower you to grow, try new things, and live a life you truly feel good about one small step at a time. Each episode has small steps that you can try and see how they work for you. You can find all the show notes, small steps, and other episodes at small-eats.com slash podcast. Remember, the materials and content within this podcast are intended as general information only.
They are not to be considered a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Hello, hello. Welcome back to another episode of The Small Steps Podcast. Thank you so much for listening.
As always, if you love the show, please consider leaving a rating and review in iTunes and sharing it with someone that you love. Tag me on social media at Small underscore eats so that I can say, and thank you so much for sharing the show. It is episode 80, woo, I cannot believe that it is episode 80. It seems like such a whirlwind.
And I hope everyone is doing okay out there in the Corona times and are doing what they need to do for them. So this episode is not something I ever imagined that I would talk about because it does have to do with health and wellness, and it also doesn't. In a way, with this week, I'm talking all about tips and tricks for working from home. A lot of people are now working from home because of the Corona times, and it can be something that if you don't have much familiarity with it or comfort with it, can be kind of strange and difficult to adapt to.
And I have worked from home on and off quite a bit. I still have a day job, as a lot of you know, but I also work from home for this work that I do here. And also sometimes I work for my day job at home before the whole Corona times. So it's something that I'm more used to and more comfortable with and wanted to give some tips and tricks to help you.
And they can also work for if you're working from home for a period of time during non-coronatimes as well. So wanted to say that as you do this, please pay attention to what works for you and what doesn't work for you. And remember that every day that you're working from home, Corona times or non-coronatimes is different, and that's totally okay. So this show's gonna be a lot of small steps, a lot of things to consider, a lot of tips, could be a shorter show, I don't know, but we'll just go and see how it's going.
So things to consider when you're working from home. Set some kind of schedule for your work days. So you probably have some kind of routine when you're in the office, and that can still apply when you're working from home. I think that the more that you are setting a schedule, the easier it's gonna be for you to do what you need to do for work and then stop and do what you need to do for the rest of your life.
Try and keep a more consistent start and stop time to your work, especially during the Corona times when you may not need to be running out to pick something up or running errands or things like that. Set some general parameters for, I'm gonna start around this time every day. I'm gonna stop around this time every day because the common pitfall is people wake up, still stay in the PJs, which is nothing fucking wrong with that, but they wake up, roll to their desk, start working, and then they look up, and it's like eight o'clock at night, and they've just been working the whole day. And honestly, most of the time, most people are not gonna get paid more for that.
You're just working more and not getting compensated for it. And you're not benefiting from that. So consider giving yourself those times and sticking with those times. Try to take breaks for meals and any kind of drinks, like if you're making coffee or tea, and ideally take those meal and coffee and tea breaks away from your work area, work desk.
Give yourself a break again, so that you're not just constantly working and not giving your body and your brain just kind of space to chill. Also, if you can, take breaks to go outside. I know that with Corona times, there are potentially restrictions on where you can go and what you can do and who you can interact with, but then you take a short walk with responsible social distancing, can you do something so that you can get outside and give yourself that break. Hopefully also give yourself some vitamin D, all that kind of stuff.
When you set that end time, put your work away. Like close the laptop, put the things out of sight, out of mind so that there's a clear division for you to signal to your brain like, my day job is done, my work is done here. Now I'm gonna switch back to my usual home life. If this is helpful for you, this is one that doesn't really apply to me, but I know a lot of people have talked about before.
Consider wearing clothes and or makeup or some kind of whatever you want. That makes you feel more like you're at work. Some people, if they dress for work or if they put on makeup or they do their hair or something like that, that makes them feel more like they are at work doing work. Honestly, that doesn't apply to me as much, but if this is something that really helps you get in that work mindset, consider trying it and see what happens.
Respect any pre-existing boundaries that you have set with your job. I know that with Corona times, like your schedule is all different and the things that you used to do and maybe some of the boundaries that you held around certain things might not exist anymore. Like maybe you're like, oh, I have this really hard stop time because I'm gonna go to this workout class or I'm gonna go do this thing or need to pick up my kids or something like that and you don't have that thing to go to anymore. Please consider respecting those boundaries just so you have more space to stop and rest and do what you need to do.
And this could also include like the existing boundaries that you have around communication. So if you have a boundary around not checking your work email after a certain hour, please respect that boundary and give yourself additional time and space to decompress away from work, especially during Corona times when there's just so much happening, do you really also need to do more work? Probably not. And if you haven't listened to last week's episode and which I talked all about tips for how to take care of yourself and how to support yourself during uncertain times, definitely go back and listen to that because that was gonna be really helpful around respecting any pre-existing boundaries that will work and be supportive for what you need and your health around this time.
If you have not established any boundaries yet with coworkers or with how you're working, please consider establishing those. So if people are texting you, let them know that you're not gonna respond to them after a certain time or they respond to them tomorrow or maybe please don't text me here, email me, like anything that you need to do to make sure that there are more clear divisions between your work and your home because the major division of like, I'm going into an office or I'm working from a coworking space has completely changed with the Corona times. Please give yourself permission not to be productive all the time, especially right now during Corona times, it can be very difficult to concentrate or do things when you're worried about a lot of other stuff or when you're kind of feeling on edge because everything's kind of on edge, that's okay. Like give yourself the space to stare the wall or to kind of scroll the internet for a little bit or take a break or go for a walk or whatever.
This is also something that is important not during Corona times too because you're not a robot. And if you listen to last week's episode and you hear my thoughts and using on capitalism and how it can be really not helpful for people, this also applies as well. If possible, depending on your living situation, see if you can set aside a specific area for working, whether that's an actual death sequence setup or that's just like this chair that I'm gonna sit in is like the work chair and I'm gonna work in this chair. When I leave this chair, I'm not gonna be working.
Like whatever you can do given the space that you have, I'm saying this as a person that lays in a one bedroom apartment with another person who also works from home. So do what you can to be like, this is the space where I'm gonna work on work stuff and this is the space where I'm gonna live the rest of my life just so you have that more distinctions so that you're not just working all the time. Also, if it's not Corona times, like would working at a different location that's not your house and also not your office, would that be more helpful for you? Is there a coffee shop that you can walk to or a co-working space for me, even the library, it has some really good internet, like where's a place that you can work?
That's not your house, but not your office. That could be something that's really supportive for you and helps you focus. Also, I would highly recommend creating a morning and or evening routine and rituals to help separate your work from your home. So are there certain things you wanna do to kind of ease you into working?
Do you wanna make breakfast beforehand or make some tea or make some coffee or have some kind of ritual that's like, all right, this is how I'm starting my day. This is how I'm going to transition into the office after I do this thing. And again, at the evening, time I'm like, okay, I'm gonna close my computer at this time. I'm gonna take a deep breath.
I'm gonna go for a short walk or hug my partner or do something, like a thing to actually help you switch off so that you're not constantly just like in the work soup because you're still in the same physical location because there's so many things that you don't think about, really, that actually do help you, like as much as commuting can be a pain in the ass. That's just more time for you to kind of switch from being at work to being at home and having some kind of processing time. Now that you're working from home, you don't have that. So like, what can you do to help give yourself that time to fully switch from, I'm not working on work anymore and I'm also at home?
If you can, consider prepping some food beforehand so that you can make meals easier, especially around lunch. If you have the flexibility and the time luxury to be able to stop for a while with your work, make a lunch fully from scratch or more from scratch and then take that break, cool. And if you don't feel like you can do that, consider ways that you can prep your lunch ahead of time, whether that's, I'm gonna make more for dinner so that we have leftovers or I'm gonna just cook up a few components, maybe you're gonna roast some vegetables, make some rice and like combine things that well or like make some proteins and put that together. Anyways, you can prep some food to make those meals a little bit easier so that you make sure that you eat.
Cause I know that it can be really common to, if you're working in the office, just kind of order some food, get it, et cetera. Depending on, especially in Corona times, depending on where you are in the food in your area, it may be more difficult for you to get that or it might take longer or it might take, there's so many like unpredictable things. So if you're making stuff from home, maybe give yourself a little bit of time ahead of time so that you're able to have your food and also keep working in a way that works for everything. If you use your work laptop for personal things, maybe if your work laptop is the only laptop that you have or maybe it's the only one that works right now or something like that and you wanna scroll the internet after work or whatever, I highly recommend closing out anything that gives you a work notification.
So you have any kind of messaging app like Slack, if you have a separate app for your email or if you have a tab open that has your email, if you work in any task management software for your job, consider closing all those windows out or opening a completely new window just for whatever you're using for your personal stuff and ignoring the other window so that you're not drawn to just continue to work or feel some kind of way when you're like, oh my God, why is this person asking you this question? Again, when you're not working anymore. Also, because you're at home and because why not? See if there are any fun things that you can add to your workspace or your workday that you couldn't do in an office, like make it more fun.
Could you buy a candle, drink more fun beverages and buy fun beverages, I don't mean alcohol. Like if you can do that great, but that's not what I'm recommending, like if you wanna make yourself some fun mocktail or maybe you have a really nice tea setup or maybe you can make yourself blended drinks and you can't make that at your office and you have a blender and you're like, I feel like making a smoothie in the middle of the day, like that's what I'm talking about with fun beverages? Listening to music without headphones, watching a show, if you're doing like as a designer, it's a lot easier to watch a TV show or like mostly listen to a TV show while doing stuff. If you have a job that has a lot of thinking and writing that might not be super helpful.
But if that does work for you, like having something on in the background, singing while you work, that's something I do sometimes when no one's around, it really like kind of helps me process. Maybe you take a dance break, that could be fun. Like what are some ways you can add some fun to your day that you probably couldn't do in the office or that you would feel really like strange if you didn't office. So there's another section that I think is important to say that some considerations if you are working from home and you have a roommate or a family member or a partner or kids around, also sharing the space with you at the same time.
So this could be more for Corona or if your kids are sick or things like that. But I think it's really important to also acknowledge that and give some tips on that as well. So establish boundaries with those people that you live with, be really clear like this is when I'm working, this is where I'm working, I'm gonna wear headphones or I would like you to also wear headphones if you're in a separate room, whether that's your office or just another room where you're working, consider closing the door or asking that person like, hey, please don't come in here right now, I have something going on related. Like let those people in your house know if you have any meetings or calls that you're taking, if those are things you're gonna be talking on or if there are any video things so that you make sure that your partner doesn't walk by and it only has like underwear on, not that that has happened to me, but things to consider, they're also in the same environment as you and so you might need to adjust today, might need to adjust to figure out how to make this work.
Be clear on where you're working, especially if you're calls and meetings should mention, see if you need to create an additional space in your house to work while they work too, especially during Corona times. So if you both have calls or if you both have things that require sound, is there some way that you can set up something even if it's just for like that call or that meeting or something so that both of you can keep working or that more of you can keep working, even if you don't have a lot of space. For example, like I mentioned earlier, living in a one bedroom apartment, my partner and I have desks right next to each other in our living room, but I'm not recording this podcast right next to my partner. We rearranged some furniture, sold off some things so that we could get a very small desk that is now in our bedroom so that if I need to have a call or record a podcast, and he's also home, because sometimes when I'm recording a podcast, getting way more like behind the scenes than I actually share with people.
Sometimes when he's recording a podcast, if it wasn't Corona times, I'd ask him to like go to a coffee shop or he'd go to the gym or something like that so that I could have the space to like record and have two monitors. So like seeing the question at the same time, it's just easier to have to move everything, but if he's home and he's not gonna leave, or if Corona times he can't leave, I just go into this room now and I do take calls and record podcasts here and it's fine, like we can both continue working on our stuff and it's fine, it just like one of us just needs to move locations. Also, if it's not Corona times, consider it would working from another location outside your house, be helpful. If you find that being at home with those people is hard for you to concentrate.
Like if the people that you live with also work from home or maybe have kids that come home and are earlier scheduled than you do and you're like, ah, I can't deal, this is your roommate works different hours than you do and you find it really distracting to have those people there, whether that's because they are distracting as they exist or like you find yourself distracted because you want to spend time with them, would working from a different location, a coffee shop, a library, a co-working space, like would that be helpful for you or for them? Consider them, consider the people you live with in your start and stop times, consider their schedules, consider what works best for everyone because the cool thing about working from home is that you can set your schedule unless there could be some things that you might not be able to move like, yeah, I gotta attend this meeting at this time, so I can't really do this thing with you right now, but consider them in your schedule and ask them to consider you in your schedule too, so that you can figure that out. See if you can have meals with them during the day if you want to. Obviously if you don't want to, that's totally fine, but see if you can have meals with them during the day because you get this super cool gift of having more time to connect with them because you're home and they're home and so could you have lunch together, could you have breakfast together, could you create more time and opportunity to connect because you do have that as well as also working from home?
See if being with them is a good end of day ritual to switch back from your work life to your home life, like maybe that walk that I talked about earlier, maybe you go on that walk with the person you live with of people in your home, maybe you just talk with them about like, hey, how is your day, maybe you just had that talk earlier, maybe there's something that you do together, consider that as a nice potential transition. And remember any boundaries that you had with work and see if you can bring some of those boundaries here as well, whether that's knowing that you work better by maybe not being disturbed for a certain amount of time or other things like that, consider how the boundaries that you've set in your office can apply here. So lots of tips, lots of tricks on working from home, know that it's going to feel a little strange as you adjust and especially if you live with other people, again, I don't live with kids, so I can't really give too much advice about working with kids, especially like younger kids, but see if you can talk with them and help them understand that like, you're working right now and see if you can figure that out, there could also be many, many resources for people that do work at home with kids so that you can figure that out as well. So there might be a bunch of internet resources for you out there, the Google machine, hopefully will help you out.
So small steps for this podcast, check in with what you need and see which considerations could work for your life and your working situation. Consider trying one or two of those for a week and remember like every day different, so you might change things depending on what works for you that day, see what works and see what doesn't and adjust as needed. And as always, please give yourself a lot of kindness and compassion as you figure out how to work from home, especially as you figure out how to work from home during Corona times and especially if you're figuring out how to work from home during Corona times with other people that are also working from home, trying to figure out how to work from home during Corona times. It's probably gonna be a little strange at first and it also gonna be really fun and great and wonderful and fun and be really refreshing to be able to spend more time with people that you love even if you're just both they're working together.
Just having basically a coworker that you might like more than your other coworkers could be really great and have a lot of kindness and compassion for yourself and the people that you live with the people with other people that you're gonna figure it out and it might take some bumps and that's totally okay. So I'd love to know what you thought about this podcast, if there's anything else that you wanna know about working from home, hit me up on Instagram at small underscore eats. Let me know what you thought about this episode. Also, again, if you have anything specifically that you want me to talk about, about how to work through these Corona times or any other tips and tricks for adapting your life to fit during these times, please let me know and I would love to be able to help you whether that's via the podcast or IGTV or one-on-one coaching, just let me know.
All right, until next week, remember you can do this one small step at a time. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Small Step podcast. Please take a minute to subscribe to the latest episodes and updates on the show. If you love this episode, please rate and review it so it can be seen by other people and get higher in those rankings.
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