Making the Work from Home Thing Suck Less

I don't like working from home. Being at home means I am At Home and Not At Work. Like many I am effectively home based for the next few weeks which means I am simultaneously At Work and Not At Work. This is, fortunately, a bit more easily managed than simultaneously having Tea and No Tea. Here's how I'm coping.

I get up at the same time I normally get up. While the temptation to sleep in is strong because I don't have a commute, a few weeks of that is going to make getting back to the commute difficult. Better to avoid that entirely.

I put on the same clothes I wear at work. This is a mindset thing. My At Work clothes are different from my Not At Work clothes. They feel different. Feeling like I belong At Work makes it easier to focus on being At Work.

I try to maintain the same routine that I have at work. I log in about the same time I usually would. I log out about the same time I usually would. I get food about the same time I usually would. My computer at home is set up as similarly to my computer at work as I can manage so that my work flows are as much alike as possible.

I keep my At Work space as separate from my Not At Work spaces as much as I possibly can. This is probably the hardest thing to manage if you don't already have a dedicated At Work room (I don't). For me this is avoiding Not At Work activities while in my At Work space. I don't eat in my At Work space and I don't play games in my At Work space. I avoid performing At Work activities in my Not At Work spaces. Working from bed is right out because that's an association between working and being in bed which can disrupt sleep.

Hopefully this will be of some help to the three (or so) of you who see it.