Obviously it’s darker outside – and colder – but for many people who are still relatively new to working from their homes, the mental effects of January conditions are combined the mental effects of… well, everything else. Here are a few things we’re doing to cheat our brains into productivity:
🚶 Walk to work
This may sound odd, but having a little bimble at the start and end of your work day – and at lunch – can really help switch gears from waking up to working. Walk around the block if you can – or even just a few laps of a garden, if you have access to one.
📵 Take breaks (from social media)
Check social media can be an instinctive reaction to fill the time on breaks, during lunch – or – for many – if it’s an integral part of your job. But try not to! It can be a terrible place! If you find yourself with 5 minutes, read a few pages of a book, or a blog about something you like, text a pal, or write a journal.
🐈 Pace
Being hunched over a computer for hours on end is generally frown upon by anyone with knowledge about muscles, bones and brains.
It cramps your body, your mood and your creativity.
If you were in the office, you’d get up every so often for water, coffee or a chat. Or, importantly, crisps. Find an excuse
to get up and move around. Go and see your cat. If you’re taking calls, get up and pace.
🧘♀️ Focus on the positives!
They do exist. For most of the UK – from next weekend the sun will come up before 8 in the morning. By the end of the month, the sun will be setting closer and closer to 5 in the evening. Step by step, we’re getting there! If you want to go towards the light a little sooner, pick up a cheap smart bulb or lamp that imitates sunrise – your brain is surprisingly easy to trick (no offence).
🤫 Silence and Noise
As we’ve mentioned before, sound can have a huge effect on your mind and your mood. Take this opportunity to listen to whatever you want without the judgment of your colleagues. There shouldn’t be any such thing as a guilty pleasure! Put Baby Shark on repeat if that’s your thing*!
*Also maybe seek help
Press play on The Team’s Winter Working From Home Playlist now 👇
Any office hacks for at-home productivity through the winter months? Let us know 👇
From the Team
Thanks for reading the, often terrifying, thoughts and opinions of the people behind RHA. We hope that sharing what we are up to during this period might entertain some of you. If it did, why not share it with someone else - you never know, they might enjoy it too…
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