With this article I would like to support you to work productively within your own four walls and to stay fit.
Let’s get started!
Do you know that?
In the home office, it is better to keep your distance from your scales.
Or: The children keep bursting into video conferences.
You run around the house with your laptop all day and actually work anywhere you go.
The sweatpants are much more comfortable than the business outfit.
Yes, you probably know that …
Home office is currently more important than ever. But it also poses problems.
Studies show, for example, that the stress level is high and can even lead to insomnia.
Often there are no fixed rituals and one falls into an unsatisfactory rut
With the home office tips from this article, this will no longer happen to you and you can work freely and productively again. Also: stay fit!
I and my blogger colleague Mario Schuster, sports scientist and psychologist, recorded a video on the subject of home office tips, which is particularly about exercise. It’s worth taking a look!
Now I would like to give you further good home office tips that you can implement right away.
1. Separate private from professional
In the home office the pendulum unfortunately swings quickly in two directions:
- Hardly working productively and surfing the Internet
- Working like a workaholic from waking up to going to bed
To prevent this from happening to you, you should strictly separate your work in the home office from your free time.
There are a few home office tips that I would like to share with you:
- Dress appropriately
In the home office, business clothes like in the office. Whatever you want in your free time – keyword sweatpants. This helps you to keep your private and professional life apart. - Spatial separation
Set up your workplace in a specific location. Ideally, where you can close the door after your work is done and finish your day’s work in this way. Your own work desk would of course also be ideal. - The attitude is important
Doing something on the side is a problem because you lose focus. If you have to do something privately, consciously create breaks in which you can do it or, if possible, postpone it right before or after work.
If the spatial separation is not possible due to your living situation, the other two tips become even more important!
2. Work according to plan
A structured daily and weekly plan will help you to separate work and leisure time even better.
Especially if you do not live alone, it is important that people around you – especially children – know when you work and when you don’t.
Joint timetables are suitable, in which you determine when there are times when you work / play alone and when there are shared times.
You can find such a family timetable on elternimnetz.de.
Structure is important for everyone involved!
It also helps if you sit down briefly before each work day and take the time to go through and write down your to-dos today.
Then start working through the difficult tasks and save routine tasks for the end of the working day.
In the end, you can see what you have achieved and stay motivated.
3. Take advantage of opportunities
What you can incorporate into the plans described above are opportunities.
That means: times when you can work relatively undisturbed.
For me, for example, it is from 6 a.m. to 7.30 a.m. – because my children are usually still sleeping …
Between half past seven and eight we start breakfast together and then after we have finished preparing we go back to work or study.
Important: Make sure you get enough sleep – assume at least 7 hours – so that you can then work productively during the day and not hang around tired.
4. Call it a day
In the first tip I already went into this a bit.
It is very important that at some point the time comes when you put your computer aside and are properly approachable for those around you.
It’s best to do it according to plan, i.e. at the same time every day.
If you work hard early in the morning, you can certainly finish earlier in the afternoon and enjoy nice days outside with your loved ones.
For your main job, you shouldn’t open your laptop as best you can. Of course there will be important and urgent appointments at some point, but they shouldn’t become a regular occurrence.
In this context, it is also important to coordinate your availability with your superiors. So when they can call you and when you can quickly reply to an email. For most of them, this will work best between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.
5. Please do not disturb
You should convey to those around you that there are phases in which you do not even want to be approached.
That means : There are times for work and there are times for private life. Both sides should know when you work or not.
If you are lucky enough to work in your own room, put a “do not disturb” sign on the door.
You can also do this together with your children. I got such a sign. Thank you Julian!
I always hang this on the door when I have a video conference or have to work particularly concentrated and don’t want to be disturbed.
It works – it’s just stupid if you forget to hang up the sign, but then it’s your own fault.
6. Pay attention to good nutrition
Working, looking after the children, doing the housework, cooking lunch …
This can be a real challenge, especially for parents.
Nevertheless, you should be aware of one thing: You can only stay fit and productive with a healthy, balanced diet.
It’s best to start the day with a good breakfast. Here are a few breakfast ideas.
Would you like to prepare your breakfast the evening before? Then overnight oats are a good choice.
As a general rule, eat as many vegetables as possible. Make sure you eat vegetables with every meal, or at least fruit.
Set aside sweetened beverages and especially drink water. Or between coffee and tea – preferably unsweetened and without milk.
By the way, I’ve blogged about lunch in the office here. You can also easily transfer that to the home office.
And if you really run out of recipes, you will soon find them on websites such as Chefkoch & Co.
The simplest basic rule: Eat mostly unprocessed food if possible! Prepare your food yourself!
7. Movement breaks and everyday movement
Did you always go to work before?
So before you switched to the home office?
It probably took you 15 to 30 minutes to get to work …
What if you simply used this saved time sensibly?
In this short video you will learn how to do it and you will get many other useful home office tips to still get enough exercise – 10,000 steps are the daily goal.
I would like to give you three tips on how to take breaks during your home office day:
- Activate yourself regularly
- Exercise regularly
- Change positions regularly
Why do I differentiate there? I already hinted at it in the first video with Mario.
You may have heard of it before: Sitting is the new smoking.
In other words, it’s killing us.
Although that might be too much of an evil.
But at least it helps to increase the likelihood of having to abdicate earlier and sicker.
And it can’t even be made up for with regular exercise. 8 hours of sitting a day – running for an hour doesn’t help to completely offset the negative effects.
The only solution is activation in between. Above all, physical exertion so that your breathing and heartbeat accelerate.
Ideally suited for this: squats.
Just keep doing it until you feel a slight burning sensation in your thighs. It doesn’t take much longer than a minute and you’ll feel refreshed right away. Every one to one and a half hours this would help cushion the negative effects of sitting.
If you are looking for ideas on how you can manage to sit less, then I can recommend this good book.
The second problem: our rigid posture in front of the screen. This particularly affects our spine.
If you want to enjoy her for a long time and painlessly, you should therefore always incorporate some “spinal hygiene” into your everyday home office.
How does that work?
I’ll show you in this blog post: Mobilize the thoracic spine: These 11 exercises will help you!
Also try to find different sitting positions. Or maybe you can work standing up for a while.
8. Regular training
How can you train regularly even when the gym and sports club are closed?
Very simple: You train at home with bodyweight training.
Of course you can also go running, ideally in nature: 7 good reasons for a forest run and how to start it correctly,
What running can’t do is strengthen your muscles. However, there are even more advantages of bodyweight training: The 10 unfair bodyweight training advantages over running.
And according to the Austrian recommendations for health-enhancing exercise, you should do this at least twice a week. Every week!
That’s why this type of training has become my favorite topic and I want to help you learn to master it too:
Decide on a path and take off!
Do you prefer to be active in a group? This is difficult at the moment, but there are digital options, such as the SPORTUNION’s online sports program.
Home office tips – your to-dos
You have now received a lot of home office tips from me, which I will briefly summarize for you here:
- Separate private from professional!
- Work according to plan!
- Take advantage of opportunities and time windows!
- Shut up!
- Don’t let yourself be bothered!
- Make sure you have a good diet, it gives you energy!
- Include exercise breaks in your everyday life.
- Exercise regularly!
Be honest with yourself – which of the 8 points do you have the most catching up to do?
Then get started step by step to put the tips into practice.
Good luck with it!
PS: Everyday life with children is a special challenge. Therefore, also plan that your plan may change!
