5 Ways Routines Keep You Strong When Working From Home
Why can’t I wake up late and putter around in pyjamas listening to the news all day?
You want to keep your business alive, keep anxiety and overwhelm at bay, and keep your energy and spirits up as much as possible during the Pandemic.
Having a morning ritual, a daily routine for meals and exercise, a schedule for work and play, and a work day wind down, will help you feel focused and purposeful in your mind, body and business.
Routines give you a sense of control
We’ve not chosen any of the madness happening in the world right now. It’s not our choice to be losing business. Or isolated from friends and family. Or losing our jobs. Or worried about getting sick. Or losing someone we love. Or actually sick. It makes us feel panicked, lethargic, and out of control. And while those feelings are appropriate responses to this crisis, we can’t live in those feelings all day long.
We can counteract these intense feelings by implementing control over the parts of our lives we can. We can control what time we get up in the morning, and whether we get dressed, wash our face, and eat a healthy breakfast. We can control if we make a To Do List, and get it done whether we’re in the mood or not. We can control if we reach out to a friend, offer support to a family member, or do yoga at 9:30 each night.
An added bonus is when we focus on controlling our routines and schedules, we are less focused on trying to control the other human beings in our environment - which never comes to any good. Trust me. I have teenagers.
Daily routines and rituals give us back some semblance of control in this time of crisis and offer us precious moments where we can catch our breath and feel grounded and safe.
Routines help you get shit done
Working at home is a new experience for many people. We’re in charge of our day; which at first feels like freedom. But if we procrastinate all day long because no one is looking over our shoulders, we find ourselves at 10:00 at night with 6 hours of work to do. Self leadership skills start to come in handy!
Setting up a work schedule helps keep indecision, fatigue and apathy from striking during the work day. The most important part though is to actually do the tasks on our beautiful schedule we took four hours to create!
Following through on our schedules requires a willingness to sit with the discomfort of doing something new and uncomfortable, such as trying to work with constant interuptions from kids. We need to let go of the idea that we should have this figured out by now, and accept we will make mistakes, and try to manage as best we can under trying circumstances. We can do hard things!
Routines combat decision fatigue
Life as we know it has completely changed. Everything requires more thought and effort to think through. “I need gas. If I pay from the pump, should I wear mitts to protect myself from Covid - 19? What if I unknowlingly have it and I pass it on when I pay with my credit card. Can I afford a car wash now that one of my income sources is gone?”
With all these new decisions we have to make comes decision fatigue. There are only so many decisions we can make in a day until we feel mentally exhausted, tense and experience brain overwhelm.
I scheduled 9:00 pm Board Games at our house. It seems forced and kind of ridiculous, but I don’t have to think of when I’m spending time with my kids. I know in advance so I don’t have to waste time and energy thinking about it. That goes for my walk, my meals and when I’m getting up.
Routines and rituals will help us feel focused and mentally strong as they take away some of the decision making we have to do, and keep our brains clear and productive for the bigger decisions.
Routines make you intentional
With the world feeling very out of control, now is a time where we must be intentional on the choices we make and how we spend our time.
We make the choices to stay home so that others won’t get sick.
We choose to not take the moods of the people in our home personally.
We eat healthy and exercise because we know we need to keep our strength up to support the people in our lives who are looking to us for leadership.
Routines keep us grounded
We can keep to our schedules and routines so we can keep showing up for ourselves, our families, our communities, our businesses and our world.
Routines, rituals and schedules will help us show up: sometimes raw and emotional, sometimes with humour, and sometimes with hope. But we continue to show up and give with purpose, with intention and with love.
