5 Tips for Making Working From Home More Joyful
This essay originally appeared in the Monday morning newsletter on 11/23/20.
I love Ingrid Fetell Lee’s website The Aesthetics of Joy. Ingrid is the author of Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness, which explores the impact surroundings can have on our moods and offers design tips for creating a more joyful experience in our everyday spaces. I read it earlier this year and loved the concept.
In addition to the book, I also love the articles Ingrid posts to her website as the content focuses on that same theme: making the mundane and ordinary more joyful. Inspired by some of her recent articles (like this one on chores and on flying solo in quarantine), I started to think about areas of my everyday life that I try to make more joyful.
Instantly, I thought about working remotely, since that is such a large portion of my days and weeks. And as I reflected on it, I realized I do have a few tips and tricks I’ve picked up (mostly by trial and error) over these past nine months for making working from home a more joyful experience.
I’m certainly no expert, but I thought these tips could be applicable on this Monday because if you are reading this, it’s probably because you are working today and you may be lacking some focus with the Thanksgiving holiday looming. Of course, not every job lends itself to the type of flexibility that comes along with working remotely, but if you do find yourself working from home today or in the future, I hope you find these tips helpful to make it a more joyful experience.
5 Tips for Making Working From Home More Joyful
- Strive for accurate time perception. Without cues like commutes and greetings/goodbyes to coworkers, time perception while working from home can easily get out of whack. This is where keeping a time log can come in handy. For me, keeping a time log is like holding up a mirror to my workday. When I start a new task, I just jot down the time and then mark the time again when I finish or switch to something else. The log allows me to review how I’m spending my time and, as I wrote in this newsletter, keeps me honest in regard to how much I think I’m working, preventing me from slipping into that “all I have time for is work” mentality that is certainly not joyful.
- Begin with three things. In the morning, I love to make a big to-do list and get everything out of my head and onto paper. Then, on my best days, I go back through that list, decide on the three most important tasks for the day and write them at the top of the list. This way, when a meeting gets canceled and I suddenly have an unexpected block of time in my schedule or when I’m not sure what to start on after a break, I can quickly reference that priority list and jump right in.
- End with three more things. As I wrote about in this newsletter, I recently heard the suggestion to ask yourself, “what are three things going right?” a couple times a day. Inspired by this, I set a reminder on my phone to go off at 5:30 p.m. Monday-Friday. When I get the notification with this question, I stop what I’m doing and write three things that went right that day at the bottom of my to-do list. Especially with work, it’s so easy to focus on what’s going wrong, what’s still on the to-do list and what needs to be fixed. This simple practice forces me to pause and remind myself of the good that is still happening every day. Additionally, at the end of the week, I take such satisfaction in glancing back at my lists and reminding myself of the various “wins” from previous days.
- Batch chores. It’s tempting to do a load of laundry before your first call, prep dinner at lunch and clean up the kitchen as an afternoon break. Doing things here and there can feel productive, but all these activities require transition times and this transition time can mess with your perception and make a normal day feel so much longer. I love being able to get chores done during the week, but for me, it’s more beneficial to batch a couple chores together into one designated 30-minute time block.
- Pay attention to surroundings. Why not set your desk up by the window for some sunshine and views? Why not find a way to work by the Christmas tree during the holiday season? (This is my plan!) Sure, we are limited to a current extent as a lot of us are working in small apartments or with other family members home, but let’s seize the opportunity of working remotely and think about some fun, inspirational elements that we could realistically add for a more joyful work-from-home experience.
What do you think? Are you still working from home and will you test out any of these tips? Or do you have a tip that works great for you? I would love to know about it.
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