Working from home During Covid-19? How to set a work/home switch.

How to set a work /home switch…

If you are working from home, there are soo many potential distractions. for many your kids may have just started holidays, your partner is also working from home and your kids are not in day care.

I work with the elite athletes and getting them into ‘The Zone’ when it matters, and you can do the same with a few ideas.

Explain to your partner, how you expect to be at work, what you plan on doing and how you usually are at work. Many partners do not know the ‘work you’. Empower them to treat you as the person you need to be at work and to understand the need to be in work or home mode.

Emphasise the benefit for them, they will get the benefit of a better ‘home you’ when the day is done and you have trained yourself to switch off totally. This is something that not many are able to do in normal times.

Here are some great work from home tips to get you changing mentally.

Get dressed for work!

Put a sign on your door.

Only take work calls in your ‘office space’

Check your phone, notifications and emails during work hours.

Take breaks when you usually do.

Eat in an area away from your usual household meals area.

The hardest is to switch moods and traits as you ‘leave the office’.

 

This ‘switch process’ took me a few days to really embed into an automatic switch, it may take you the same if not longer.

A few ways to do this, is to have all your work ‘stuff’ around you. Close your eyes and imagine you are at work, absorb all the computers, devices, paperwork and the feel of the office/space you are in. If you can breathe in that feeling and associate it with a word… like ‘Awesome’.

Now remove yourself from the office, go into your house find your relaxing space and repeat the same, absorb the feeling of home, the sights, the sounds, the kids, the environment.

When you have done this, associate this home feeling with a word like ‘chill’ or ‘relax’.

Now you will have 2 distinct feelings and words, now it is time to strengthen both. It may take a while to have this switch 100% on/off instantly.

Now start at ‘home’, keep feeling the home feel and keep repeating this internally as you step toward the office door. When you get to the line of your office space or a closed door, stop and change thoughts and words to your ‘work word’ then close your eyes and step in and repeat the word and build the feelings of work.

Do this 3 times every time you step into and out of the door, when you usually do, it will become easier and faster.

You will get to a point where you can enter in and out of the door without stopping and be in the zone automatically… congratulations.

 

Stay safe and stay distant… until we can come together again.

 

Stuart Walter,

 

CEO of the Elite Mindset Institute

And, The Athlete’s Secret Weapon