HOW TO WORK ‘WELL’ FROM HOME

“Wish I could work from home,” said some people in the time before any of this happened. Well for many of us, privileged to have the option to work from home, it’s now a reality. You might not have expected your wish to come true quite like this…. But hey, life is not a bowl of...ahem...absolutes, otherwise we’d be bored out of our minds! Working with what we have and surrendering to what is is part of life’s journey, and here we are with many of us facing the closure of our places of work or making the decision to stay home, most likely shortly before it becomes mandatory.

As someone who’s been working from home on and off for 10 years, I thought I’d review for myself what works and what doesn’t and share what I think is worth knowing.

Having worked as a caterer, health coach, consultant, TV and podcast presenter, speaker and restaurateur for those 10 years, as well a writer and recipe developer (sounds fancy when you spell out the titles but it just means my job was varied, not that I actually did “more”), there haven’t been many days when I got to focus on just one major project. Writing books was one of the only times I actually buckled down and focused on one thing at a time. This took some getting used to, as I had to make myself stop begrudging this commitment since I was meant to be juggling so many other things at the same time. But when I let go of those expectations, that’s when I got a lot of quality work done — to the point where I amaze myself looking back.

I find meetings and events fun but very distracting — sure, you meet new people, swap new ideas and the whole thing can be very energising, but then you still come home to all the work you didn’t do that day, plus you’ve got to write up/follow up on all those meetings and it’s hard to find the right gear…

So what I’m trying to say is that I’m looking forward to working from home for the next month (not sure how I’ll feel about it being 2, or 3 or 4… or 18, yikes! Or where my income will come from!) but in every cloud there is a silver lining — even if you have to paint it in yourself.

KEEP TO A ROUTINE

After giving yourself a few days of wild abandon and a bit of a lie-in — because the world might go to shit so what's the point anyway? — get back on track and find your system. Sharing your space, especially if it’s small, with friends/family/kids can be distracting, in a fun way but also challenging in a not-so-fun way (see watching the kids below). If you have flatmates who want to have fun or scare you with the latest news headline then you might have to work from your bedroom to get stuff done. I don't recommend working from your bed (except for the first day or two since it’s a novelty) so make a desk out of some books and sit on the floor (better for your back). Put that desk at one end of your bedroom for the morning and another end for the afternoon just to change things up or dare to try and work from the shared living room or kitchen only if you know it’s the kind of work you can do with your eyes shut while everyone tries to talk to you.

Now that you don’t have your daily commute, you’ve got more time on your hands. Take it from me (who likes to go feral once in a while): just because you’re not seeing anyone doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make the effort to wash, brush your teeth, get into fresh clothes (they can be jogging bottoms of course)... Energetically you’ll feel so much better – and if you “haven't had the time” to fit in the Ayurvedic Dinacharya (routine) to see if it works for you then now is the time to give it a go.

When it comes to the end of the day, tidy up your work gear — especially if it’s where you eat or hang out with others. Tidying up helps you to switch mode after a day's work (more on that below) and also stops work taking over your entire premises.

CUT THE DISTRACTIONS

You might be used to a quiet workspace, you might be used to a busy and noisy space. Tempting as it is to play your own tunes (now that no one is ribbing you for your song choices at the office), have the TV on in the background for breaking news, have all the notifications going off on your phone and leaving the bathroom radio on just because you can, why not try creating a peaceful work space as much as possible and see how that affects your productivity? I break it up, to be honest — in the mornings I like to listen to the birds outside, especially now they're getting more vocal in the warmer weather. If I’m shooting a recipe video, I get some pop songs on to get me in the mood. Currently I’m switching between a classical album, Lavinia Meijer’s Voyage and some indie folk thanks to Spotify's genius artist radio playlists — mine’s on José González radio. Don’t have any birds singing at you? Don't worry, there’s an app for that: check out my Biophilia playlist on Spotify.

USE THE POMODORO TECHNIQUE FOR PRODUCTIVITY

You won’t be able to concentrate for long periods of time, but you can concentrate for 25 minutes at a time and get very productive. This is also good for those with kids as you can tell them when you’ll be available to play — if they’re old enough you can tell them not to disturb until the beep!

EAT HOMEMADE FOOD AND GET THAT EARLY SUPPER iN

Yes that’s right, working from home means that lunchtime can look more like those delicious bowls of homemade goodness that you see on Instagram. For everyone who spends precious evenings prepping the night before or rushes to get it all done in the morning before work because you know the importance of fresh cooked food with an ingredient list that you understand better (and without restaurant prices let’s not forget!), then now you can luxuriate in your own kitchen when mealtimes come around.

Another bonus when I’m working from home is eating supper early. Commuting home from work and then having to get the dinner on often means that dinner comes quite late. By then you’re so hungry you eat more than you need before bed, plus you might have had to snack to get you to this point, plus you either go to bed with a full stomach or have to stay up later just to digest it. This kind of routine is recognised as being an upset to our health — as the sun starts to drop so does our metabolism, as the body receives signals to wind down for bed — and is often the cause of our lack of energy and poor-quality sleep. We now understand this in the West as working with the circadian rhythm and, from this, intermittent fasting has become popular. While people are experimenting with when to fast — the traditional way of working with our circadian rhythms is to have a last light meal at 6/6:30 p.m. and then bed at 10. Eating again at 8 a.m. gives you 12 to 13 hours of fast time when you’re mostly asleep anyway. Try it, I swear by it (P.S. I don’t fast in the day unless I have digestive issues I’m trying to get back on track — in which case I skip a meal until my Agni is back up and running. P.P.S. I also don’t think of it as fasting — I think of it as, “eurgh that last meal’s not sitting well, I’ll eat when I feel true hunger again or eat a little ginger to get it all going”).

CHECK IN WITH YOURSELF BEFORE SNACKING

On that note, the fact that the kitchen is right there, that there isn’t the office fever strapping you to your desk and the fact that you stockpiled recently (on probably dry snacks!) means that you can easily be swayed towards the kitchen. As Dr. Mathew noted on my IGTV live last weekend for #SundaySlow, there may be a tendency to overeat or snack — not only negatively affecting your Agni but also impacting the Kapha Dosha, which is also the Dosha aggravated by respiratory illnesses, so be warned.

Eat three good meals, or even two if you’re more a Kapha type and want to fast in the morning, have a sizeable brunch and then a light supper. But really work on this routine, set timers if you like and take advantage of preparing your own food fresh as much as possible. It’s Monday as I write this and I’ve just sautéed off yesterday's roasted veg leftovers (check this video from IGTV) for my lunch — hot and delicious. I have to get up from my desk and make a thing out of lunch because otherwise I just hear all the crunchy salty snacky stuff calling my name, and for sure this would then be followed by a craving for the sweet, creamy chocolate stuff. As many a mother would say, “you’ll ruin your dinner” and it does totally throw my appetite off schedule.

That said, these are unprecedented times — at least in our lifetimes — so if you do end up snacking as a way to comfort yourself or just because you feel like it, don’t beat yourself up. Just make sure you’re taking care of your Agni most of the time, so that you can stay strong.

KEEP MOVING

Without the daily commute and now with the gyms and yoga studios closing up shop one by one, there’s no enforced activity going on and as humans, there is no getting away from it, we need to move regularly for our physical and mental health. Sitting for long periods of time isn’t great for the body and the brain doesn't like it either. We need to get the blood moving, our breath working for us and the Prana (life force) flowing. By now we all know the aches and pains that can come with working at a desk all day, so here are some exercises to get you moving and keep your energy up. You can squeeze them into your short Pomodoro breaks and then when it comes to longer breaks, take a walk in nature (if it’s available) and eat without distractions.

WHO’S GOING TO LOOK AFTER THE KIDS??

A big question…. I’ve been talking to friends and it looks like family isolation buddies might be the way to go. Find another family who are committed to the same isolation rules that you will follow — i.e. so far they are not showing signs of illness and have not been in close contact with someone who has been showing symptoms. Agree that as two families, you are the family unit and then do half-day swaps so that you can keep the kids entertained, give them a change of scenery and give yourself time and space to get your own work done. You have to trust each other with this commitment and alert the other family as soon as you have to or have breached it. You might be pleasantly surprised by what comes out of this…

A friend of mine who has been unwell with a cold/flu for weeks (COVID-19? Who knows, the test isn’t readily available unless you’re in hospital) found that he has been so much more productive working from home — even though he was feeling rough!! The house wakes up at 6 a.m. anyway, so while his wife takes care of the kids during the first part of the day, and without the interruptions from work, he has been getting all his usual duties finished between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. He then spends the rest of the day resting, entertaining the kids and keeping an eye out for any emails that need answering 

SLEEP BETTER

One of my biggest challenges, especially when writing my first cookbook 10 years ago (which had been brought forward by 8 months and was mid winter and for which I didn’t know what the heck I was doing), was switching off from work. At the time I would have to go next door to my neighbour’s (now one of my best friends who lives too far away for my liking!) and enjoy the change of scenery and her incredible hospitality while I moaned about my day, but I was still somehow wired before bed, which equated to a crap night's sleep.

Working from home means there isn’t the after-work gathering at the pub or yoga or whatever people do these days, and there isn’t the commute home to switch off from work and turn back from a human doing into a human being (although, yes, all your house chores still await!), which makes your chances of slowing down (if you’re prone to Vata aggravation like me) even slimmer... I found this really difficult when it came to working from home — hard to stop the robotic plugging away at the laptop, and with the TV as the only obvious solution. Stop with the screens already!!! Learn to unplug and disconnect. The constant influx of news, though you may deem it necessary, can feel extremely overwhelming and anxiety-inducing, so make sure you take some time out from your technology and be sure to filter what you’re watching.

Yes, that’s my advice, step away from the screens and subdue that brain buzz.  Switch from clear lighting that keeps you focused while you work to low level lighting to set the mood for evening. Tidy up your desk, go outside (while we still can!). Find some nature, walk around the block to move the body, do a slow yoga video just taking in the audio, listen to a self-care lecture (check out my YouTube  channel) or listen to an inspirational podcast and then meditate. I find jumping straight from work to meditation a challenge, but the change in scenery/audio for 20-30 minutes helps and then my meditation takes care of the rest.

One thing I really love to do around 6 p.m. is light some incense. I find that this is my “stop working, Jasmine” prompt. It started as a little ritual, coming home from work to an empty house and wanting to put some life back into it, and it’s now a way of separating my working day from the rest of my time. Sometimes the incense lighting end of working day ritual slips to 7 or 8 p.m.… try your best to stick to a sane cut-off point from work or you’ll end up too wired for bed. Read more about getting the right sleep here.

REVIEW YOURSELF

Is your routine working, is your desk situation working, are you feeling motivated enough, if something isn't working what can you do to change it? Don’t get stuck in a rut — explore new possibilities. I find that a spot at my dining table works well every other day, but forget two days in a row — I change it up by sitting on the floor and using my coffee table, or using the lower step of my stairs as my makeshift desk. Right now I’m wrapped up in a big puffer coat sitting outside my back door with a woolly hat and a big cushion on my lap as the desk to catch the last rays of the afternoon, but I’m aware my neck is not loving this so it’s time to move on and find a new spot to settle. Enjoy the newness of it all. You never know, you might find a lot of positives in all this — after years of saying you want to be your own boss, or work from home full-time... This is a chance to see what suits.

Coming soon: How to make a staycation out of uh... self-isolation.