5 Things To Include In Your Routine When You Work From Home

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After being a contractor for 3 years at Microsoft and 2 years at Google, I am now unemployed due to the time limit on contract jobs. I have to be honest and tell you that it feels weird.

This past year, I worked so hard to create the perfect routine:

1. working on my blog in the morning
2. going to work at 9:30-10
3. exercise 3 days a week at work
4. have dinner at work or head home to have dinner with my husband at 7:30
5. watch a couple of episodes from a show
6. read in bed

Now I feel lost.

Creating a new routine takes time, and I think I am feeling overwhelmed so I don’t do anything.

I have been unemployed for one and a half weeks and I am already tired of TV….

So I decided to get my sh*t together and create a new routine.

This is what I have done so far, but I would love to get your ideas in the comments!

1. Schedule weekly dates with  friends

The first thing I did was to tell my friends that I will have more time to see them!! So I told them that we needed to set a time to hang out every week.

As a result, my friend dyed my hair blue last Monday 😀 and we decided to hang out together every Monday afternoon while her little one is napping and then play with him when he wakes up.

It feels good to see people on a regular basis.

I know that if we don’t set a weekly time, I will be lazy to drive to Seattle 😀 (I can be lazy when I’m all cozy and warm at home)

2. Schedule masterminds with peers

A few of my friends are entrepreneurs and we love to talk business. That’s actually almost all we talk about.

So we decided to meet up every week to catch up on our lives and inspire each other to grow our businesses.

I have two masterminds:

1. Coffee with my friend Marika from Dirtie Dog Photography to talk about our photography businesses. (I will let you know when I have everything ready to open)
2. Online mastermind with my friend Ian from FocusGroups.org and my friend Gui from The CheekyCherubs to talk about blogging and online businesses.

I love mastermind groups because I feel so motivated and productive after each meeting!

Plus you can create one for anything, I used to have one about photography. Basically any hobby you have!!

3. Get a gym membership

When I learned that my contract couldn’t be renewed because of the two-year policy at Google, I was sad that I wouldn’t be able to go to the gym at work anymore. I loved the trainer and the group of people taking the classes with me.

First, I thought that I would simply work out at home with the Chalean Extream DVDs that I have. But I did it only once…

Working out alone is not for me.

So I knew that I needed to do something about it and looked at the gym around me.

I looked at the class schedule for each gym and found a 24 hours fitness that has this schedule:

• Monday 10:30 am= Pilate
• Tuesday 10:30 am= Barre
• Wednesday 4:30 pm= Zumba
• Thursday 10:30 am= Barre
• Friday 10:30 am= Stretch and Strength

This is perfect for me! I was doing barre twice a week and Zumba once a week and always wanted to try Pilates. Plus this is going to get me out of the house at least an hour every day.

The membership at 24-hour fitness is only $30/month and if you use Ebates you will get cash back! When I registered online I got $3 cash back!

I was supposed to go to the gym on Monday and didn’t … because I need to take baby steps. I am scared of the unknown… So in the afternoon I drove by and did all of the physical registration (adding my phone number and fingerprint to the system) and then went home.

This simple step is making it easier to go for real the next morning.

4. Reorganize my week

One way that I deal with stress and boredom is I shop. And the past week I have been shopping a lot …

Most of the things I bought are going to help me be more productive when I work on my blog and photography business.

But one of the thing that I love the most is a weekly dry-erase board to help me organize my week.

I like it because I can have a set weekly schedule and still change it if needed.

Writing down when I will do what helps me have more clarity.

By the way, you can find the awesome cat hammock here and my double screen here. I found the weekly whiteboard at Home Goods

5. Cleaning the house

I don’t know about you but I cannot focus when there’s a mess around me. It started when I was in high-school. Every time I had to study for an exam, I had to clean my bedroom and do my nails.

Today is the same!

So now that I have more time, I started deep cleaning my house. I am going room by room reorganizing and letting go of things that I never use.

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FURTHER READING:

• New Habits That Will Make You Happier
• 5 Things You Need To Reach Your Goals
• The 30 Day Productivity Action Plan
• 11 Amazing Tools That Will Make You More Productive
• How To Be More Productive In 30 Days

OVER TO YOU:

What do you do to organize your days when you spend a lot of time at home?