“God, I don’t feel like working at all”

While adjusting to the new normal, ‘Monday Blues’ have now become ‘Everyday Blues’ and this is currently the mutual feeling most of us share while working from home. What seemed interesting and relaxing in the beginning, work from home, has now become mundane, stressful and chaotic. Soon most professionals are realising how the temptation of hot, freshly cooked lunch has faded before the long hours of training which require you to sit stiff in one room facing your laptop devoid of any human interaction. While offices meant travel and following decorum, work from home is soon becoming all about isolation and extreme boredom.

And now it a struggle to deal with the negative emotions pertaining to your job and yet continue working. It is therefore imperative to keep yourself motivated while working from home. Here are a few tried and tested tips that can help you out

• Follow a plan: It is important to make a daily schedule and follow the plan to get the things done and feel balanced about work and home. Be it a schedule filled with intervals for housework, meals, office work and rest - jot it down on your planner and make sure you follow it till the end. By making a plan and following the schedule, you will end up being more productive and feel a sense of achievement. And let’s face it, who doesn’t feel satisfied while ticking off the tasks from the list?
• Treat yourself: How about--complete a particular task or hours of work and then substitute your coffee break at the office with one episode of your favourite series,  do some stretching or indulge in some play-time with your family? OR treat yourself to a bowl full of ice cream that’s been lying in the freezer at the end of the task list? Whatever it may be, try and earn these rewards for a job well done. This mindset will keep you on your toes and you’ll look forward to the positive reward even if the current work might seem stressful and boring to you. 
• Why not check on them? As everyone is working from home, you should be talking to your colleagues on calls and emails, but these talks are mostly only about work. Remember, you feel relieved at work because of the small gossip/coffee breaks you get with your colleagues. So while working from home, why not call or most preferably, video call your colleagues to randomly check on them? This will help you lower the monotony in your work with a break that helps you connect with your colleagues apart from work. 
• Say no to distractions: Who are we lying to? Every single app on your phone can prove to be a distraction when you have pending tasks lining up. Why not call a war against the distractive apps like Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter,  Whatsapp, Facebook and the likes for the duration when you are working? Keeping your phone away will help you get done with your scheduled tasks in time without any distractions and wanting to procrastinate. When working from home, unless it is a meeting or an interaction, it  is preferable that you focussedly finish your work or a chunk of it before taking a break. 
• Use productive apps: Why not manage your plan and daily schedule with some productive apps? Download to dist, Focus booster, Asana or the likes that help you with keeping yourself on track. There are many such apps which might seem like games as they make the to-do list and completion of work seem easier as you get driven with the idea of getting virtual rewards and points when you complete your work. 
• Work-friendly home atmosphere: Making a work-friendly home atmosphere can include things like dressing up as though you are going to work, quitting the bed and couch for work, setting up your work area with post its, a small plant etc. the way you would do at your office, not combining work and house tasks at the same time, putting on your headphones for some calming music, and so on. Though it sounds cliched, but NEVER work where you SLEEP as it might end up ruining your motivation to complete and work. Try and introduce a different corner, table, space in your house that you use specifically as your workstation at home.