How I start my day

The key to working from home

One of the key pieces of camaraderie in working in an office is the morning arrival. Think of all the things you did to get to the point where you arrive at work, walk to the kitchen, put your lunch in the fridge, grab your morning coffee and chat with co-workers. Depending on your commute, your day could be in its second or third hour.

Compare that to working at home where you can literally roll out bed and start your workday. And before we go any further, I offer one strong word of advice:

DON’T DO THAT

You can Google and find countless pieces of research and anecdotes as to why going from your bed to your workstation is a really bad idea—no matter how much you love your shuteye. The most compelling reason is you need to put yourself in a position to be productive.

As much as we dislike the morning commute, it does challenge the body and mind enough so you are alert when you start your day. Short of getting in your car and driving around what can people who work from home do?

First off, don’t rule out getting in your car and driving around as an option. Though with gas prices being what they are, it’s not advised. Yet if a short trip can put you in that mindset, it’s not the worst idea.

When it comes to morning routines, it’s really a matter of experimentation and finding what works best. Over the years, yours truly has developed the following:

• Get dressed and go make a pot of coffee

• Meditation and visualization exercise from Psycho Cybernetics [affiliate link]

• Joint loosening exercise or Combat Abs from Matt Furey

• Gratitude practice (writing the Word of the Day from gratefulness.org in cursive, lefthanded and righthanded)

• Breakfast

This ritual or practice has variations. Sometimes the visualization exercise will be replaced with tapping. Or, I may get out my buffalo drum and play that for five to 10 minutes. Other days may start with a shower and then go into art of this routine (bathing is sometimes optional when you work from home).

The point is I very rarely start my workday within 30 minutes of waking up. In fact, it gets closer to an hour the more I get into it. And I am really okay with that.

One of the benefits of this routine is that I sometimes come up with ideas for work that I can implement right away. For example, ideas for this newsletter and two other arose from this morning’s joint loosening session.

What do you do to start your workday from home? Please share in the comment box.