I am someone who is driven by routine and a very organized schedule (Read: Self-Acknowledging-Type A!!!). For those of you who are also like me, maybe working from home might at first feel like an absolute disaster. Wait… you mean to tell me, no fixed schedule?! At first I was thinking: “How will I survive without a routine? No structure = personal crisis!”
But, what I did find is that I am now able to craft my own schedule based on my natural rhythms in a way that actually makes me more balanced, if not more efficient than before. Wait… could this in fact be a dream come true, you ask me? Maybe!! 
These days, my workdays look like this:
7:30am: Wake up, shower, pick out clothes that I would dare go to the office in (which I still iron, by the way)
8:10-8:25am: Some form of me-time, such as journaling, prayer, a walk, meditation, or reading
8:26am: Make coffee
8:30am: Set up and log onto computer, check first emails while drinking first sips of my delicious Aeropress coffee (truly one of the main highlights of my day)
8:30-11:59am: These have always been my most productive and most enjoyable hours of the day. I like to really focus on my tasks, make good headway on my projects without much distraction
12:00pm: Lunch – usually accompanied by something lighthearted like a funny video, playing a video game, FaceTiming my parents, taking a walk, connecting with my boyfriend about how his day is going or playing games online with my coworkers
1:00pm: Time to go back to work!
3:00pm: An alarm goes off at 3pm, and a few friends and I take 5 minutes to meditate, pray, do breathing exercises, or just take a pause in our days. We all do this alone but message each other once we are done as a way to stay connected with ourselves and each other.
3:15pm: Around this time, I usually crave my second coffee
3:30pm: Catch my second wind (or was it the second coffee…?)
3:31pm: Continue working on “big” tasks that require my energy and focus. From now until 5:30pm is when I am the most creative, where the potential for new, out-of-the-box ideas is most ripe (however, productivity definitely decreases as it gets closer to 5pm)
4:00pm: I usually get snacky on. the. dot. at 4pm. I usually let myself have it. ?
5:00pm/end of workday: Check in with project directors to make sure that they do not need anything else from me, write my to-do list for tomorrow, close up my “work station” (currently a bunch of cookbooks and board games piled up with my MacBook stacked on top, on my kitchen table) and “punch out” …
So far, COVID-19-working-from-home has taught me that there are also some things that I get to do throughout my daily schedule that I didn’t get to before:
- Work based on my natural rhythms! I feel much happier and more productive now that I plan what work needs to get done based on when I am more or less productive/creative during the day
- Work about 1.5 meters from my 3 coffee-makers
- Blast Shakira from my computer while working…Would never get to do that back at the office!
What does your typical workday look like? How has it changed since COVID 19? What are your natural rhythms? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below!