so the first step to a productive day
working from home is to get a good
night's sleep recently I have been
having this weird nightmare that the
entire world is stricken by a global
pandemic and the stock market crashes an
entire cities are locked down in the
literal president of the United States
call with the Chinese virus just to be
extra xenophobic for no reason and I
can't go home because I don't want to
potentially infect my parents but
everybody I know has already fled New
York so I'm completely alone anxious and
saddened associating in aggressively
horny at the same time but trying to do
my job and then I wake up and I remember
that's just reality now
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for real I know everyone's been affected
by the virus differently and many more
severely than us in the United States so
I hope you all are safe and holding out
hope and my thoughts are with anyone who
can't work remotely and has lost their
jobs I know it is such a privilege to
work from home but in the meantime I
know many of you are studying or working
from home right now so I thought I'd
give you my tips on how I stay focused
productive and sane or at least
relatively sane while working from home
[Music]
so generally when I wake up I try to
avoid checking my phone at all but
honestly I've been really bad about that
recently and I can find it hard to find
that sweet spot between at the anxiety
of not knowing what's on the news and
the anxiety of scrolling away too many
articles and then getting freaked out so
I've just been reading the New York
Times live updates which is free to read
even if you don't have a subscription
then I look up any new restrictions in
New York that I need to be aware of and
after that as hard as it is I put my
phone away I'm even in my bedroom and
try to get started with my workday
something that's really helped me is
having a little morning ritual which for
me consists of making matcha and getting
ready I used to wake up and then
literally grab my laptop from my
nightstand and start working without
eating or changing clothes or getting
out of bed to make sure that I maximized
the time for working but it honestly
just made me feel awful
so I described my morning routine as a
version of opinion it's a little buffer
time after I wake up that mentally takes
me from my home life to my work life and
tells my brain like hello we are
entering office time now getting ready
every morning even when I'm not filming
or seeing anyone has also helped me feel
really centered and kind of like a real
person
working in a real office it's almost
meditative for me I crack a window and
get some fresh air and listen to the
relaxing sounds of birds and random
angry New Yorkers shouting at each other
on the street below me whether you're
into makeup or not I think it's
important to carve out some time to not
listen to anything not even music or
podcast just sit in silence kind of sift
through your own thoughts
[Music]
honestly this might sound weird but
there is something about being in
clothes that are slightly uncomfortable
that makes you work harder or maybe I
just associate the gut squeezing pain of
skinny jeans with my nonstop studying in
high school but either way it works for
me here are a couple of my go-to workout
sites first of all a simple pair of
jeans and a cute toss you can't go wrong
I call this outfit kind of an upgraded
athleisure look the trick is to wear
pants with an elastic waistband so
they're super stretchy and comfortable
but feel and look a little bit more put
together than leggings my top is just a
stretchy bra let so it's super comfy on
the boobs I'll have you know but it has
a square cut that I think is very chic
and lastly a dress is a no-brainer
outfit because it's literally just one
piece and it's also really comfortable
because they usually have a stretchy
waist bands and they let your legs roam
free a lot of people avoid wearing their
best or fanciest outfits at home or save
it for a good day but today is a
good day and if an outfit makes you feel
good there's never a limit on the number
of times you can wear it now it's time
to make the long commute to the office
traffic was awful today I made a bit of
a rush hour so my number one tip from
working from home is to create a
distinct work space spaces affect your
mentality so much and especially when
working from home it's crucial to
simulate that separate office space so
I've placed my desk as far away from my
bed as possible to avoid the temptation
to slough back into bed and scroll on my
phone I also like to face towards the
window so I get some sunlight while I
work and it's a little bit less
depressing than the view of a plain
white wall for hours on end and I like
to face away from the rest of my
apartment and any potential mess or
household distractions
even just desk clutter and cameras and
notebooks can be stressful to look at
and distracting when you're trying to
focus so I clear those away as often as
possible don't forget to clear out your
digital workspace too I hadn't realized
I was getting stressed out just looking
at all the files and screenshots and
unused apps on my desktop but it's so
much easier to focus with a clean
desktop a clean space really does equal
and if you don't have room for a proper
desk I didn't in college for a while you
can still get creative with a nightstand
or a shelf and add a few decorations to
create as nice a workspace as possible
if you do have to work from your bed I
found that even rotating the pillows
so I'm sitting perpendicular to how I
usually sleep and help create a little
separation between working in bedtime
and chilling in bedtime to-do lists are
the main way that I structure my work
schedule and basically I have a rule
that if it's in my brain no matter like
how small a task it is or how big a task
it's getting written down somewhere just
so I can kind of clear it out of my
brain so I've been using a bullet
journal for a while now and I really
like it but I know it can be kind of
intimidating to spend that much money on
a notebook or seem like you need
something super well formatted so you
can also literally just pick up a pad of
paper for it like 99 cents and jot down
ideas there as well so the way I make
to-do lists is in my bullet journal I'll
write an overview of my tasks for the
day so I have a couple high-level top
tasks these are usually big projects
like filming a video editing a video
creating a thumbnail and then below I
have a pending section for kind of
ongoing errands or lower priority tasks
then I'll buy cheaper notebooks I'll go
ahead and break down those large tasks
into all of their smaller steps so for
example in creating a video I write down
all the different shots that I have to
take writing the voice over recording
the voice over rough cut fine cut adding
music exporting thumbnail description so
that I can cross off smaller steps
throughout the day and have that sense
of accomplishment as I'm making progress
rather than just seeing in my notebook
edit a video which takes like 30 hours
and then getting frustrated with myself
and feeling like I didn't do anything
that day because I didn't get to cross
off the task one of the biggest
struggles of working at home is avoiding
distractions especially when you don't
have a boss to keep you on track the
best trick I found is to essentially
create rules for your workspace like at
this desk I don't want you to at this
desk
I don't fall through tick-tock if you
want to do those things you have to
physically get up from your desk and go
to your bed to do them I found that 9
times out of 10 it's kind of just a
fleeting impulse to pick up my phone or
waste time online and ultimately I'm too
lazy to get up and move 10
feet to do them I'm also big on
preserving the sanctity of the space in
the sense that if you start allowing
tik-tok at your desk for example it's a
lot harder to stop because you already
created the mental association between
the space and the activity in your brain
whereas if you've only ever done work at
your desk your brain automatically wants
to do work once you sit down I'm sorry
if you're still having trouble getting
distracted
I'd recommend shutting off your phone
and leaving it in a different room and
turning off your Wi-Fi if it's not
essential to the work activity you're
doing I do this a lot when I'm like
editing or writing even emails can be a
big distraction and disrupt the focus
need for deep work so I like to quit out
of my email app until the end of the day
when I'm ready to check it all at once
something that I still struggle with
through this day is the good old
afternoon slim I feel like it's so much
worse when you're working from home
around like 3 or 4 p.m. I just get
really distracted and antsy and I want
to get out from my desk and do something
else so I found the best way to channel
that energy is into a productive break
for me that means doing something
physical rather than doing something
mental on my computer like cleaning up
my room organizing my ever messy kitchen
cabinets going outside to run errands
which isn't really a possibility right
now or cooking something new which in my
case is just having a negative ramen
because I have different tried that
before and that's as advanced as I get
Gordon Ramsay has been real quiet since
I made this video huh often doing
something physical allows my brain to
think at kind of a relaxed pace and I
can often find solutions to problems I
was stuck at at my desk once I get up
and change my environment a little bit I
even find that switching tasks and using
a different part of my brain can feel
like a break a lot of the times when I'm
several hours deep in editing and
getting really frustrated in the antsy
I'll take a break and edit a thumbnail
or draw handwriting graphics which
allows my brain to chill out for a sec
for you this might be switching between
writing an essay and doing something
visual like creating a presentation or
taking a break from something
high-intensity like coding with
something more mundane like sending
emails and my final tip is to create
overboard for yourself at the end of the
day whether that's facetiming a friend
or watching a movie I never used to make
social plans or give myself down
during four weeks because I felt
obligated to keep 100% of my time
available for work not having anything
to look forward to not only is super
demoralizing but it also makes me waste
more time this is because of Parkinson's
Law which is the idea that work expands
to fill the amount of time available for
its completion so when I gave myself too
much time
aka from the moment I wake up till the
moment I go to sleep to work I will end
up you more distracted because I know I
have so much time to fill verses for
example if I have plans to FaceTime
someone at 8:00 it pushes me to work
more efficiently and not get distracted
so I can make it to those plans right
now forever it was New Year's and we
thought 2020 was gonna be a good year so
cats came out anyways that's all I have
for this video
honestly it's a weird time and if you're
not feeling productive i 100% feel you
take it easy on yourself I had to force
my ass to get ahead and make this video
because I just wanted to like lay down
and scroll through the news but I really
have found that work does help as a
distraction so I hope this video was
helpful and I hope doler staying safe
and staying indoors I'll see you guys
next week bye