I have been lucky enough to work remotely for the past four years. I live most of my life out of my home, so you can only imagine how often the lines between my personal and professional life have blurred. Plus, the pandemic has caused my boyfriend’s university to go fully online for the rest of this semester, and his summer semester.

Being cooped up together in the house all day is the least of our worries. We’ve always been homebodies, but the real issue is making sure I shut down for the night and start my morning at my best. That means I need to be able to shift from work-mode to home-mode. And that’s not always the easiest thing for me.

I’ve certainly had days where I get wrapped up and spend the day on the couch with my laptop until 11 p.m. I’ve used some great beginning-of-day and end-of-day rituals to help me separate work and home. Without them, I’d truly be lost!

Finding a Routine

When trying to figure out how to end and/or start your days, it really is all about personal touches and doing what works best for you. Everyone has their own way of doing things, especially now that many of us are adjusting to a new kind of normal. Don’t start a routine for the sake of just doing it. Your daily rituals and routines should revolve around you and what soothes or motivates you. I like to see it as an extension of my self-care routines.

Plus, if you have a partner or kids at home with you, it’s a great way to start new routines as a family to help you get your days started together, or at least end them together. These routines don’t have to take up major chunks of time either! A quick 10-minute routine is a great way to get started.

Just Start!

There is no fancy hack to doing these rituals. Really, you just have to implement them into your day and make it a habit to do it every day. In the beginning, it really helped me to literally add these rituals into my schedule. I would write them into my paper planner and set a calendar alert for about a month before I instinctively made it a permanent part of my day.

The Candle Method

This is the simplest thing you can do while you work from home. While I’m sitting at my desk, I like to burn candles. I’ll light one in the afternoon after lunch, and start working away. Once I finish my work for the day, I blow the candle out and it really does feel like the end of the workday for me. I’ll also sometimes use candles to get work done. If I’m working on a big project, I’ll light a candle at the start and work until it’s half-finished.

Stretching

I am infamous for not working out. It’s terrible, I know. I promise it will change…but for now, I’m slowly trying to work activity into my day. I carry so much tension in my back and it doesn’t help that I sit and type all day either. Usually about 1 p.m. (I’ll set an alarm), I take 30 minutes to stretch.

It’s been a really great way to stay active and take care of myself, but mostly after a good stretch, I feel refreshed. I’ll usually have a relaxed lunch after this and take my time to get back to my desk.

Reward Yourself

I have no issue being honest and saying that I like to treat myself. However, I do it meaningfully. For example, if I finish a big project in the morning, I give myself the treat of reading my favorite magazine cover to cover. Or if I finish a huge task list, I’ll stop my workday an hour early and watch a movie I’ve been dying to see. It really is the little things that matter these days.

Preparing a Day Ahead

Before I shut my laptop, I always plan for the next day. It helps me shut off my work-brain for the evening. No one wants to worry about little tasks they need to add to a to-do list, so prep for the day before properly. I use a planner to track my daily and weekly tasks, and make sure to update it before closing out my day.