Creating a new "normal"

Having a routine is something that's really important for me, for my mental wellbeing and my productivity. Since Monday I have been working from home which has meant my daily life has changed significantly (along with most other people in the world!) but here are a few of my top tips for creating a new "normal" in order to help you to stay well. 

1) Get outdoors - I am trying to go for either a walk or run every day to get that all important vitamin D, get some exercise, and some fresh air. 

2) Have some time away from screens - usually the majority of my job involves face to face contact, however currently I am having to adapt the way I work and use the phone and computer a lot more. To avoid getting square eyes I'm trying to read before I go to bed instead of aimlessly scrolling through social media - which is probably something I should continue to do, global pandemic or not!

3) Try to eat regular meals - since comforting eating my way through the whole of Monday, I have been trying to eat better during the day. Being at home means there's lots of temptation (I had two breakfasts today and a whole Easter egg on Monday, oops) so I'm trying to make myself a salad for lunch the night before as I would if I was in the office to save doing it at lunch (when I can't be bothered) and save my waist line!

4) Drink more water - this is something I already try to do. I have a litre water bottle which I take to work that has the times on and how much water I should have drunk, and tells me when to refill - so I've started to use this at home too to make sure I don't get dehydrated as this is my biggest trigger for headaches. 

5) Try not to drink too much caffeine - I work at my kitchen table meaning I am very close to the kettle! I have definitely been having more cups of tea since working from home but I'm trying to make some of them decaf to avoid getting a caffeine headache.

6) Stay in touch with your colleagues - we're using Microsoft Teams to keep in touch as it can feel really isolating working from home, but even a bit of virtual human contact can be really helpful.

These are just things that work for me but hopefully you might find something amongst this helpful - even if it's knowing you're not alone. 

Safe safe and ramble on...