If you’ve read my project planning and home office reno posts, then congrats, you’ve made it to the final phase of my home office series – putting it all into action! If you missed these other posts, I outline how I go about ideating, planning and implementing projects. And the specific project is my home office renovation. So now let’s get into the final phase of home projects: function! And happily ever after haha.
Routine
Getting Started
First things first, you’ve gotta have your drinks! I always start with a scoop of collagen in my coffee and a big bottle of electrolyte water. I have used this collagen for about a year and I really like it! My skin feels more elastic and I like the research behind it. But I digress. I set everything down on my estate sale cork coasters. I never knew of cork coasters before this amazing estate sale we went to a few months ago, but I love them because they absorb the liquid and they don’t stick to the bottom of your cup like so many coasters do! Then of course I turn everything on. Besides my monitor and laptop, I turn on my lamps and my monitor light bar.
Get Moving
Now that everything is on and I’ve got my drinks, I’m ready to get started for the day! I push my chair back and raise my standing desk to the highest setting. I’ve linked this desk in my past posts, but I love it so much! It’s really pretty and works well, but I love that it’s deeper than a regular desk, so I can fit all of my drinks with room for a lamp and flowers and a notebook. Once my desk is up, I unfold my walking pad and set it up under my desk. This is actually the fourth walking pad I’ve owned! The other variations I’ve tried have been clunky, hard to use, really loud, etc. I had my eye on the foldable treadmill for a while, but couldn’t convince myself to spend the money. So once it was on sale, I sold my old treadmill and bought the foldable walking pad – I LOVE IT. I will never go back, especially as someone who hates visual clutter, I love that I can stow it away and bring it out so easily. I typically walk for 1-2 hours in the morning on a low setting like 1.5 mph so I can easily type and work on my computer without any issue.
After walking for a couple hours, I crave a sit down in my comfy desk chair or I’m really hungry for an early lunch haha. Whenever my dogs hear the treadmill stop and the desk lower, they come running into the office for kisses, it’s so funny to me. But it’s also a really nice transition from go-mode during my peak productivity hours. Then like I mentioned, I love rolling my chair forward and sitting down to crank out another couple hours of work. I really wanted a Pipersong Meditation Chair, but I just cannot get behind the price tag. Plus, as much as I love to sit with my legs all over the place, I really love to get snuggled up to work sometimes. So I couldn’t fully foresee myself love the chair and for that price tag, I had to be sold. So, I looked for a comfier alternative and found this chair – my most favorite desk chair of all time! It’s cushioned and comfy, it has arms which I love, it can lean back as far as you need, but I really love that it has a foldout footrest! It’s perfect for when I want to sit criss-cross or stretch out my legs or even prop my feet up and snuggle in.
After working hard during the morning hours, I usually take a lunch around 11:30 or 12. Then I shift back in to work mode and prep for my calls, which are usually in the afternoon. I like to turn on and use my monitor light bar to wake up my office space. I like this light bar because 1. it plugs into my monitor for ever-lasting power and I can hide the cord in my monitor arm, 2. it flips up and down for when I want my screen illuminated vs. my face during calls and 3. it has different brightness settings and can switch between warm and white light. So I’ll turn it on a high setting and face it down on my work space and then when my calls start, I’ll turn the brightness down and flip it up to sharpen the image of my face on client calls.
Typically throughout the whole day, I like to listen to a podcast or a book. If you’re looking for recs or if you’re also into audio books and podcasts, leave a comment below because I love to chat about it! My favorite podcast is probably Morbid (think true crime, but the hosts are besties and make you feel like you are too) and I love to use Libby for my audio books, it’s a free app to borrow books and audiobooks from your local library (hello huge savings)! I love a fictional thriller/suspense so naturally I love Julie McFadden. When the dogs are running around playing or I can hear my husband’s music from the kitchen, I love to use these budget-friendly noise cancelling headphones. They hold a charge for a really long time and the noise cancelling is great!
Then of course, I take my afternoon calls, which are a majority of my calls since I am on the east coast. After my calls and all of my work is done, I like to follow a wrap up routine. This usually starts around 5:15, but I really try to aim for 5:00, I swear! haha. First things first, gotta wrap up online. This usually starts once I’ve found a natural stopping point in whatever task I was finishing up last. Then I’ll review my inbox, by replying to any last minute emails, moving my non-to-do emails to a folder and putting any to-do emails on my list for the next day. I check off items on my to-do list (personal and professional) and review any remaining tasks for today in the task manager (we use Wrike, but I use Notion for my personal to-dos) and push them to tomorrow. I review my work messages (we use Slack and I have my own hex codes for a calm, green aesthetic, let me know if you’d like to see a post on it!) and make sure I have nothing outstanding and no one needs anything from me. And then I record my hours and where I spent my time for the day. Once this is all done, I like to play an energizing song and tell myself I’ll be away from my desk by the time the song is done. At this point, if no one has sent me an additional last minute message in the time I’ve been wrapping up, I should be good to mark myself “away” and put my work station to sleep. I love digital organization and have a ton of tricks, let me know if you’d like to see some of them!
Once I’ve shut down digitally, I like to close out my workspace. I’ll step away from my desk, turn all of the lights off (two lamps and the light bar), push my chair in, and clean up my workspace and put everything back to where it was in the morning. Then I leave my office and I don’t consider coming back into it anytime soon haha. I truly the love space I work in and I’ve found a routine that works really well for me, as someone who works from home full time and loves to spend her free time at home too haha. Let me know if this resonated with you or if you’d like to chat routine, set up, or books/podcasts!
