Tools for Staying Healthy and Maintaining Productivity

First things first, the goal is to stay physically healthy — this means abiding by social distancing, washing your hands, and keeping your space clean. We trust you to maintain your social bubble and wash your hands, but we found a handy cleaning guide for workplace products and materials, so you can be sure you are not compromising your furniture in any cleaning efforts.

Let us not forget to also keep our digital tools clean. Touch screens and phones are sometimes missed in the scurry to sanitize, so we found a handy guide from our friends at Crestron on best practices for keeping your technology clean, as well.

Select a spot where natural light is your primary light source. Research indicates our sleep cycles and even our hormones are positively affected by this. If your setup is near a window where you can let the fresh air circulate—even better!

Remember that bad posture still counts when you work from home, and that how you sit today will shape your body forever. It's important to choose an office chair that supports your body. A recent study by Herman Miller and Texas A&M shows how the right chair can influence cognition and your body's ability to handle stress.

If you’ve hesitated to purchase a good ergonomic solution for your home office, consider making the investment in your health.

Keeping your schedule can help keep up your productivity and fend off cabin fever. According to Philadelphia therapist Elizabeth Earnshaw, the lack of structure can create a string of days that run together, where a you feels untethered and each day feels devoid of meaning.

“People can become depressed or anxious because structure can provide an understanding of what’s next and it can help us organize what we’re doing in each moment,” she says.

Balance productivity and workflow with some quality lounging time to give your brain a rest. Our relationships with our favorite streaming services are about to be stronger than ever. We found a list of shows to watch complete with a content warning so you can avoid any coronavirus-related topics.

Make an effort to give your eyes a break and revive some non-digital activities. We recommend digging into a good book, starting a puzzle, finding a new podcast, try a crossword puzzle, or maybe just take 20 minutes to sit down an stretch. It's a good way to unwind after a long day of eye strain and to challenge your brain in a different way.