Well. So the C word is Coronavirus.

We know the drill. Wash the hands. Sneeze into your elbow. Wash your hands. Monitor the CDC website for your questions, pertinent information. Also, the cocaine won’t prevent the Coronavirus.

If you’re working from home, as so many are during this pandemic, it can get easy to fall into the lull, the comfort of what home is, when actually, you are on the clock, and you need to be working. I’ve been a freelancer on and off for my whole career. Here are three tips for setting up a routine that you can do so very easily, and stick to, in order to be your most productive self at home.

1. Set Up Your Home Office. Over the years, I’ve established a protocol for “going to the office at home.” As I don’t have a second bedroom set up as an office, I have to turn a section of my apartment into my war zone. My daily office. I have a desk. I have a desktop computer. I have all the wires and chords and outlets necessary to connect to the world outside my door. What more do I need, other than basic human interaction. I live in New York City, so space, space is not something I have. I have a desk that is sandwich into a corner where my home office. Sometimes, I use my dining room table. You don’t have a space? Designate that spot on the couch that is your “work” area. Use a chair as a desk. Commit to the space that you create.
2. Dress For Work. It’s easy to putter about your apartment in your pajamas or your birthday suit. Don’t do it. The act of showering and brushing your teeth and putting on your jeans and shirt is imperative to your working-from-home mindset. Dressed? You are creating a physical demarcation from your being home mode to being at work mode. So dress for work.
3. Avoid The Comfort Zones. There are territories in your home that are comfort zones, like your bedroom or your couch. If your home office is your couch, keep the TV off. Television—streaming services, DVD’s, like that—are distractions. Stay out of the kitchen, which is the hardest thing for me to do when I work from home, because I like to snack. But. The kitchen is a distraction. Limit your visits to the kitchen to your main meals, and to replenish your drink of water. Stick to your office routine, in your home, and you

So those are three simple first steps into acclimating into your work from home life, the basics into this hopefully temporary paradigm. Look after yourself. Check in with your friends, family, neighbors. The walls close in when your phone doesn’t ping.

What survival looks like, from the women said fuck you to Boko Harem.

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And now have a laugh with Chloe Hilliard.