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In this post, one of our amazing librarians, Elizabeth, shares some tips for working from home.

Working from home is the dream… right? Well now many of us know working from home is more difficult than we thought! I have had some very productive days working from home and some other days that were not that great. Realizing quickly I would need to make some changes, I came up with a routine to follow to help me focus.

Figure Out Your Productive Times
Are you an early riser or a night owl? I like waking up early and getting my tasks done sooner rather than later. So if I wake up with an alarm, it helps me to understand this is still a “work day.” Also, I decided evenings would be my time to relax and hangout with my husband, so I try to accomplish my goals early in the day.

Set Up an Office
It has been beneficial for me to work in a room that I don’t typically spend too much time in. For example, there is one room in my house that I love but it is more of a sitting room, so I don’t spend too much time in it. It doesn’t have a television or many other distractions in it either. So I have made that room my office for library work!

Keep a Schedule or List
I make two lists the night before. The first list is what I want to do for work the following day, and the second list is what I want to accomplish around the house, what type of workout I want to do, and what hobby I want to partake in. I like to make squares in front of each task that I can check off. (Sometimes I even add a task after I already completed it, just so I can check it off! Haha oops.)

Don’t Be Too Hard on Yourself
I know so many people have a hard time working from home because they have children, pets, or other distractions. Another issue is that you may not have a job that you can easily work from home! Typically, I am at the Reference desk assisting patrons finding books or putting on a program. However, I do have a lot of responsibilities that I can do from home. Buying books for the Young Adult Collection as well as the Nonfiction Collection has kept me busy. I also do craft programs at the library, so I have been making crafts that I hope to develop into programs this fall, as well as creating videos for our YouTube channel!  I also have been helping with the library’s social media, and writing blog posts… like this one! It is a weird feeling, because I want to be doing more to help the library and our patrons, but I am doing as much as I can from home. My suggestion is to try not to stress and just do the best you can!

So how have you been handling working from home? What tips do you have?

Don’t forget, if you’ve done some work from home, you can check off that square on our community engagement “bingo” card!

 

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