As of the first of June part of the corona measurements have been let go of and others restrictions have been eased: we can go out for dinner, have drinks on a terrace and hang out in the park with a group of friends. As long as we keep a social distance of 1,5 meters. The world is slowly opening back up. But what about your job? According to our Minister President Mark Rutte we are expected to keep on working from home for the foreseeable future, and many have already been told by their employers that their offices aren�t opening up yet. How do you deal with that? Some people might see it as a positive announcement because of less commuting for example, but others find it difficult to keep their work- and private life separate.�

According to research by Nationale Vacaturebank approximately half of the people in the Netherlands who work from home feel the need to go back to the office as soon as possible. They�re having a hard time focussing, feel like their days have less structure and miss socially interacting with their colleagues. The other half also sees quite a lot of advantages to working from home and are planning on doing it more often in the future. Whether you experience it as something positive or negative, for most of us working from home will be our reality for the upcoming months. But how can you make sure this is an efficient and comfortable situation for yourself? We�ve listed some tips for you:

• Having to work and live in the same environment can make it hard to distance yourself from work, but try to keep your work and private life separate. Regularly take small breaks and walk away from your workspace. During lunch, take the time to relax and don�t eat your sandwich behind your desk. Go out, sit in the sun, take a walk or call a colleague or friend. Hug your pets or read a magazine. You need this time to recharge yourself and to distance yourself from your work.�
• Having flexibility in your working hours might sound great, but for some a lack of structure can cause problems. If this is something you experience it is important that you try to regain structure in your life. Of course, working from home increases your flexibility when it comes to working hours, but do try to get up at the same time every day. Allow yourself a daily lunch break, and stop pushing your lunch forward just because you want to finish something. Work will continue anyway, there will always be something new on your plate.�
• While your working you�re using a lot of energy, you�re battery is slowly draining during the day.� Most people need social interaction to recharge their batteries. It is important that, despite working from home, you contact your colleagues or friends regularly. Call your colleagues or friends for an informal conversation that doesn�t involve work, or go on a walk with your friend or neighbours. Besides that, you can also regularly meet with friends or family after work or during the weekend, to fully recharge your battery. Take the time to have a drink in the sun with friends, you earned it!
• Set personal goals. When you were still working in the office that one promotion, or finishing that challenging project may have been more top of mind. The last few months could have had an effect on your ambitions, which is completely understandable since the whole world has been upside down. However, it is important that you keep looking forward: where do I want to be in a year and what will I do to get there? Work on gaining or improving certain skills to make sure you keep developing yourself, or finish up a certain project. This will all help to normalize your working from home situation and to make it more enjoyable.

A good day structure is important if you suffer from psychological complaints, you have probably heard that before. Now the corona regulations have started, maintaining your day structure can be a lot more difficult. Maybe you suddenly don’t work for now, or you work from home. It may also be that you have to work more than usual. Read more about how you can keep your day structure in place as much as possible in this crisis.

It starts with a good sleep rhythm

A good day structure starts with maintaining regular times to go to bed and get up again. This is important because your biological clock adjusts to this. Your biological clock determines all kinds of important processes in your body. The clock gives all kinds of signals to your organs by means of hormones and tells them what to do at what time of the day. If you disturb the rhythm, the biological clock also disrupts and you can get all kinds of complaints, such as fatigue in the middle of the day, feeling hunger at strange times, mood swings and concentration problems. When the biological clock is disrupted, it becomes increasingly difficult to go to sleep and wake up at set times, which ensures that the biological clock remains disrupted or even more confused.

What can you do?

For the coming weeks, decide the time you want to get up and the time you want to go to sleep. It is most ideal if these times are equal to how they were before the corona regulations. Also think about fixed time for your meals, as meals also affect your biological clock. Is it difficult for you? Then ask if people would like to help you with this, for example by sending an app or a call.

No work? What then?

If you have little to do now, think about the tasks you could do in the coming weeks. Think of all kinds of things you never have the time for like, cleaning the bathroom, learning to play the guitar, adjusting pants, reading your favorite book again, cleaning your shoes, doing yoga exercises, drawing, painting, tinkering or baking. List everything you could do. Then make a schedule in which you choose tasks from the list. It is important to alternate boring tasks with fun ones.

Tip to make it more fun; decorate your schedule if this is something you like and make sure you can cross off tasks. Crossing off tasks gives a positive feeling, which is a nice bonus!

Make social appointments�digital

Do not forget to include digital social appointments in your planning. You can also drink a cup of coffee on the phone, or via an video call. It is also possible to play certain games online with friends. By having social contact digitally, you keep in touch with the people who are important to you. You can also share the feelings you experience during this crisis with others.

Help each other

You can also think about how you can support others. Who knows, there may be people in your area who work in a vital sector and are helped with practical support for example when it comes to shopping. Helping others gives us a good feeling, which is a nice bonus!

Do you need to work more?

It is also important to maintain a good day structure, in these challenging times. Take good care of yourself when it comes to sleep, food and moments of rest within the hectic pace. Plan these moments for yourself wherever possible and see whether people around you can relieve you where possible. Maybe someone who now has less work to do can cook, or someone can get groceries for you. Perhaps you have a sister or brother who can call your grandmother, so you can leave this to them and save energy for yourself and your work. Be creative in solutions. Keep talking to each other about what is helpful for you in this unreal situation.

You read and hear it everywhere: a new year, a new start. There is a lot of pressure on those first weeks of the new year. Did you make a good start with all the intentions you have set for yourself? Have you set enough goals? Are they also the right ones? Nothing wrong with setting goals for yourself, certainly not! But as Renee also states, it is not necessary to start the year with all kinds of new resolutions.

What might be fun though, is to learn more about habits. This time we want to talk about creating new habits, which contribute to your overall sense of happiness. And, according to behavioral scientist BJ Fogg, you can create new habits in very small steps.

Flossing teeth
How small? BJ Fogg cites the example of teeth flossing. Start by flossing 1 tooth per day. Maybe it seems a crazy example at first, but just think about it: probably you or someone in your immediate environment has already made an attempt to incorporate flossing into the daily routine. You keep it up for a while cause the dentist made you aware of how important it is to do so. But, after awhile, you stop.

By starting small, you become accustomed to the action without it having a major impact on the rest of your routine. Slowly you are working on creating a new habit for yourself, which in turn will ensure that it becomes easier to learn other habits.

According to Fogg, the ripple effect is common and psychologists do not know exactly why it happens. One theory: thanks to the small wins, people can consciously or unconsciously break through other obstacles in their lives.

Start small and what else?
If you only start small, you may not be there yet. To learn new behavior it is also very important that you are motivated, that you have the opportunity to actually do it and that there is a trigger that reminds you to cultivate your new habit. A trigger can be brushing teeth in the case of teeth flossing. For sports this can be, for example, work: I go to the gym twice a week after work.

Which habit do you want to teach yourself?