Working From Home Survival Kit

Working From Home Survival Kit

Due to the pandemic, we were all forced to work from home, which was a big adjustment for many of us! Now, most of us are still working from home and some companies are transitioning to remote work entirely– and will stay remote even after others return to their offices.

However, working from home can prove more difficult than working in the office, with more distractions, less feeling of company culture, and resulting lower productivity. It is important for employees to find systems that work for them while working from home, and also important that they use systems and tools that will be easy to use and keep up with.

We’ve put together a list of some of the best tools for your work from home survival kit! Read on to learn about what they are and why you need them.

Planners

A planner is a crucial addition to your set of work tools. They can help you to organize your personal life and your work life as well, keeping all of your goals, tasks, meetings, and to-dos in one accessible location.

Why Do I Need a Planner?

A planner is a great tool for anyone, whether or not they are working from home. However, for those who are working from home, the purchase of a planner can be additionally beneficial.

Planners help to keep life organized by writing down different engagements, meetings, and tasks that need to be completed. This can be done for both your work tasks and meetings, as well as for the things that need to get done in your personal life.

When working from home, you may find that it is more difficult for you to keep your work life separate from your home life. A planner helps you to stay organized, make lists so that you can prioritize your tasks and responsibilities, and also see your weeks or months at a glance.

If you are a planner beginner check out our planners for beginners guide. 

The Wrinkle and Crease Planner

Wrinkle & Crease is a letterpress stationery company that designs and produces luxury handmade paper products. Our products seek to encourage you to put your pen to paper and write a special message to connect you to the people in your life on a deeper level.  

We love planning and organizing, and because of that we have created products that we not only love, but we use as well.  

Daily Planner

The Wrinkle & Crease 2022 Daily Planner is a simple, modern agenda designed to be functional in your daily life. These personal organizers have a clean layout that helps you plan your most important to-do's, appointments and plans in one place. Find extra space to write your goals for the year, plus some of our favourite quotes and thoughts to inspire.

Passion Planner

The Passion Planner is a planner option that comes in a few different styles. It features fashionable covers that rotate every year, as well as daily and weekly annual planners. They also offer dated and undated versions of these, so if you would rather use a planner for specific projects, as opposed to daily, you can do this and date the planner as needed!

The planner is very detailed, offering sections for each day with time blocks, sections for your work and personal goals, and even calendar sections at the beginning of every month for a quick bird’s eye view of the month ahead. 

MiGoals Goal Digger Planner

This planner is a weekly dated planner. It functions as both a planner for tasks and to-dos, and also as a wellness and gratitude journal. This can be useful by keeping your work tasks in the same space as your personal wellness journaling. It has spaces where it breaks down long and short term goals, as well as spaces where you can check in daily with what you are grateful for, how you are feeling, the steps you are taking to achieve your goals.

The left side pages are dedicated to days of the week for recording meetings and more, while the right side pages are dedicated for lists, goals, and habits– so there is plenty of space for you to fit in everything!

JSTORY Large Personal Wide Spaces Weekly Planner

The JSTORY planner is, unlike the previous options, fairly blank. This makes it a good option for those who may benefit from a more customized planner, or those who have different responsibilities or work styles. Since there is not a lot of text, it leaves it up to the owner of the planner to plot out the dates, sections, and more. It is very simple and set up with wide, blank days of the week for you to fill in however you prefer.

This planner also comes in four different sizes and several color options, including bright pink and classic black.

There are several types of habit trackers you can use– these help to track your daily tasks and habits, keeping you motivated and on-track! Like a planner, a habit tracker can also help you to prioritize certain daily habits. 

The Wrinkle and Crease Habit Tracker

The Habit Tracker is a cute notepad for everyday thoughts.  Use the W&C Habit Tracker Notepad to track plans, lists,  habits and key priorities. Stay organized in 2020!  If you are looking for a daily notepad for teachers, students, professionals or just looking for the best notepad for journaling - this is the planner for you. Perfect for planning your week, capturing your thoughts, grocery lists or any other part of your daily routine.

Why Do I Need a Habit Tracker?

Habit trackers are great tools for ensuring that you do not forget about important tasks– typically, a habit tracker can help you track different lifestyle habits and trends. This can come in handy when working from home because it can help to be sure that you keep work and life evenly balanced.

A habit tracker can help you to make the time to work out, take breaks during work, and to eat a healthy and balanced diet– and not skip meals. They help to keep you accountable. When working from home, it may be that you focus too much on work and do not have the proper boundaries, so your health and home life may suffer.

Habit trackers are a low stress way to address this. Like a planner, they will help to keep your work and life separate from each other, which will also help to keep you more productive at home during work hours, while also staying organized and on top of what you have to do for your household and your health.

Printable Habit Tracker

The lowest tech option for a habit tracker is a simple, printable habit tracker sheet. You could find one of these on the internet by simply googling it, and there are many different options and designs. Because of this, you will be able to choose the style of habit tracker that suits you, your needs, and your job best! These may come in weekly, monthly, or even daily templates, and can be printed and hung up in a spot near your desk, where you will see it every day. Alternatively, you could keep the habit tracker close at hand on your desktop. This can help to motivate you and to track your progress on various tasks and projects during the day. 

Streaks

If you want a more high tech option, or you do not want to continue printing your habit trackers, you could also opt for a habit tracking app. Streaks is a habit tracker app that is compatible with Apple products, so it can work on your iPhone, Apple watch, or a Mac computer. It is easy to use and offers several different options for tracking different types of habits, such as health goals or keeping your mind sharp. You can add your own custom habits, or choose from pre-existing habits in the app. This app also integrates with Apple’s Health kit, so you can set goals that get marked off by the Health kit data, like walking a certain amount of steps, for example. The Streaks app will also collect your data so that you have a quick view of how you are doing with the habits you are tracking. 

Loop

This is for all of our Android users! Loop integrates with Android devices, and is functional and easy to use. It allows you to add your own custom habits, just like Streaks does, and also allows you to track these habits as daily, weekly, or monthly. You can use the customization tools to set habits as due every other day, every weekend day, three days out of seven, or more. By tapping a particular habit, you can easily pull up its data, which include details such as how long your streak is and when you most often check it off. Another great perk of Loop is that it is offered for free!

More Tips for Working From Home

Working from home can be tough, but there are many other ways that you can set yourself up for success, other than packing your work from home toolbox well with the options we looked at above. Read on for some more tips and tricks you can implement to be productive every day!

• Keep your desk or workspace organized and clean
• Keep your computer desktop clean and organized to avoid overwhelm
• Take a real lunch break, and actually leave your home!
• Talk to your co-workers to feel more connected, even if you are not  together in the office
• Set timers for your tasks– sometimes, it helps to switch between them!
• Break your tasks down in smaller, more manageable chunks
• Keep your cell phone on silent, or in a different location so it is out of reach
• Change your environment by moving your space to a new room or redecorating to keep the space fresh
• Make evening plans to avoid continuing to work after your workday is over, and for a better work-life balance 
• Take breaks to be active, even if it is just a quick break to stretch and get your eyes away from the screen
• Keep a checklist of your top tasks for the day and stick to those before branching off and getting distracted by other to-dos