Check out Elephant’s Continually-updating Coronavirus Diary. ~ Waylon

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With the coronavirus affecting all of us, countries and cities all over the world are facing lockdown and millions of people are finding themselves working from home for the first time.

As a Feminine Empowerment and Sexuality Coach, I’ve been working from home for years and know exactly the problems you’re likely to face. I’m currently supporting my high-performing female clients in creating healthy strategies so that they remain productive, and at the same time reduce the negative impact on their sex life.

It’s easy to have the best of intentions. You might think you’ll be productive and have more time because you don’t have a commute anymore. But if you don’t get some great strategies in place, it’s easy to find yourself spending whole days unwashed, still in your pajamas, and losing a whole morning scrolling through your news feed. (Trust me, I’ve been there!)

Here are my top nine tips to keep you productive, efficient, and feeling sexy:

1. Establish a simple routine and stick to it. Schedule your start time, your end time, and your break times. Boundaries are everything! It’s all too easy to slip into habits of continually responding to messages outside normal business hours. Communicate your boundaries to team members so everyone has a healthy expectation around your response times.

2. Create a morning ritual. Whether you get out for a run or practice yoga or meditation before work is up to you. The important thing is to do what you need to feel centred, energized, and grounded for your day ahead. It’s especially essential to stay fit and healthy right now, and creating a morning ritual will really help with that. One of my favourite practices is to dance in the garden while I wait for my morning tea to cool down. It’s a quick fix that gives me energy, fresh air, gets my circulation going, and helps me stay grounded by connecting with nature.

3. Write down the three most important to-dos you need to tackle each day. Do them first before you open emails and check messages. It’ll make you proactive and productive, rather than reactive.

4. Move your body every single hour. I can’t stress this enough. It’s so easy to get caught in a trap of being on your screen all day long. Take five minutes every hour for a dance break—shake your body out, do some stretches, or get out in the garden. This will keep you energized and inspired and make you much more productive during the day.

5. Take your breaks offline. Don’t make your break a YouTube break. We’ve all done it, but your body needs to move and your eyes need a break from that screen. And on that note…

6. Please, please, please stay off social media. Try not to have Facebook, Instagram, or any other non-work site open while you’re trying to work. It makes it impossible stay focused, increases your social media dopamine addiction, and can turn a 10-minute task into something that takes all day. Working from home gives you the option for greater freedom, so don’t destroy it by letting bad scrolling habits suck up all your time. And with everything going on in the world, we want to be mindful that endless scrolling can increase overwhelm and anxiety—and we have enough of that already.

7. End your work day formally. Log off, take a shower, and change your clothes. Many of my clients are powerful female leaders and find this simple trick really helpful. Pro-tip: this is a great time to shake your body, move and dance, or stretch. So stack this movement habit onto your shower habit. It’s so important to unwind from your work day as you shift into leisure mode. It helps you get out of your head and back into your body, which is essential for having healthy intimacy.

8. Create a designated work space, away from your partner (if possible). If you’ve suddenly found yourself working at home alongside your partner, spending so much time together can be a massive passion killer. I recommend working in separate rooms if you can, and catching up after you’ve showered and finished your work day. Also, find ways to have the house to yourself for an hour (for example, one partner goes for a walk to give the other some space).

9. Don’t work from your bed. Yes, it’s oh-so-tempting! It’s warm, your dog is snuggled up there already, and it looks so snug and inviting. But it can make you feel lethargic and lazy. Treat your bed as a sacred space that’s only for lovemaking and sleep, and you’ll feel much more energized.

By implementing these tips, you’ll be able to reap the rewards of working from home—greater flexibility, more creativity, and hopefully less stress. I’ve seen the results in my clients. Make sure to keep your body moving and set healthy boundaries so you can feel more relaxed, more grounded, and on your way to a happier, healthier sex life!

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