So here's something I've been trying the past few weeks that might be helpful to other people struggling to get and keep a routine for working from home during the Quarantimes or other stressful periods.

And all the usual caveats of my experience isn't universal, I think this will be most useful for people whose work is self-directed (like creatives) and who are not working on an immediate deadline.

But I spent the past two weeks really focusing on just getting and setting a routine for being in my office, at my desk, on a work footing, without trying to get any specific thing done.

Which again, is not something everyone can go all in on. People have stuff to get done.

But I think it's possible that even if you have stuff that needs to get done, you can possibly mentally move some of the pressure away from that and focus on the "workplace" routine more than the work.

My theory is that doing this alleviates some of the pressure that might be making it hard to get things done while not leaving you at a loose end. I got a lot of stuff done this past two weeks! Not stuff I'd expected to. Not stuff that's immediately paying.

And I'm starting this week with what feels like a really solid footing for what it means to be "at work" all day. The mental shift is kind of amazing.

And I woke up this morning and I sat down and wrote a newsletter entry that since August 19th I have been trying to write in one form or another. Multiple times I have got an outline set and said, "Tomorrow. First thing tomorrow." And then... nothing.

But today, I woke up, did my morning stuff, got dressed, and went into my office, where I just... did the thing. I knew what I needed to do and I did it.

I don't know that it needed to be two weeks. I wasn't consciously taking this approach the whole time through. I think maybe even 2-3 days to mentally reset, create a routine, and change over how one thinks about work and space. "Yes, I'm at work."

I think this might be part of the problem in trying to adjust to a new work routine in a different space and with wildly different circumstances is the need to get the work done before the routine is down.

And capitalism and circumstances means that will often be unavoidable.

But it's possible that even if you're trying to get stuff turned in or sent out the door while you're settling into a new routine, if you can find space within your day to focus on the routine rather than the work, it might help?

For reference, I started this because I was stuck on everything else so I just sort of gave myself permission to go all in on my personal game dev project so I wouldn't just sink into depression and frustration.

And that's something that's for fun and for me, but is sufficiently work-like that I could build a routine around it, at first accidentally and then later, deliberately.

The reason I tried waking up today and just writing my newsletter piece that had been eluding me is that the two preceding days, I had set a task in the RPG development to do in the same way.

Don't know if this will work well for anyone else, but you'll know it's working for me if tomorrow morning I have another newsletter out.