This past week was my eighth full week of working from home, and my company sent out an associate-wide email this week saying we won’t be returning to the office until after Labor Day—at least. Immediately after that email went out my coworkers and I started talking about what an interesting time capsule our desks will be when we return; every calendar will be set to March! If I had known I was leaving the office for months when I left on that last day, I would have packed a lot more than I did. (Granted, I did leave in a rush because I had chipped my front tooth and left work early to go to an emergency dentist appointment. A memorable day, to say the least.)

Now that working from home is my reality for the foreseeable future—and I’ve been doing it long enough to get into a routine—I thought it would be fun to share what my typical workday looks like in quarantine. When looking on the bright side of the predicament, one thing I’ve been saying this whole time is that working from home allows me to live closer to my ideal schedule, which would be staying up until 1-2am and sleeping until 9-10am. I am a night owl, always have been—and since I’m no longer commuting, I’ve adjusted my schedule accordingly to inch closer to the dream! In addition to living closer to my dream schedule, I’ve been focusing on finding the good and enjoying the things that my regular life wouldn’t allow—like sleeping until 10 minutes before my first meeting or watching an episode of the show I’m marathoning at lunch.

So without further ado—here’s what my days look like right now. Of course, would love to know how your schedule has changed in quarantine and what your daily life looks like these days!

8:45am: my alarm goes off and I get out of bed. (I’ve kicked my snooze habit in the quarantine, so that’s one positive!) I usually make my bed, wash my face + do my morning skincare routine, and put on what I am going to wear for the day.

9:00am: I log onto my work computer (getting on the VPN is a ~process~), check my emails, and get ready for my 9:30am meeting, which is usually the first of the day. If I have a 9am meeting, I usually get up a little earlier, but luckily, those have been pretty rare while we’re all working from home.

9:30-12pm: I usually have meetings most of the morning, as my company culture is very meetings-heavy. If I get a break, they are usually only quick breaks—like if a meeting ends early—or a 30-minute hole in my schedule. At some point during this block of time, I usually put on minimal makeup, but other than that task, I use any blocks of free time to start working through my to-do list and tackling my inbox. I like to get some of my harder tasks out of the way in the morning so they’re not hanging over my head all day.

12-1pm: Assuming I don’t have any high priority meetings, I usually take the noon hour as my lunch break. Some days, I go on a walk around the block, other days I catch up on an episode of a TV show, and sometimes I use the time to do chores like switching out the laundry.

I don’t normally eat breakfast, so lunch is usually my first meal of the day. I mostly have been eating at home, barring a salad delivery here and there as a special treat. For lunch, I usually keep it really simple and make a sandwich or quesadilla, eat leftovers, or heat up something from the Trader Joe’s frozen food aisle.

1-5:30pm: After lunch (I need to be better about not actively checking my email as much during this time since some days it doesn’t even feel much like a break!), I usually have some afternoon meetings and some blocks of time held on my calendar to get through the rest of my to-do list.

If I hit a mental roadblock on anything I’m working on, I’ll usually take a social media break or do a five-minute chore around the house, like unloading the dishwasher. At the office, I’d get up and walk around or go chat with a coworker, and I really miss those breaks in my workday, so I’ve been trying not to beat myself up when I take breaks during my work from home day.

My last meetings of the day usually wrap up around 5pm, and I take the last 30 minutes of my workday to get my inbox cleared out and my to-do list set up for the next day, so that my morning the following day isn’t frantic.

5:30-7pm: After my workday ends, I always put my work supplies away so they aren’t hanging around while I’m trying to have a relaxing evening. Once I’ve done that, I head out for a long walk around the neighborhood. In quarantine, I’ve been trying to walk at least 10K steps a day, five days a week, and so look forward to my nightly neighborhood walks. (Enjoying the simple beauty of the world around me is something I hope to carry with me post-quarantine.)

While I am on my walk, I usually call my mom to chat—before quarantine, we didn’t talk on the phone that much and she joked whenever I did call, she thought something was wrong, hah! After our chat, I either call a friend or my sister or I listen to podcasts or music. I’ve got a few tried-and-true roots around my neighborhood now and mix it up depending on my mood.

7:15pm: Most weeknights, I usually schedule a fast casual food pickup for the end of my walk. I’ve been rotating between sweetgreen, Chop’t, and Chipotle, but sometimes I treat myself to “nicer” takeout. On the nights I don’t do takeout, I usually cook something that will have leftovers for me to eat as lunch the next day.

7:30-11:30pm: I’m usually back on my couch by this point in the day and eat my dinner while watching a movie or an episode of a TV show. After dinner, I usually do one of a two things—I either “take the night off” and scroll Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter while binge watching a TV show or I work on my blog: writing a post, editing photos for IG, responding to emails, the like. I also find myself texting with friends and family a lot during this time, and while I’ve limited my Zoom interactions after work recently, I love staying connected in other ways.

11:30pm: Around this time, I usually start to shut things down for the night. I take a shower and do my nighttime skincare routine, and then hop into bed.

12-1am: I usually read for an hour before bed on my Kindle. I do read some physical books, but mostly keep those for daytime as I love reading with all the lights off since it really helps put me to sleep—and sometimes I even fall asleep mid-sentence! I’m lucky that it’s pretty easy for me to fall asleep and once I am asleep, I have no problem sleeping through the night.

Then, I wake up and do it all over again! I’m so lucky that I have a job that allows me to be able to safely work from home during this time and know many of you are out on the frontlines fighting the good fight—thank you for all that you do! x