This whole pandemic situation has forced many of us to work from home for who knows until when. If this whole setup is something new to you and you’re struggling to be productive, keep on reading! I’ll share with you 5 work from home essentials that can help you stay focused!
But first a little background in case you’re new to my blog. I’ve been working from home for more than a year now. It was a big leap for me coming from a corporate office job. So I know it can be challenging especially if you were not prepared for this whole transition.
But hey, you can do it! There are many different ways to ace the work from home life and here are some tried and tested tricks that worked for me!
Don’t have time to read everything now? I gotchu boo! Save this “5 Work From Home Essentials To Keep You Focused” article on Pinterest for later by clicking any of the images below! 😉
Hmm okay, let’s dive in!
5 Work From Home Essentials To Keep You Focused 👩🏻💻
Coffee
Ahh, coffee! Fuel your day with a cup of coffee (or two… or 3… who’s counting?) and you’re sure to be productive! It can also be a nice break during your work routine at home. Remember how you used to get up from your office chair to go to the pantry and prepare some coffee? And after sipping you feel more energized to tick off more things in your to-do list?
So go ahead and indulge yourself in the awakening aromas of freshly brewed coffee. Nowadays, I prefer drip coffee as it’s hassle-free. I’m currently obsessed with UCC’s personal drip bag. It makes the experience of pour-over brewing method possible with instant coffee.
Watch
Do you know what’s the best part about working from home? No boss who constantly breathes behind our back! But that doesn’t mean we can waste time being unproductive. We’re expected to work and deliver outputs, not chill around.
Limit your mindless social media scrolling, Netflix and chill, and doing unnecessary stuff. Using a watch to organize your time ensures you don’t fall into the time-waster black hole.
Get back on track while also being stylish with this gorgeous Myrna watch from Thümm & Co, a brand crafting effortlessly unique and stylish women’s and men’s watches.
It has an easy-to-read silver dial, a sophisticated tan genuine leather strap, and a minimalist design. Perfect for the modern go-getter women who want to stay chic while working from home!
Journal
Organize your day, write to-do lists, and jot down important notes with a handy dandy journal! I don’t know how to survive without one! But if you’re not into writing down with pen and paper, you can always use your Notes app (and other similar apps).
Be it the digital or traditional way of note writing, make sure to do it. This ensures you stay focused on doing important things and you don’t miss anything.
Scented Candles
We all know how certain scents can affect our mood. Much like how the smell of freshly ground beans can perk you up, scented candles can help in that department too! If you need a pick-me-upper so you can beat work deadlines, go ahead and light up a scented candle! You’ll find it surprising how a shift in mood can do wonders in productivity. Goodbye, stress and anxiety too!
Scented candles also usually come in beautiful jars that you can display on your desk. This helps create a cozy, inspiring workplace that you’ll actually love working at.
Currently, I have a scented candle (from Izla Lifestyle, my friend’s biz – please support local!) together with my dried flowers on my work desk. Aren’t they pretty? I look at them when I need to rest my eye from the computer screen and when I need some inspiration.
Spotify Playlist
Last but not the least, music! Listening to some good music helps boost your mood and productivity. There’s literally a playlist for everything on Spotify. If you’re feeling down, go ahead and blast off some upbeat music to start your work from home day right. If you need to get in the zone, play some classical, acoustic, or even lo-fi beats. And if you miss working from coffee shops, there’s a playlist to get the same chill, coffee shop vibes too!
I like putting on my Airpods and saying, “Hey, Siri! Play ‘work from home’ playlist on Spotify“… or any playlist/artist/genre I’m into at the moment. And I let Spotify do its magic to curate the perfect playlist for the day. Here start with this work from home playlist.
In case you’re wondering, I bought that pretty Airpods Pro case from Shopee! 😍
TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!
So that’s it for this post about my top work from home essentials. I hope you find the list helpful especially if you’re struggling to stay focused when working at home. How about you? Do you have any work from home essentials you want to share? How do you stay focused?
Let me end this post by saying it’s also completely normal to feel anxious or overwhelmed as you go about your new work from home life. After all, the world’s in the middle of a pandemic. So please, don’t ever feel like you need to be 100% productive all the time. Take a breather, relax, and pause for a while. Your body and mind will thank you for it.
If you enjoyed this post, here are some more work from home articles you might be interested in:
- How I Quit My Corporate Job & Got A Work From Home Full-Time Job in the Philippines
- 10 Tips On How To Work From Home Productively That You Should Do
- Work From Home: Everything You Need to Know About Online Jobs PH and 3 Tips How To Get Hired Quickly
- Legit Online Jobs From Home You Can Do While On Coronavirus Lockdown
- 5 Cheap Work From Home Products From Lazada That You Will Love
- 9Shares
- 9Shares
These are some great tips, Hazel! I can’t work without my Spotify playlist. For some reason, it motivates me to work, rather than the potential (further) distraction. Great post 🙂
Hi, Joe! I’m glad you find this post helpful! Yes, Spotify is such a lifesaver! 😂
Coffee coffeee yes thats most essential. Very useful post thanks
I cannot get ANYTHING done without a to-do list! They’re an absolute life-saver for me. I have an awful memory and I will straight up forget anything if I haven’t written it down – even if it’s something that I do constantly, such as laundry. I also really like to-do lists because I can write what is most important and/or what will take the longest, which helps me plan out my days better too 🙌
Having to-do lists and arranging the work environment to boost the mood and productivity, are great tips that stand out for me. Wish you all the best.
I can’t do anything without coffee! And should be black coffee without sugar 🙂
The rest are only secondary.
Interesting blog post for me, as I have been working from home since the last 8 months. Scented candles is a good option I can look at to reduce the stress l. Thank you.
I like my lists. They really help me keep focused. Scented candles are a winner with me.
This is a great article! Keeping a journal surely helped me, also scented candled and having decorations and plants on my desk.
I work from home anyway, so my must haves are plenty of Tea and a really good planner!
This pandemic has got to go away! Its so hard… But if I can get my home office to look like the one in your photos id be so much happier lol.
I would be at a total loss without my playlists. Music helps to keep me going, inspires my creativity and drives me to do bigger and better things. It’s also the secret to relaxing, taking a much-needed break from the stressful world that we live in.
Coffee doesn’t energize me. It does make me happy though, and it does help me focus!
Thank you for the tips, I do travel for work extensively, and now work from home extensive, and I have all the five things you mentioned! – Knycx journyeing
Avoid the “time-waster black hole” definitely will be keeping note of this when I’m staying on social media for a bit too long lol! and I love the idea of dried flowers and scented candles!
Well…I am not sure of the Spotify playlist but rest of them will definitely uplift my workspace. I am going to order some scented candles right away.
These are nice tips and yes, one has to be careful what they do with their time. Falling into a black hole is a real thing.
Coffee and scented candles really help me focus. It’s so calming and relaxing too!
I am not a coffee drinker but other than that, I love keeping my clock and journal close to me whenever I work at home. I love to write things down in order for me to remember everything and write my things to do as well.:)
Couldn’t agree more! Haha been working from home for 2 years now and coffee talaga yung number 1 essential because it keeps me focused. Scented candle and Spotify music naman to calm my mind.
I have coffee, a notebook, and my Spotify playlist. Maybe that’s why I can concentrate well on work and on blogging. 🙂
This a great post. These are some great essentials. I like to have cosy socks on and a blanket near by in case I get cold ha ha! I also like to have a clear workspace. Thank you for sharing your post.
Lauren
Hi Lauren! Socks and blanket sound good! I always get cold easily too so definitely these are must-haves!
I have a different list for that, nakaktempt tuloy to write about it too. pero share ko muna here.. Anyways, instead of coffee I usually go for tea or mountain dew when I need to stay focused on something, then I have my phone as a sub for the watch, the journal (keep notes). I also have some bamboo oil or lavander oil diffused in the room if I’m getting cranky or too tired to work and finally, instead of a spotify playlist I go to this channel from chilled cow and play the livestream of this animated girl doing her homework to chill beats hehehehe
Oh yes, oil diffuser – I don’t have one yet for my room. I probably should get one soon! 😊 And that Youtube channel you mentioned is quite intriguing! Will check it out. Thanks for sharing your work from home essentials, Nicole! Stay safe!
Working from home can be a major distraction if we don’t stay organized. These are wonderful additions to what we need to make it work.
I agree with you that having great music (a.k.a. spotify playlist) can definitely help us focus at work. Do you have some song suggestions? I think I need to update my current one.
thank you for sharing this. i know i have not been best in focus when it comes to working especially when my son got back to school already. its really hard. but yeah, i tried having relaxing scented candles around me these days.
Scented candles are great and easy way to boost productivity… or actually just to relax us. 🙂
Hazel, great advice!!! I have been working from home for years and I can tell you that despite some of these not being the most obvious ones to list, there are absolutely spot on!
That’s great to hear, Isabel! Thanks for stopping by!
Coffee will help me to stay awake and do my paper’s work done