Aug 19, 2024 2 min read work-from-home

Talk a Walk

Working from home often blurs the lines between home and work. Creating separation can help improve both. I've found that one of the easier ways to do this is the simplest - go take a morning stroll.

Textures found on my morning walk around Denver, Colorado

For the last however many years that I've been building and growing BugSplat, I've done it remotely. Our entire small team is distributed, and we largely work from home offices.

I like this a lot and feel fortunate to be productive while physically distanced from my team, but there's a learning curve for remote work that needs acknowledging: when your home and work occupy the same physical location, new routines and deliberate separation of spaces and tasks are important to consider to make working from home enjoyable and/or preferable over the long run.

I'll be writing more about my thoughts on how to best manage your work-from-home routine soon, but in this article, I wanted to share the simplest change I've made which has had the largest positive impact on my daily mood and productivity.

The 'hack' is embarrassingly simple and took me perhaps a bit too long to incorporate into my day-to-day. The game-changing improvement? I go on a short walk every morning before sitting down at the keyboard.

This tweak gives me separation between morning routine and work, something that often blurs when working from home. It's like the world's most delightful little commute - just ten minutes outside before strapping in for a day of screen time.

I could link you to countless blogs extolling the virtues of morning walks, but instead, I'll share my experience. I used to roll out of bed, throw on a bathrobe, and dive straight into work, coffee in hand. The result? Feeling rushed, groggy, and irritable - not exactly a recipe for peak performance.

"Me thinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow." - Henry David Thoreau

Now, I put aside 10-15 minutes to walk around the neighborhood. It's given me space between waking up and starting work, leaving me in a noticeably better headspace. Plus, I've got the blood flowing - some of which has theoretically made it to my brain, which can't hurt, right?

Skeptical? Think I'm full of it? Why don't you give it a try for just one week and then let me know how awful it was by emailing me a haiku review (that's a review in the form of a haiku) to joeyplunkett@gmail.com

Honestly, now that I'm thinking about it, I'll send an order of Trade Coffee to anyone who does one week of morning walks and then emails me a haiku about it.