Hey, it's Alex from the Remote Work Life Podcast. Thank you for joining me today for today's tip of the day, and this tip is based around making sure that you structure your day around routines and take plenty of breaks. It's really important that you take plenty of breaks, or at least some breaks in any case. So I wanna share again, as I usually do, just my own personal anecdote, my own personal experience of this, and I hope that I can also share with you some action steps that you can take or at least consider. You don't necessarily have to copy everything that I mentioned, but at least if you consider some of these and maybe that you implement some of the things that I mentioned into your routine or that's the beauty of working remotely is that you can design, basically, your schedule. You can design what you do on your breaks to how it fits you and how it fits your lifestyle. So I am a big advocate, as you know, of remote work and I've experienced having, I guess, a well-defined daily routine and taking regular breaks, how that has changed me, because before I wouldn't honestly have enough breaks during the day. I'd be times where I'd just be sitting in front of my computer for the whole day. Day would turn to literally night and I'd be still sitting in front of my computer without taking any breaks or very few breaks, for that matter. So I had to. Again, this was through speaking to others, I would understand how they would break up their day, how they would put together their day and their routines that they had, and that helped me to reflect that I needed to make a conscious effort myself to create new routines. And not just that, but my body was also telling me that I needed to create new routines and also incorporate regular breaks into my day so that I could get the real, true benefits of working remotely. So this intentional practice helped me to stay focused. It helped me to maintain and improve my health not just my mental health, but also my physical health and that the overall productivity went up then as well. So here's some hopefully some tips that you can take away and can think about and maybe even implementing to your routines or your sort of your structure of the day. So that word routine that I just used a routine is good. So you need to establish a routine yourself that aligns with your schedule, that aligns with you, that you can use to work to your best, and this might include a morning routine. This might include dedicated working hours. It might also include something that you do at the end of the day to signify that your day is complete. So that's something that you need to establish yourself and understand yourself. So the idea of having a routine. So number two is regular breaks. As I mentioned before, you need to incorporate breaks into your daily schedule. This is a must because this can not only affect your mental well-being, but it also can affect you from a physical standpoint. If you're staring at a computer for the whole day, it can have it's toll, take it's toll on your eyes, for example. It can take it's toll on your body if you're sitting in one place for a long time, or indeed if you're sitting down and not standing up at all. So taking regular breaks is really important. Physical activity, which is linked to those breaks. So, again, walking is something that I need to. I have to admit I don't do that enough now. So getting not just walking to and from the kitchen, but going to, you know, around the block for a walk, for example, or going down to the shop, or again, incorporating a physical, some sort of physical activity into your work routine that might also be. Some people use under desk sort of what they call them travelators. Under desk sort of I can't think of the word right now, but where running machines sometimes as well. I don't think that's enough, because what you also want to do is you want to have a change of environment, so you don't always want to be stuck indoors, so. But if you're unable to, for whatever reason, get out and about, then an alternative might be to have one of those desk desk travelators or desk running pads, walking pads to help you to move around. Rest as well is important, just as important as work. Practicing mindful rest during breaks, such as breathing deep and have some people even use meditation. I don't use meditation myself, but deep breaths. Sometimes I would find myself working for a period of time where I was taking short breaths, for example, and that to remind myself to breathe deeply to make sure that I'm taking the right amount of air to kind of reinvigorate myself. This can help reduce stress and improve your mental clarity. So number five on my list is creating a balance, creating boundaries as well. So communicating your work hours and your availability to people in your team, and especially to your family, in this transparency can help to manage their expectations and reduces interruptions. This is something that I've talked about probably before and something that I'll continue to talk about because it's so important. So being structured and having a structured day around a routine that you create and taking plenty of breaks can help you to experience greater mental clarity and that can lead to, hopefully, better creativity and productivity for you as well. It can hopefully enhance your overall wellbeing, and it's essential to treat remote work really, as you're still a professional, so you have to treat it with the same professionalism as you would, as if you were going into a traditional office setting. Again, that's something I've said before. I'll say it again, but I just wanna say thank you for listening today and I just really wanna encourage you to reflect as usual, on your current routines and think about how you might incorporate some of the things I've suggested in today's episode to help you to structure your day and have your intentional breaks and to create a schedule that works for you.