Free workday check
Ten quick questions, about two minutes. You see your two biggest levers straight away, and get the full guide by email after.
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Adding up your day…
Your two levers
Of the seven parts of a workday at home, these two have the most room. Try the one small thing for each, for a couple of weeks.
Switching off
For anything unfinished, write down the first step for tomorrow. Then close the laptop.
Making a specific plan for unfinished tasks removed the intrusive thoughts they otherwise cause.
promisingMasicampo and Baumeister, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2011
The shape of the day
Before the first message, write four lines: when you start, when you stop, where the break goes, and the one thing that matters today.
Plans in the form "when this happens, I do that" help people reach their goals, with a medium to large effect across 94 tests.
solidGollwitzer and Sheeran, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 2006
Breaks and movement
Up to ten minutes away from the screen, every hour or so. Not to scroll: stand, look out of a window, get a drink.
Short breaks raise energy and lower fatigue. They do not reliably improve performance on hard work, which may need longer breaks.
solidAlbulescu and colleagues, PLOS ONE, 2022, 22 samples, 2,335 people
Messages
Pick three times a day for Slack and email, and turn notifications off in between.
Adults who checked email three times a day for a week had lower daily stress than in a week of checking whenever they liked.
promisingKushlev and Dunn, Computers in Human Behavior, 2015, 124 adults
The first hour
Five to ten minutes outside, or at a bright window, before you start.
Office workers who got more light between 8 and noon fell asleep faster and slept better. The study measured, it did not test, so this is a link, not proof.
promisingFigueiro and colleagues, Sleep Health, 2017, 109 office workers
A place for work
Give work one place, even a corner of a table, and put the laptop away when you stop.
Remote workers with a dedicated space at home reported a better balance between work and the rest of life.
promisingAllen and colleagues, five waves of data from 155 remote workers
Not alone
One thing a day outside your home and near other people. Buy the coffee instead of making it.
Remote workers spent about an extra hour alone each working day and did not make it up in the evening, much more so when they also lived alone.
solidEmanuel, Harrington and Pallais, Science, June 2026
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A longer bar means it is already more often part of your day.
The ten things that matter most for a workday at home, out of the thousand tips you have already read. Each with one thing to do tomorrow, and how sure the science is about it.
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