After many years of working from home, I've been continually searching for the best way to fit a daily exercise routine into my life. On which doesn't involve expensive gyms and I can keep to. Yep I look like a dick doing it and it's not as trendy as yoga etc, but it is something anyone can do, even if you only have a postage stamp of a space. I'm a morning person, so I kick off every morning at 6am. However I get it, that's not everyones cup of tea, so feel free to pick a time good for you. Here is my routine:


1. Get onto Youtube and find some delectable fast music. My preference is Happy hardcore. You can't help but smile after a bit of jumping up and down to some fine thumping tunes. My favourite at the moment is DJ Roadster https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmaNq90T5ww&t=2164s .

2. You need to warm your body up first. So do some stretches, as your whole body is going to have a bit of a surprise. Bending to the left and to the right, slowly bending down to touch your toes. Anything really to loosen yourself up.

3. The music by this point is now probably gone past the hands in the air phase and is now going a bit crazy. So just start dancing to it. You don't have to go mad to start off with, just whatever feels comfortable but it gets your heart going. All those of the clubbing generation, will know what to do. It'll take a few mins before it gets fun, as all exercise is grim to start off with, so stick with it. At some point your body will start to produce endorphins. Now you can just let yourself go with the music. If you haven't done a lot of exercise, start with 10 mins a day and scale it up. I aim for 30 mins a day of silliness. If you want you can mix it up by adding in conventional exercises like star jumps, steps etc, anything which gets your heart moving. Yes you will feel stupid at first and certainly my cats view me with some derision, but by the end of a session, you will feel good. It's a good way of destressing in these stressful times. Who can't end up smiling after a bit of happy hardcore :)

4. After 30 mins of mad dancing about the house. I then move onto the german pottery. After searching the house foe something heavy, I found this very fine large german jug. It's absolutely ideal as a weights substitute. My routine consists of curls, shoulder exercises (hold you elbow next to your body and rotate your arm out away from your body) and squats. I then finish with 30 slow press-ups and some back stretches. I'd recommend looking online for some exercises to suit you. Also have a hunt about the house for something you can use as a weight, as I appreciate not all have some German pottery to hand.

The whole exercise routine takes 45mins to an hour and leaves me set for the day. It's especially good for wet winter days or for occasions like we have now. I suspect that kids will like it to, as it's a chance to get lost a bit in some crazy music. ENJOY!!

I've been running a business from home for over 10 years and I wanted to share some thoughts on how to enjoy working from home. From keeping fit to day to day work. Here is my office. It's a bit shabby but it's where I spend most of my time in the day.
First things first: you have to have a routine. Without that, it'll be pretty tough to do your job and more importantly to separate out work from rest time. Especially making a distinction between the working week and weekends. Doubly important when we are all self isolating. Here are some tips around getting that right:

1. Get up the same time every day in the working week: in fact get up the time you usually get up to head into work, as sometime soon (we hope), you'll back to the commute. If that means you now have a few hours before the working day. This is your chance to do some exercise, learn a language or whatever rocks you boat and can be done safely inside. I personally do exercise and learn french using Dualingo.

2. Start and finish work at a set time: make it clear to yourself this is work time.

3. Even though we can't go out and meet people. It's the 2020s, there are so many tools you can use to communicate with colleagues and customers. I personally use a combination of Telegram and WhatsApp for talking to colleagues and Skype, Zoom and Google Hangouts for meetings. Make sure you and your team have something which works well to keep you communicating easily. We always start the day with a call to discuss what we need to do and also to chew the cud. Chewing the cud is important. Just because you can't physically meet, you can still make time to find out how everyone is and get some people time. We are sociable animals after all.

4. For managing your workload, there are loads of tools out there. We use a combination of Google docs and Trello. It's easy to build a list of things to do and it helps you keep to it.

5. You'll find you will get more done working at home than in the office: working from home, means working without distractions. No more pointless meetings or people showing you funny cat videos. The result is you should get through stuff quicker. That's great, as you can reward yourself with breaks. Be careful not to over do it, as you can find yourself stuck at your desks for hours. If you create a list of things to do and you nail it. Stop and enjoy the moment! It'll also give you more time for your family or other fun things.

6. If you find you have time on your hands, don't waste it. Use the opportunity to read up on your job and do some research. In a changing world, taking time to learn new skills is good for the noggin and good for your career. It also provides structure in your day and keeps you feeling good.

7. Don't sit on your arse all day, its as bad as smoking. Make sure you get up regularly. If you can safely walk outside or cycle, why not build this into your day. I've also started using VR games like Superhot, Beat Sabre on my Oculus Quest to help keep me moving. More on VR in a later post.

8. Drink lots of water, which will also help get you up out of your seat occasionally.

9. Remember to take lunch and breaks. It's important to keep structure to your day and give your noggin downtime. It also gives you time to socialise with your family, cats, partners, housemates etc... You can also use it as time to call friends and family, especially those who might be lonely.

10. Turn off your email and work communications at night. It's healthy to have downtime. I don't check my mail between 7pm and 8am. It helps to separate work day from me time. Just because you are working from home, remember it's still your home not your office, so this is important.

Next post will be about some exercise tips working from home ​