Whether you’re working from home for the first time in your life or you’re a seasoned remote worker, it’s important to make sure that your home environment is set up for maximum productivity, comfort, and health.

What works best in terms of productivity and comfort varies from person to person, but in general, these guiding principles should help add structure and boundaries to your routine. To keep you on track and organized, we’ve put together a checklist, below, that you can use as you revamp your new environment.

Create a schedule
Create a realistic schedule for yourself. You likely have more time on your hands. However, that doesn’t mean that you should forgo your alarm and just start working when you wake up. Depending on your work-from-home flexibility, choose what hours you’ll be working, and stick to those–both for starting and stopping. Give yourself time in the morning to enjoy a cup of coffee and breakfast before you even check your work email, and build in breaks (including lunch!) throughout the day to stretch, walk, talk to a friend, or enjoy a healthy snack. Take your breaks and meals away from your working environment to keep work and home separated. At night, let your team know that you’ll be offline after, say 6 PM, and that you’ll get to any of their questions the next morning (barring any emergencies).

Set boundaries around your schedule–both for your working life and your personal life. If you find yourself being pulled into Zoom call after Zoom call, block off a chunk of time in your calendar for dedicated project work or “focus time;” work with your colleagues to make sure this is feasible with your particular work and schedule. During this time, turn off alerts from Slack and email–one study found that it takes the average worker 23 minutes to refocus after an unwanted distraction!

With respect to your personal life, make sure you’re taking the time you need to recharge away from others, if that’s what you need. It was easy to say no to social activities pre-quarantine, when you could make up any excuse to stay in; now, it’s expected that you’ll say yes to every virtual hangout–because what else could you possibly be doing?! Say yes to the virtual catchups that you actually want to attend, but don’t be afraid to say no to the invite to hang out with your first grade soccer team. Just as you wouldn’t in real life, don’t overbook yourself–and grant yourself permission to read that book or watch the newest Netflix show.

Set goals with intention
Choose one or more goals to work towards–it could be losing five pounds, taking up a new craft project, or exercising for at least thirty minutes per day. Then, ask yourself why you want to achieve that goal–do you want to reduce your risk of chronic disease? Do you want more energy? Do you want to train for a hiking trip that you’ll take when it’s safe to do so again? Defining the intention behind your goal gives you the motivation you’ll need to keep working towards that goal.

Whatever goal you choose, write out a roadmap of how you’ll get there. If you want to lose five pounds, you might start by reducing your daily caloric intake or by exercising more, or both. From there, break down your goal into even smaller specific and relevant goals. You might reduce your daily caloric intake by making sure that you eat at least two servings of vegetables at every meal, and you might accomplish that by trying out some of Foodsmart’s Recipes with Vegetables. When you’re choosing a goal, make sure that you choose a goal big enough that it’s new and exciting, but simple enough that it doesn’t further complicate or inconvenience your day and week.

Out of sight, out of mind
Being surrounded by delicious snacks all day adds to the challenge of eating healthfully while working from home. The good news is that it can be an easy fix! Next time you choose a grocery delivery or safely head to the grocery store, don’t buy the unhealthy, sugary, processed snacks–especially the ones that you quickly inhale and have little self-control around. Build your home food environment so that it works for you: place a bowl of different fruits in sight and spend a few minutes early in the week cutting up celery, carrots, and easy grab-and-go vegetable-centered snacks. In the midst of Zoom meetings and ongoing projects, you’ll have something quick to turn to and there will be less temptation to dig for sugary or salty snacks.

Keep all your snacks in the kitchen, fridge, or pantry–if there’s an open bag of chips on your desk, it’s bound to be eaten sooner rather than later. Eat your snacks with intention; portion them out on a plate, and enjoy them away from your work (mindless snacking contributes to increased calorie consumption)

Keeping these principles in mind, we’ve developed a checklist for setting up your home environment. Start hitting your groove in quarantine with these recommendations:

Eating Habits

Keep snacks away from your work area
Choose snacks that require a little bit of prep work to avoid mindless eating (cut up an apple into slices and spread each slice with a small amount of peanut butter; slice carrots and cucumbers into strips and dip in hummus)
Choose snacks that offer at least two of the following: protein, fiber, or healthy fats. Mix and match foods like fresh fruit, sliced veggies, nuts, seeds, bean-based dips, edamame, and yogurt
Arm yourself with a variety of hydration options: water flavored with lemon or orange slices, teas (herbal or caffeinated), and sparkling water
Pause before snacking: ask yourself if you’re really hungry, or are you stressed or bored?
Plan for, and take, your lunch break. If you can, block off at least 30 minutes from your calendar to prep and eat a balanced lunch away from your computer

Routine

Set an alarm, eat breakfast, brush your teeth, get dressed–do all of the normal parts of your regular morning routine
Change out of your pajamas. You don’t need to put on jeans–athleisure, loungewear, or workout clothes will do the trick
Designate a space for work that is away from your bedroom. It doesn’t need to be a separate room with a door that closes, just a space that gets you in the work-time mindset. If you’re limited on space, choose anywhere but your bed: working in bed disrupts the mental association you have between your bed and sleep, making it harder to relax when it’s time to go to sleep
Stick to your routine. If you normally grab coffee at 10, maintain that habit–it will give your day more order. Plus, it’s a scheduled break that will help you focus later
Each hour, aim to move for at least 60 seconds (walk around the house, do a few jumping jacks or push-ups, stretch, or take your dog out)
Set reminders: to drink water, to get up and stretch, to eat lunch, and to log off for the day
Choose a time to log off and stick to it as much as possible. Once you’re done with work, put it away for the evening–turn off email alerts and your computer