How to keep a health habit when you go back to the office

Why a health habit stops when you go back to the office

A lot of habits from the years of working from home were built in time that became free when the commute went away. The 45 minutes you used to spend driving in became a walk at 7:45. Lunch was at home, so the 12:15 class at the gym down the street fit in the hour. You closed the laptop at 5 and were cooking at 5:10. None of that took any planning. The time was just there.

After you go back, the job is usually the same. So are the role, the boss, and the hours on paper. What changes is where you have to be on set days, for example Tuesday to Thursday. On those days, the 45 minutes go back to the drive or the train. The lunch hour happens at the office. The time after 5 is the trip home.

So the habit did not stop because you started caring less about it. The exact minutes it used now go to the commute and the office on those days. Some people report the office has been fine or better for them, and this page is not about whether going back is good or bad. It is about which minutes the habit used, and what those minutes go to now.

Nobody ever chose a place for the habit

This is the part that makes it worse than "less free time" would suggest. When working from home started, the time came first and the habit came after. Nobody sat down and decided where the walk would go. There was a free 45 minutes at 7:45 every weekday, and the walk happened in it.

So when the office days take those minutes back, there is no other place the habit was ever put. It was tied to the time, not to a decision you made. That is why a lot of people say the habit just disappeared on office days, instead of saying it got shorter or moved to later in the day. A habit that started on its own, in time that was suddenly free, has to be thought about on purpose once that time is gone.

What a split week does to the habit

The usual pattern goes like this. On home days, the habit still happens, sometimes exactly the way it did before. On office days, it does not. A habit that used to happen every weekday turns into a Monday and Friday habit, and you start saying "I do it on my home days" without ever having decided that.

Then, for some people, the home days change too. The grocery run, the laundry, the pharmacy pickup, and the call to the plumber that could not happen Tuesday to Thursday all get pushed to Monday and Friday, and the walk on those days starts getting skipped as well. If the company later adds a fourth office day, the habit loses another day.

Compared with a lot of other ways a habit stops, people usually notice this one quickly. The office days were announced, and you can see the difference between your Monday and your Tuesday. But knowing it is happening does not put the habit anywhere by itself. It also helps to remember that office days are known weeks or months ahead, and they are the same days every week. That makes this a change you can see before it affects the habit, not only after.

What this usually looks like after the office days start

A payroll specialist walked a 35-minute loop around her neighborhood at 7:45 every weekday while she worked from home. That was the time she used to spend driving in. Her office days are Tuesday to Thursday, and on those days she leaves at 7:15 to be at her desk by 8:30. The walk happens on Mondays and Fridays now.

A man did the 12:15 class at a gym two blocks from his apartment three days a week for two years. His office is in an office park off the highway, 25 miles from that gym, with a one-hour lunch and no sidewalks. He still has the lunch hour on office days. He does not have the class.

A woman walked her dog for 40 minutes at noon every day. On office days a dog walker comes at noon instead. The dog still gets walked. Her own walk is the part that went away.

A man started cooking dinner at 5:10 most weeknights, right after he closed his laptop. On office days he gets home at 6:25, and dinner is whatever is fastest to make.

A woman's company went from two set office days to three in the spring. Her walk had still been happening on Monday, Thursday, and Friday. Now it happens on Monday and Friday, and most Mondays she spends the morning on errands she could not get to during the week.

A man said "I'll work out on my home days" his first week back. Two months later he counted, and he had worked out on six of about sixteen home days.

Nobody in these examples changed jobs or roles, and nobody decided to give up the habit. The time it had been built in went back to the commute and the office on set days.

Why "pack your gym bag," a gym near the office, and lunch walks don't fix this

Most of the advice you find for this moment is to pack a gym bag and lay out clothes the night before, find a gym near the office, walk on your lunch break at the office, take walking meetings, do shorter workouts, pick a before-work or after-work time that fits the commute, and set up one routine for office days and another for home days.

Most of that assumes an office day is a home day with a commute added, and that you only need to move the same habit a few miles or a few hours. Often the habit was tied to where you were as well as to the time: your own neighborhood, the gym down your street, your dog, your kitchen. A lunch hour in an office park is the same length as a lunch hour at home, but it is not the same place, and the habit that fit at home may not fit there at all. That is why, when someone online asks "why can't you just walk at lunch at the office?", people answer that there are no crosswalks, or that it would be laps around the parking lot.

"Pick a new time" and "set up an office-day routine" also skip the actual problem. The habit was never placed anywhere on purpose. A new time or a new place is a whole new habit to set up, not a small move of the old one.

What to think about if you're going back to the office

Here are some plain questions to ask about your own week. They are for thinking about. They are not a procedure, a checklist, or a plan.

• When I worked from home, which minutes did the habit actually use, and what do those minutes go to on office days?
• Did I ever choose a place for this habit, or did it fill time that became free when the commute went away?
• Was the habit tied to the time, to the place (my neighborhood, my gym, my kitchen, my dog), or to both?
• Is it still happening on my home days, or have errands from the office days started to fill those days too?
• Am I telling myself "I do it on my home days" without having counted how often that is true?
• If my office days were announced ahead of time, did I think about the habit before they started, or only after it stopped?

Because office days are set and known ahead of time, this is a change worth thinking about on purpose, instead of hoping the habit will move to wherever there is room. This page does not lay out how to do that. That part is what practical time management around one practice is for.

How this differs from nearby Healthy & Awake guides

This page is about keeping a health habit when you go back to the office on set days, after building it in time that working from home gave back. Nearby pages answer different questions.

• Why a health routine is harder to keep when you work from home is for people who found working from home made health harder, because the day had no commute and no clear end. This page is the reverse. The habit worked at home, and it stops when the office days come back.
• How to keep healthy habits when you start a new job is about a new employer and a day you do not know yet. Here the employer is the same, and you know the office day well.
• How to keep a health habit after a promotion is about a role change where more people now need you at the times the habit used. Here the role is the same. The commute and the office take the time, not other people.
• When meetings keep deleting your health plan is about meetings running over or landing on a health block. Meetings are not the cause here.
• Making time for health inside a full workday is about a packed workday where the practice never had a real place. Here the habit had a place at home for months or years.
• How to keep an after-work health habit when it gets dark early is about a habit that stops when nothing took its time and only the daylight changed. Here the commute and the office did take the time, on set days.

How do I keep a health habit when I go back to the office?

Start by seeing which time the habit was built in. For a lot of people, a habit from the years of working from home lived in time that became free when the commute went away: a morning walk in the old driving time, a lunchtime class near home, cooking right after closing the laptop. On office days, that time goes back to the commute and the office. Because nobody ever chose a place for the habit, it has to be thought about on purpose, instead of hoping it will move to wherever there is room.

Why did my workout routine stop when we went back to the office, when my job didn't change?

Because the habit was never tied to the job. It was tied to the time. Working from home gave back the commute minutes and put your lunch hour at home, and the habit started in that time. On office days, those exact minutes go back to the drive or the train and to the office, so the habit loses its place on those days.

Why does it still happen on home days but not on office days?

On home days, the time it was built in is still there. On office days, it is not. That turns a habit that used to happen every weekday into a two-day habit, and for some people the errands that could not happen on office days start to fill the home days too.

How is this different from working from home or starting a new job?

Some people find a health routine harder to keep at home, because the work-from-home day has no clear start or end. This is the reverse: the habit worked at home and stops when the office days come back. And unlike a new job, the employer and the role stay the same, and you know the office day well.

When is practical time-management support worth considering?

When you already know what to do for your health and the problem is that one practice lost its place after your week changed, including when office days came back, practical time management around that one practice is a different kind of help than a gym bag checklist or an office-day routine. It will not shorten the commute or change your office days.

Where Healthy & Awake Time Management fits

Healthy & Awake Time Management is a $47 practical time-management course for working adults who already know what to do for their health and lost one practice when their week changed, including when the office days came back and took the time the habit was built in. It is educational time management around health. It is not medical care, not career coaching, not a hybrid workout program, and not a nutrition or sleep plan. One payment includes lifetime access on the current offer, and the current offer comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. The course will not shorten the commute or change how many days you have to be in the office.

Also related: Why a health routine is harder to keep when you work from home and How to keep healthy habits when you start a new job. Back to Healthy & Awake.