Working From Home in a Tiny Japanese Apartment

For the last 2 weeks I’ve been working from home in my tiny apartment (25 square metres in total — including the bathroom!). Prior to that I also had a full 2 weeks quarantine at home when I got back from Canada, so I’ve become very familiar with what it’s like to be confined to such a small space.

Japanese apartments are notorious for being small, especially those in Tokyo, where I live. For living alone, the space is enough and I’m usually out at work for the majority of the week.

One half of my room

The other half of my room

My apartment is a 1K which means I have one room, which is used for living, sleeping and eating, and a corridor where my kitchen is, and of course, a separate bathroom. My room has a lot of natural light as you can see which is great during the daytime and on the whole it feels pretty cosy.

Usually I enjoyed having a day at home at the weekend but then everything changed with this pandemic…

At first it didn’t really bother me all that much — everything was close and convenient and I could make a cup of tea whenever I fancied! Also, my work schedule is usually very busy but it’s now dwindled quite a bit so I had more free time and a much less stressful day. This joy lasted for about 2 days!

After that I started to feel a bit frustrated that not only I didn’t have a lot of work to do, but that I didn’t have the space to do any exercise or multi-tasking.

Recommendations For Working from Home

I’d done all of this research of things to consider when working from home and what you should/shouldn’t do so I wanted to give them a go. They were:

1. Do exercise at home
2. Try to have a daily routine
3. Have a designated work space
4. Cook
5. Do things you enjoy/hobbies
6. Stay positive

How it Worked Out

I’m trying my best to do all of the things above and some are a bit more successful than others. The space I have to live in has limitations and I now very much know what they are!

1. Do exercise at home — This is near impossible in my apartment. I have just enough space to put a yoga mat on the floow, but anything outside of that mat area is impossible. So when I’m doing yoga and need to lie down and put my leg to the side — impossible. I’ve had to make do with what I have but it is NOT encouraging me to do any exercise — it feels more bothersome than anything else.
2. Try to have a daily routine — This I have been able to do pretty well. I get up around 8am, have a shower and breakfast and get onto my laptop maybe around 9:00am–9:30am (I’m meant to start at 10:00am). I work then till around 6:00pm/7:00pm with breaks in between and then I chill. In the evenings, I’m mostly watching Netflix, playing Switch or working on my website. I try to be productive in the evenings but it’s not always that easy. Routine definitely helps though!
3. Have a designated work space — Also an easy one for me. I had a desk already from studying Japanese and sewing. My partner did not have such a good set up though and did have to buy a chair, laptop stand, keyboard and everything. Expensive but means that he can work comfortably from home, so if you don’t have a good set up — buy one! You don’t know how long you’ll need it for.
4. Cook — I’m a bit hit and miss with this one. I’ve been trying my best to cook every night and I do mostly but sometimes I’m not motivated to cook so I order take out, or have cup noodles. I definitely feel a good sense of achievement cooking though and know that I can eat healthier that way.
5. Do things you enjoy/hobbies — I am a very creative person and I LOVE making things. Whether it’s jewellery, sewing or even DIY around the house. Having a tiny apartment and wanting to do crafts has been incredibly difficult. As soon as I start a project, my entire room becomes a total mess and it becomes quite stressful. You can’t sit down anywhere and it takes a good 15–20 minutes to tidy everything away again. I only have one desk so it means moving my whole work environment away to be able to do anything. Generally a project will take several days which can become tiring having to get it out and put it away every time. Doing your hobbies is meant to be a good, happy activity but in such a tiny place, it kind of has the opposite effect. I would kill for a separate room with a table to just be my craft table. That may sound strange for my friends and family back in the UK, but even my smallest apartment back home had multiple rooms!
6. Stay positive — for me this has been one of the hardest things. With social media and the news blaring out mostly negative news, it’s hard to avoid feeling blue with everything that’s happening. I have been trying to post only positive things myself and on the occasional trips outside, anything I see that I like, I take a photo. I also try to avoid looking at the news too often. I’m very used to having a job that’s very people focused so when it boils down to being home alone with no one to talk to, it’s pretty tough. Of course I’m not seeing friends and only seeing my partner once a week or so.

In Conclusion

To sum up, living and working in such a small apartment definitely has it’s challenges but there are ways to try to make things a little easier. I’d definitely recommend setting up a routine and having a separate workspace as good starting points.

If you can do your hobbies, make time for them. It can be stressful (especially in a tiny apartment), but it does still fill me with joy once I’ve finished a project.

Staying positive at the moment can be hard but try to enjoy the little things. Whether that’s messaging friends, taking photos of things you like, blogging, learning something new or making something. Just try it out. If you don’t feel like doing anything, don’t push it — downtime is good too!