It’s not easy to maintain a work-life balance when you work remotely for a long period of time. The arrangement can affect your mental health as you may feel lonely and isolated at times. Working remotely take some time to get used to as this new way of life would have affected the routine you followed before. It can be easy to slip into bad habits when spending all day indoors. If you don’t set a boundary between your personal life and work, it will become difficult to find time to take care of yourself. Paying attention to your mental and physical health can increase your productivity and efficiency.
Here are some expert tips to help you set a new routine to take care of yourself:
- Set boundaries between work and home life: There is a chance of such as working late into the evening when you are working from home. To maintain a healthy balance between work and play, you have to set clear boundaries between them. This will allow you to find time to take care of yourself and do your work as well.
- Set a consistent sleep schedule: As a part of self-care, it’s important that you maintain the wake time and bedtime that you followed before this transition. This will help maintain sleep quality. If you don’t get enough sleep, you will become tired and confused throughout the day, with big fluctuations in energy. You will also feel tempted to take a long nap in the afternoon. If you feel like you need rest, set an alarm for a 20 min power nap. If you want to get away from your desk, go outside and take a brisk walk.
- Dress up as if you’re going to work: Christine Carter, PhD, a sociologist and senior fellow of the Greater Good Science Center at University of California in Berkeley recommends taking a shower, combing your hair, and maybe even putting on your shoes before you start work in the morning. Doing this will help get your mind ready and also help you transition more easily to the work mode. It will prepare you for your day by sending a message to the brain that it is not weekend!
- Take time to move around: Fitting in time for exercise is important to ensure that you stay fit and healthy. If possible, get outside or sit in the garden for 10 minutes, stretch your arms and legs, and get some much-needed fresh air.
- Take a break: Prolonged sitting can create many health problems. Walk away from your laptop and move your body. Just walk up and down the stairs, simply stand or do a loop around the block.
- Prepare a to-do-list: One challenge when you work from home is that you have to rely on yourself for motivation to get through the working day. Start each morning by preparing a to-do list pf everything that needs to be done. Prioritize the things should be done immediately. Tick off things in the list as you get them done.
- Organize your work space: Make sure that you have a space or environment that is productive and conductive to work and does not have a negative impact on your body or posture. Avoid sitting on sofas and keeping laptops on your lap, this will have an adverse impact on your body. Create a proper environment that will allow you to work effectively by positioning your laptop, chair and table to maintain good posture. Also ensure that the lighting is appropriate and doesn’t strain your eyes.
- Eat healthy and stay hydrated: You may feel like eating junk food or snacks while working from home, especially if you are stressed. Avoid this and eat healthy lunches that will give you the nourishment and energy that you need. Keep a bottle filled with water on your desk and stay hydrated. You can keep track of whether you are drinking sufficient water using an app like Water Minder or Hydro Coach.
- Wake up a bit early: Waking up a bit early will make sure that you have time to get things in the house done before you begin office work. This includes preparing your breakfast, or washing clothes or cleaning. Use your time before work as productively as you can.
- Consider meditation: Find time to meditate before you start work. It will help you to relax, readjust and concentrate. Online mediation organization Headspace has a free meditation collection called “Weathering the Storm”, which includes meditations, and sleep and movement exercises.
- Listen or watch something that makes you happy: Watch or listen to something that will make you laugh. Laughter is a good stress buster and can improve your mental health and also overall well-being.
- Don’t let work spill your leisure time: Don’t hesitate to bring your work to a close and don’t let it spool out into the evening. Free yourself after the work, avoid overworking and recharge yourself so you can wake up feeling fresh the next day.
So, working from home doesn’t mean working all the time. Consider working from home as an opportunity to look after yourself. Following these tips will help you maintain work-life balance and boost your mental health and physical health. This will help to make working from home productive and enjoyable.
