Our work and personal lives have become more entwined than ever before. Technology allows you to run a company from your living room, teach your children from afar, and keep in touch with friends and family. However, we now need to figure out how to unplug and transition from work to home in the same room.
Working may it be at the office or home can indeed be stressful. This is especially true if you are overexerting yourself and not taking the necessary steps and measures to avoid burnout and exhaustion.
Watching the news daily particularly the updates on the coronavirus can take a toll on your mental health. Add the bouts of a work-from-home setup into the mix and surely you are bound to be perpetually tired. That's why self-care isn't optional; it's a necessary part of adapting to a new standard.
Before heading onto the tips we are listing for you, let us further understand what self-care is and how incorporating it into your daily life is important and beneficial for your sanity and monitored work performance.
Self-Care: What You Need to Know About It
Self-care is the act of looking after oneself to better one's health and well-being. Depending on what makes you feel well-rested, comfortable, and refreshed to face the current stresses of our changing lives, people practice self-care in a variety of ways.
For many of us, adjusting to a new schedule, a new working atmosphere, or even spending more time with our families than we're used to can be challenging, but taking care of ourselves can make a huge difference in our mindset and how we feel. Working remotely can also make you feel lonely and make you miss spending time with your coworkers, so it takes some getting used to.
Despite the Pandemic, Self-Care is Still Necessary
Continuing to practice self-care while juggling all that demands our attention is a challenge for many people who have recently moved to work from home. You may be used to keeping your home and workplace apart, and you may need to make changes to combine your work and home lives so that you can recharge and start the next day feeling refreshed.
Here are several pointers on how to work from home happily and productively while reducing stress levels.
Tips to Apply to Your Self-Care Routine
Making such changes while also attempting to prioritize our own and our loved ones' health can create new sources of stress in our lives. In this post, we'll talk about why it's important to take care of yourself and provide some examples of self-care habits you may find useful.
● Having a Routine, You Can Follow
Many people's daily lives have been disrupted by the unexpected outbreak of COVID-19. Maintaining a consistent morning routine will help you stay focused and prepared for the day ahead. If commuting to work was a part of your previous schedule, you might be able to enhance or lengthen your morning routine by using that time.
● Making a Workspace for Yourself
Although your laptop indeed serves as your "station," having a designated workplace, even if it's only a corner of the kitchen table, is extremely beneficial. This is another type of self-care related to assisting your brain is getting ready for work.
Having a designated workspace can prepare your mind to separate priorities and focus on certain roles at given times. This also reduces any feelings of a cluttered mind and a dysfunctional work mindset.
If you are still looking for office equipment, consider the products offered by FlexiSpot and sure enough, you can take your pick and start your home office journey.
● Organize your Living Space
Along with a more organized and distinct workstation, you also have to keep things in check at home.
When working, a clean work environment will make you feel more comfortable. Spend some time cleaning and organizing your workspace and house.
Cleaning your home regularly can not only make you feel better but can also help prevent the spread of COVID-19. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a list of cleaning and disinfecting tips for your home.
● Playing Some Music to Set the Mood
Music will make you feel calmer by lowering levels of the stress hormone cortisol. There is no such thing as the right or wrong style of music to listen to. However, if you're looking for suggestions, a study found that listening to this song reduced overall anxiety by 65 percent. Working from home often eliminates the need to compromise on music choices or volume.
● Make Time for Breaks in Your Day
what you can do is to create a general plan on what you'd like to do today when you'll tackle those tasks, and when you'll take breaks, rather than a daunting to-do list that threatens to send your stress levels skyrocketing.
You may have to work on a different schedule than you did at work. This will necessitate scheduling breaks at particular times.
It is necessary to take your mind off work at few designated time intervals. This can help you recharge and lessen any chances of you getting over fatigued.
● Dedicate Time for Journaling
Journaling is a great way to clear your mind at the end of the day.
Keep a notebook next to your bed and write down whatever is on your mind. You'll be surprised by how relaxing it is to write down what's on your mind.
Using a journal to write down your thoughts and ideas is a fantastic way to help you concentrate on the positive – something that is more important now than ever.
● Try Avoiding Multitasking
Working from home can easily merge your time with your free time. It does not mean that once you are free from your work and the shift is over that you can still accept any workloads while off the grid.
To avoid easily getting stressed out and tired, it is best to set your limitations and boundaries. Also, one thing you can do is to avoid multitasking.
When working from home, it can be tempting to be all over the company chat and emails to prove that you are just as present when you are remote. Establish order and concentration by compartmentalizing tasks and blocking out time in your calendar for them.
● Getting Enough Sleep
Sleep is important for maintaining a healthy mind and body, as well as improving concentration during the workday. A daily sleep schedule will make you feel energized and ready for the day ahead.
Staying up late answering emails or watching TV is a bad idea. Each night, try to get 7 to 8 hours of sleep. Stress, frustration, depression, and mental fatigue can all be exacerbated by a single night of sleep deprivation. You have more mental bandwidth to deal with challenging circumstances when you're well-rested.
It can take some extra effort at first to create peace in your day. The good news is that dedicating even a small amount of time to self-care will go a long way toward reducing stress and allowing you to feel your best no matter where you are.
Conclusion
With the techniques on this list we provided, self-care entails making yourself a priority daily, which is particularly important when working from home.
Finding healthy ways to relax, set goals, and build the structure are all important. These items can give you a much-needed sense of control, which translates to turning work into a positive activity rather than another major stressor, especially now that none of us knows what lies ahead.
