Taking Care of Your Mental Well-Being While Working From Home
The ongoing coronavirus pandemic is forcing countless people to work from home in an effort to stop the virus’s spread. If you've never worked from home for weeks on end before, these six tips will help you create healthy habits and save your sanity.
1. Get your workspace ready for productivity
Whether you’re working from a dedicated home office or the kitchen table, you need to make sure your space is conducive to getting work done.
Clean your workspace and stock it with the tools you need to stay productive, like pens, paper and chargers for your electronics. To avoid neck strain if you don’t have a desktop computer, raise your laptop to eye-level using books. A bluetooth keyboard and mouse can also help with ergonomics.
2. Make sure you have the right technology to work from home
There’s little else more frustrating than fighting with your home WiFi while trying to connect to an important video call.
To avoid these problems, make sure your internet connection can handle the increased bandwidth. Some internet service providers are offering speedier connections for free right now, but you’ll need to call and confirm with your provider.
You may have additional technology needs depending on your job. No matter what tools you need, getting everything squared away from the beginning will make your life a whole lot easier.
3. Take advantage of saved time
If you normally get ready for work in the morning before commuting to an office, you’re probably finding yourself with some extra time in the day. You can certainly use that time to get more work done, but for the sake of your mental well-being, we suggest using it for something a bit more relaxing.
You could take advantage of not having to commute by sleeping in later, for starters.
4. But don’t forgo all routines
Your daily routines will look a bit different for the next few weeks (and maybe even months) but that doesn’t mean you should nix routines altogether. There’s little need to get dressed each day if you don’t want to, but some sort of structure to the day is still helpful.
Create daily routines that help you separate work from your personal life, like set times for starting work, taking breaks and finishing work for the day.
5. Exercise routines are particularly important right now
Don’t use quarantine and social distancing as an excuse to become completely sedentary.
Physical activity is great for your mind and body, and can help you blow off steam. You don’t have to go all-in on a home gym setup, either — these ideas for quick, 30-minute workouts are simple and effective.
6. Set boundaries in your household
Working from home when other people are also there, whether it’s roommates, a spouse or your kids, can be extremely challenging. They may not understand that distractions make it impossible to finish your tasks.
That’s why boundaries are absolutely critical when working from home. We’ve talked about boundaries before on the Intelligent Office (IO) blog, and you get our top tips in this helpful article: How Successful People Set Personal and Professional Boundaries.
