Weaving wellness into working from home

“You cannot pour from an empty cup” goes the age old maxim, however when working from home, lines get blurred and often our self-care gets forgotten. Read on to learn how to keep wellness front and centre everyday. Complied with the support of Lorna Lacey.

Do you find yourself obsessively checking your emails well after 10 PM? Skipping lunch for the third time this week to update your team’s files? Making excuses to rearrange that coffee date because of an ‘urgent’ work task. Well, you’re not alone. Evidence from a recent survey by MHFA Ireland, reported some 42% of respondents agreed that managing the boundary between work and home life is very difficult for them and 40% of respondents were found to be experiencing poor wellbeing as defined under the WHO-5 Well-Being Index - MHFA, Home Working Wellbeing Survey, Jul 2020.

This year huge numbers of people across the globe were rapidly initiated into the world of Remote Work, many of whom may have never had any significant experience of working from home. Maybe you are one of them, and although, like many, you may have adapted to this way of working, you may not have had the time to adequately assess and optimise your practices. This doesn’t mean just improving your desk layout and access to collaborative online tools (although these are important too!), equally as essential is your self-care routine and this is, more often than not, overlooked.

Too many of us are both liberated and overwhelmed by the flexibility of our new working arrangements, particularly in the working from home (WFH) environment where the lines between home and life can become blurred . Yes, we are the masters of our own schedules, but we are also subject to self-scrutiny and pressure to work harder than in a traditional office environment to compensate for the authority and trust that physical presence often accompanies. Keep reading to discover my tips for better Remote Work hygiene; practical and simple ways to weave wellness into your working day to achieve a better work-life balance.

General Preparation

Set Working Hours & Stick to Them! - Set standard office hours and communicate them to your work colleagues as well as your social group. By establishing your hours of availability, you set necessary boundaries, providing your team with clear expectations and preventing yourself from working overtime.

Move it or lose it! - stretch, walk around, go outside; whatever it takes to keep your energy levels up and avoid large periods sitting.

Pre-plan Your Day - Take a few minutes at the start of each day to make a to-do list, marking which tasks are high priority and which can be delegated or, if required, rearranged. Then create a plan for your day, making sure to be as realistic as possible with the timings for each task.

Calendar Blocking - It’s all too easy to lose hours of time on emails and messenger apps like Slack. Avoid losing precious productive hours in your day by dedicating specific time in your schedule for deep-work with no distractions.

Morning

Don't Sign-on When You Wake Up - Give yourself 30-60 minutes before you sign-on to chat with your team. Once you're 'online' it's hard to stop the barrage of messages, so taking time to get fired up for the day before getting inundated with work can do wonders for your wellbeing.

Dress for Work - By getting up and dressing each morning as you would if commuting to an office, this simple but effective ritual puts you in a focused frame of mind, as well as creating a divide between the professional and the personal. 

Have a Grounding Morning Ritual - Before working remotely you likely had a (hectic) morning routine. Now, you can use that time to craft a fun ritual that gets you energised. Pick an activity you love (meditation, exercise, time in nature, reading) and schedule it as non-negotiable 'me' time each morning.

Photo by Samuel Silitonga from Pexels

During the Work Day

Self-Care at Lunch - Don’t make a habit of eating lunch at your desk. Take the opportunity to unwind – go for a walk, practise yoga, meet a friend at a café, or tackle a new healthy recipe at home. Schedule these lunch breaks into your calendar.

Breaks - Taking regular breaks improves your productivity and well-being. This is especially true when doing monotonous or mundane tasks (we all have them!). Make sure to schedule breaks to split up the time spent on these tasks.

Scheduling Activities to Support Wellness - When creating your daily plan, don’t just schedule work-based matters, create space in your day to go to the gym, call a friend or read a book. Remember there are many perks to working from home, once your time is used responsibly. Grow to appreciate the importance of rest time and build on your “rest ethic” (see more on this below)

End of Day Activities

Set an Alarm - By setting an alarm you are providing yourself with a tangible indicator that the working day has ended. When the alarm sounds, close your laptop and step away from your desk – the office is now closed.

Mark the End of the Day with a Ritual - Very often in WFH the line between your personal and professional life can become blurred. Maybe you find yourself drifting back to your laptop in the evenings? Having an end of day ritual supports a mental switch in gears. Try taking a shower, changing out of your work clothes, or go for a jog to mark that conscious separation.

Daily Reflections - Take a few minutes to reflect on your day, perhaps jot down some notes in a journal. What am I grateful for? What went well, what areas could I improve on? What goals did I achieve? It’s important to take time to practise this form of mindfulness and acknowledge positive points and celebrate ‘wins’.

Embrace the concept of “rest ethic”

There is so much talk of productivity, work ethic, busy-iness and hours spent working, and often so little focus on the “rest ethic” needed to be an effective remote worker. “Rest ethic” is your own personal standpoint on all of the above, including holidays, rest periods, weekends and details in how, when and why you take and need your own personal downtime. So I want to leave you with this question: “How could you improve your approach to your downtime?”.

If you or your team would like to learn more about the ‘RoRemote’ approach - please contact me today.

Further reading: MHFA, Home Working Wellbeing Survey, Jul 2020 (Mental Health First Aid, Ireland) and Psychological and Mental Health Needs Arising from COVID-19(The Psychological Society of Ireland).