Before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, the idea of working from home sounded like a dream for many of us but a very limited group of people had the possibility to do it. Amid the strictest COVID-19 lockdowns, this model transformed from being a luxury to being a real torture. But step-by-step we managed to get accustomed to it. And even now, when the pandemic is over, a lot of businesses still allow their employees to continue working remotely.
These days there are a lot of studies aimed at finding out the pros and cons of remote work and its impact on people. In one of the surveys, the majority of respondents named the provided flexibility in how they spend their time among the key advantages of this model. But do we always spend our time in a healthy way?
Fact: Research has shown that while working from home, employees tend to be 47% more productive than the usual model.
Unfortunately, while we stay at home our physical activity is extremely low. Moreover, for many of us, it can be rather challenging to resist the temptation and not to have a snack each time we look at the fridge. But we know some secrets on how to work from home and to stay healthy both mentally and physically. And we are ready to share them with you.
Track Your Physical Activity
With the developments in IoT in fitness and sports, wearables and IoT-powered feature-rich mobile apps are widely adopted today. There is a wide array of models of fitness bracelets and smartwatches that can satisfy the requirements of even the most demanding customers and are affordable for people with absolutely different budgets. Such devices can calculate your steps (and motivate you to walk more!), analyze the quality of your sleep, and send notifications the moment you are sitting for too long.
A lot of solutions of this type also allow users to choose different kinds of activities (cycling, running, jogging, swimming, dance classes, etc.) for estimating how many calories have been burnt. Usually, even if you do not have the aim to lose weight, such products can be a good tool for keeping fit and not forgetting to do a couple of exercises during the day.
Organize a Dedicated Workspace
It is absolutely clear that not all of us have the possibility to allocate a separate room in a flat for making it a dedicated office. Nevertheless, we strongly recommend you find a place with good lighting that will be your workspace. It will be nice if you can place a desk there because since you are sitting on a sofa with a laptop, this environment is far from being office-like. When you have such a dedicated location, there will be fewer things around you that will be able to distract you from work. As a result, it will take you less time to cope with the set tasks.
Don’t Forget About Your Hobbies
Very often when we start working from home we devote practically all the time to our job-related activities, with the exception of some hours when we are sleeping. But what about your favorite activities that help you to relax? Knitting, crocheting, playing games, reading, listening to music, attending museums, painting…We are sure that you also have (or used to have) a cool hobby. Why not revive it now? By devoting some hours per week to it, you can learn to better organize your time, and fulfill work tasks faster. All this will definitely have a positive impact on your mental state.
Spend More Time with Your Family
It is an ordinary or habitual practice that we start spending less time with our family members when we work from home. We believe that when we are at home, it should already be enough for our children, partners, or parents. However, when we are working, we are not communicating with them, and we are not spending time together despite the fact that physically we all are at the same location. It will be a nice idea to find at least an hour or two per day to play with your children or to discuss with your husband or wife something that makes you both happy. Movie nights or pizza on Fridays can become a pleasant family tradition.
Fact: 63% of women find it more comfortable to work from home rather than visit an office or workspace regularly.
Conclusion
Despite the wide range of advantages that we can leverage when we do not have to attend our offices every day, there are a lot of pitfalls. In the majority of cases, they are related to problems with our time management and self-organization. We take off spending too many hours with our computers, instead of spending time with our families, practicing sports, or doing something else that can be interesting or relaxing for us.
It is important to separate our work from our private life. They should be two absolutely separate spheres with clear borders. Only after doing that, will we be able to take care of our physical and mental health and minimize the risks of suffering from workplace burnout syndrome.
