Top Pieces Of Advice To Stay Healthy While Working From Home
The Covid-19 pandemic has truly brought the world to a stand-still. However, we all know that bills will continue coming in, as well as business demands and the work required to keep running.
For more than a year now, employees and business owners have been severely stressed for a plethora of reasons. Adding to the usual stress of business, the real challenge was to transform all business operations to be done remotely, from home. Whether or not you were sharing your home with other people, children and even pets is unique to each person’s set-up. But, no one can deny that we’ve been pushed to rethink coping with mental health, as well as ways we can boost our physical health and immune system.
The bottom line is that the working environment has been changed forever, regardless of whether you are back in the office or not. Here is why we are helping you with some top ways to stay healthy while working from home, covering practical tips that you can instil into your daily routine to optimise working and reduce stress levels at home.
Ensure a comfortable working environment
Reduce distractions while you’re on business time
Though it may not be possible to be completely focused on work, especially with parenting duties and others in the house who may need your attention. However, it is essential that others learn to become more mindful of your work schedule. You could consider putting a piece of paper on your door with a sign when you’re in an important meeting.
If you haven’t already, there is an incredible marketplace of available pairs of noise-cancelling headphones or earphones which can help you get your mind focused on your tasks at hand. Regardless of your home office set-up, it is best to communicate with those around you what you need from them and when you cannot be available to chat or help.
Invest in good quality furniture
If you are working for hours on end, it is crucial that your work environment is set up to serve you optimally – and this is not possible with uncomfortable furniture with awkward seating and positioning.
You may have dragged one of your dining room chairs into your now-named office space, but there are a few things to consider. Firstly, do you have a supportive seat? Can you adjust the seating height so that your elbows and hands are in alignment when typing on your laptop or computer? Is your posture ergonomically correct? The important positioning of one’s chair is always undermined, but it makes a difference not only to current neck stress but to long-term complaints and what can even become a repetitive strain injury.
Find tools to optimise workflow
Nowadays, companies and innovators are developing various software programmes to help us keep sane while trying to conduct all our business calls, meetings, and creative brainstorming sessions from home. Tools like Slack, Zoom, Teams, and Monday.com are only some of the latest digital programmes that will definitely improve our working environment – not only for efficiency purposes but also to reduce overstimulation and ease our mental health stressors. Find which apps and programmes can make your life easier and take advantage of their undervalued utility.
Speaking of mental health, working from home has been immensely stressful for most people. Therefore, taking our mental health more seriously is becoming a global concern – and the increasing awareness comes for good reason. The latest statistics show that almost 300 million people suffer from anxiety. This excludes worrying data on the rates of depression, suicide, substance abuse disorders, and more! Luckily, there are ways that you can boost your mental health before it becomes disordered and diagnosable. But, if we don’t need professional intervention, this will require taking control right away.
Address your mental health seriously
If you are working from home and are feeling like you are beginning to lose control of a stable, rational mind, you may be experiencing a bout of poor mental health. The first thing you can do is to accept when you are stressed and not feeling happy, then you can start to find ways of taking control of your wellbeing again.
There are many ways you can introduce meditation or mindfulness to your daily routine. Though it may sound other-worldly to those who have not experienced its profound benefit. Essentially, you are becoming more intentional or ‘mindful’ about what you allow into your life, as well as things that you’re feeling no longer serve in your best interests.
Only you can discover what makes you feel more – or less – at peace. But, finding things that ground you during your day is sure to make you feel more in control of the stressors that are bound to surprise you when they do. Aim for a steady, calm mind in which you are connected to your emotions, but they shouldn’t be what controls your decisions or your overall state of wellbeing. A simple daily practice could also include yoga, pilates, or some useful exercise.
Treat your body well
A key to taking care of your health when working from home is to make sure you are getting some exercise every day, as well as eating right. Yes, we are all allowed to indulge in some treats every now and then, but eat these in moderation when you do.
Plan your nutrition ahead of time
When we are planning our meals for the week or the day, one of the most overlooked tasks which keep us healthy is when we go grocery shopping. It is vital that we buy healthy snacks for ourselves to indulge in, like frozen yoghurt, dark chocolate, and fruit. To achieve healthy nutrition, we should include generous portions of vegetables, fruit, and high-fibre grains into our diet. We should try to limit our indulgence in processed foods and those which are high in fats, oils, and even sugar. If you don’t know where to start, think about using whole ingredients in your cooking where possible. And don’t forget to hydrate well!
The abovementioned advice will require you to invest some time into finding what works best for you. Getting through this pandemic healthy is a marathon, not a sprint, and we should continue to find the value of improving the health of all of our choices. Keep on finding new ways of optimising your workflow and your office environment, as well as taking care of your body and the food that fuels it.
