In 2020, during the outbreak of the pandemic millions of people in the USA began to start working remotely instead of the traditional workplace routine of going to an office. There are many benefits of working from home and it works brilliantly for many employers and employees alike. However, it’s important still ensure you follow a healthy and balanced lifestyle when you’re working from home.
Sadly, if you don’t take care of yourself when working from home it’s easy to quickly get down and depressed. We have come up with a guide to ways you can ensure you lead a healthy and balanced lifestyle when working remotely.
Make Sure You Take Enough Breaks from Working
As humans, we are not able to hold 100% concentration levels for a whole 9 hour working day. We are only able to concentrate at an optimum level and be sharp for a limited amount of time. Studies suggest that humans are only able to focus for 2 hours up to hours at a time, before the brain then needs a 20-30 minute break.
So, it’s important that you take advantage of your lunch break and use it to chill out for a while and switch your device off for some much-needed downtime and a valuable digital detox. Every now and then throughout the day when you get a spare 5 minute you can also take yourself away from your laptop and quickly take a break to make yourself a drink or have a cup of coffee.
Get Yourself Comfortable in Your Workspace at Home
When you’re working full-time from home, it’s important to make your working space as comfortable as possible.
Having an uncomfortable chair which doesn’t promote good back posture may over time cause you to develop injuries and aches and pains in your back. So, investing in a comfortable ergonomic chair from Branch that provides ergonomic support for bodies of all shapes and sizes is a wise decision for making sure you feel more comfortable whilst you’re busy working at home.
Having a solid desk to work at is also important to improving your levels of comfort when working at home. So, get rid of your flimsy old wooden desk, and get a reliable one that’s durable.
Having windows which provide you with plenty of natural light is important to you feeling comfortable when working from home; it’s never a good thing to spend all day in your home in the dark. A consistent lack of natural light can cause people’s moods to drop and lead to some individuals developing depression.
So, get yourself some handy office equipment which is comfortable to use and helps you carry out your job to the best of your capabilities. There’s nothing worse than being uncomfortable whilst sitting down working and letting it drag on and putting it to the back of your mind until you start feeling serious pains.
Communicate with your employers and Colleagues Regularly
Sadly, when working from home you do not get the incidental chats that happen daily in traditional office working spaces. If you fail to communicate properly with your employers when working from home, they may quickly become concerned that you’re not doing your job properly and that you may be sitting in bed watching Netflix instead of working.
Video calls and meetings are a good way to communicate with your colleagues and they provide your mind with some audio-visual stimuli instead of simply speaking to people over the phone and not seeing their facial expressions and body language. Take advantage of video-meeting platforms such as Zoom, Google Meets, and Microsoft Teams to stay in good communication with your boss and colleagues.
Business communication platforms such as Slack are great for communicating with your team through written messages. Slack can also be used by staff to update their employers on their attendance and punctuality by checking in and checking out when they begin work, go for lunch breaks, and sign out at the end of the day.
If you are managing a team of people at work, communication is essential. You may have to instruct people in the team you manage on how to carry out tasks, and some members of staff may need more direction and detailed guidance than others. Remember when communicating with staff as a manager that they will all have varying levels of experience in the role.
Look After Your Health and Take Care of Yourself at Home
It’s crucial when working from home that you make sure you lead a generally healthy and balanced lifestyle to stay healthy and avoid serious health conditions like stokes, heart disease, diabetes and so on. Leading a healthy lifestyle means doing things at home such as having a nutritious diet and eating 5 fruit and vegetables a day, taking part in physical activities, and exercising daily, going outside to get some natural light, staying hydrated by drinking plenty of water and much more. Don’t allow your health to start going down the drain when you are working from home.
So, take these measures into consideration to stay fit and healthy and optimize your performance when working from home.