6 Ways to Keep Your Body and Mind Healthy While Working from Home
As we enter a new year and make fresh resolutions to take care of ourselves, here are six ways to ensure that our mind and body remain our top priority while working from our home offices.
Designate a Workspace
Having an assigned place as your work area helps one to stay motivated and focused as well as viewing it as a “working only environment”. This way you can separate your home and work-related emotions and problems, encouraging good overall mental wellbeing. Make it as functional and productive as possible by ensuring proper lighting, finding a desk and chair combo that will keep you comfortable and having all of your items organized and conveniently placed.
Pro tip: Invest in a great chair if possible. You spend hours parked in your office chair; a beautiful, ergonomically correct, comfortable seat is worth every dime.
Practice Healthy Eating
Working from home not only means more snacking opportunities, but it also give you a greater selection of food choices throughout the day. Think of making the healthier choices for those snacks and lunch options as another form of self-care, because that gives you the nourishment you need to have consistent energy. As tempting as it may be to reach for chips, have some options like cut fruits or vegetables handy instead.
Pro tip: Prepare a lunch bag complete with snacks in the morning as you would when going in to work. It helps avoid a food binge or forgetting to eat altogether!
Also, keeping a water bottle on your desk is the best visual reminder to stay hydrated during your workday.
Take Regular Breaks
As the day goes on, it can be easy to stay seated for hours staring at a screen without even getting up or getting some fresh air. Make sure to do both! Try to build in a 10 minute break to step away from your screen at least once every hour if possible. While this may not work for everyone, it has been found to be an effective way of working and can actually increase productivity and allow your mind to feel refreshed when re-visiting your work.
Pro tip: Blocking off lunch and break times in your calendar serve as a great reminder to step away.
It is also important to get out and get some fresh air if possible, to maintain your focus and productivity – even if means just walking around your neighborhood a couple of times. Listening to some great music helps too!
Engage with Others
In an effort to remain efficient, we often put our heads down and work endless hours as we power through our days when working from home. As productive as that may feel, the absence of much needed social interaction, that helps break up our day and allows us to talk through issues, can have a negative impact on our mental health. While you may not be able to talk to people face to face, picking up the phone or organizing a video chat with others can help keep you connected, provide a welcome distraction and help you feeling energized.
Pro tip: Make it a habit to reach out and schedule one-on-one time with a different co-worker or friend each week to catch-up. No shop talk allowed.
Ask for Help
Sometimes, when we begin to feel overwhelmed, we forget to reach out for help. Emotional reactions, from frustration over technology issues, to feeling isolated, are normal. Be aware of your feelings and rather than suppressing them, ask your manager for help. They may not be aware of what you are experiencing at home or notice the signs that you are struggling. Talk through what is happening and action items that can help improve your situation. It may not always be easy to verbalize that you are feeling overwhelmed, but speaking through your feelings to someone you trust could help. If not a manager, try reaching out to a trusted mentor, friend, family member or colleague for help.
Pro tip: Having some bullet points written down can help you get through the ask and remember all the things you want to say.
Have a Clock-Out Time
Leaving an on-site office at the end of the workday creates a natural boundary, and traveling home provides the time you need to unwind and decompress. It is harder to set up boundaries if your office is in your own home, bedroom or at your kitchen table. Get into the habit of establishing a routine and setting boundaries that helps you wind down for the day. As tempting as it may be to answer a “few” more e-mails at night, turn off your notifications, try unplugging and enjoy your home environment instead.
Pro tip: Use an app, alarm on your phone, or calendar reminder that helps remind you to log off. Make it fun with a favourite quote or song that signals the close of the workday.
