Five remote working tips for Stress Awareness Month and beyond!
So hands up if you are still working during the Covid-19 pandemic and have found yourself juggling family, work and home life. Some of us have been put into the unimaginable scenario of working from home for an extended period, and something that was once seen very much as an employee perk by a lot of employees and employers, has now become the new way of working to help businesses and charities like ours remain as operational as possible.
This new way of working however isn’t under normal circumstances and there are many distractions and pressures which we may be dealing with. It could be family commitments of children or supporting your partner or loved ones, it could be the uncertainty of the situation we are all facing, or even just missing your work colleagues and the social interactions we are all used to.
April is Stress Awareness Month so we felt it would be useful to provide some tips from our people managers on how to survive remote working, for however long is necessary! Some of these could even be applied to if you are currently not working but need to find that routine in your day again…
- Create a to do list – What you want to achieve at home and work. A simple to do list can help with your routine and mood. Try and do this in the morning when you wake up, you can go day by day or try and plan for the week – how satisfying is it when you can tick items off your list!
- Set break times – Set an alarm every hour and get up from your work area and move around. It is all very tempting to stay in work mode and even end up working late and at weekends, try and stick to your usual routine and find excuses to move more – make a cup of tea (try some of our cuppa workouts here), put the bin out, get some fresh air, have some conversations with your family members about their day.
- Leave your office set up at lunch time – Sit in another room, go outside for a walk or go in the garden, move away from your work area.
- Don’t forget to exercise – Go for a walk, cycle or do an online gym class. You no longer have the commute time to and from work so why not use that extra time to take part in a fitness class from your living room! This is the opportunity to really look after your health and try some new things at a time that suits you. Exercise also has many mental health benefits including releasing endorphines that make us feel better!
- Don’t underestimate the value of a routine – Set start and end times for your working day with a lunch break and a walk – it is so easy to hit that snooze button in the morning when you don’t have to drive 20 minutes to the office, but try and keep to your normal working day routine, check in with colleagues and say hi in a morning either on your slack channels, lync or however you are keeping in touch – communication is key!
For more advice on keeping health and active whilst staying at home visit: everybody.org.uk/everybody-online-health-and-fitness-support