A Short Note on Keeping Sane While Working from Home
I work in sales management. The job is amazing because I meet a lot of interesting and great people every day. I also have the flexibility to work from the office, my client’s site, home, or the summer house if I want to and the situation allows it. Come COVID-19, things have changed. The home office only becomes the new norm for most.
I can manage that easily. How great will it be not having to change from pajamas the whole day? How productive will I be, not losing an hour and a half daily in traffic? How relaxed will I be, working off the terrace, while suntanning? Boy, could I be more wrong? And I am not the only one.
Speaking to my friends and colleagues, I found out that not only I feel I am working way longer hours than before. I am actually more stressed and lacking the feeling of accomplishment compared to working from the office.
This is a dangerous game to play, where the main prizes include decreasing productivity, worsening results, and burnout. That can’t be good. Let’s have a look at a couple of reasons why I think this is happening and what can you do to become happier when working from home. I have tried. Some work for me and some don’t, but I will leave that up to you.
I did not have a set goal for what I wanted to accomplish for each day
Not setting my daily goals and tasks to get done resulted in never being done. However much you work, there will always be something more you can do, another task to take on. This results in a feeling of not accomplishing your goals, which just creates more anxiety.
Set out clear and realistic goals for the day and praise yourself when you achieve them.
We tend to work all the time and the boundaries are diminishing. When you are at home all the time, you tend to never shut down, always be available. This brings me to another point.
I was always available
Do you really need to be online 24/7? Are your boss or your teammates really going to think you are suntanning on a balcony instead of working if you don’t pick up your phone immediately every time? Yeah, I don’t think so either.
Do not be afraid to be unavailable and to turn off.
Set timers for example, when you stop responding to e-mails and calls for a while and use it for a walk, to go and make tea, chat with your partner that’s probably also on home office, struggling with the very same thing. Try being hard to reach for a little bit.
Physical and mental multitasking
I realized this one while I was on a call, while cooking, running back and forth between the kitchen table and the stove responding to couple ‘urgent’ e-mails. What was I thinking?
It is difficult enough to balance all different tasks that come at once related to work. Add personal life into the mix and you are ready for a retreat in a mental institution. Set time aside to cook and try being unavailable during that time (or do it after the working time is over). Set a time to walk your dog, do the laundry, or text your friends and make sure you do not combine it with your working time.
Separators
By separators I mean rituals that you establish to help you divide your working time and your free time. These can be small, such as putting your laptop in your drawer, moving to a different room, or changing your clothes.
It might be difficult at times to separate as you are going from call to call, so you might need something bigger, for example taking a walk or having an exercise session at home. Be sure to respect your separators, they help to keep you sane.
