MENTAL HEALTH AND WELLNESS

Overworked, Overstretched, Overwhelmed — The COVID Normal

5 Tips to manage stress and anxiety and boost your well-being while working from home.

With most of us now working from home, 9-to-5 workdays are becoming extinct. The boundaries of work-life balance are increasingly blurred, and it seems like there is no escaping work. Deadlines are shorter, meetings take longer and are more frequent, and workloads seem even more arduous to manage.

Then, there is the pressure to prove that you are working, resulting in unconventional work hours. All these can lead to burnout and elevated work-related stress and anxiety.

According to Healthline, anxiety can have physiological and psychological effects on your wellbeing: including depression, frequent irritability, headaches, stomach upsets, to name a few. Therefore, it is imperative to manage work-related anxiety, especially in these work-from-home times.

Here are five tips on how you can manage work stress while working from home:

1. Have a designated workspace

A suitable workspace should be well-organized with proper lighting, ergonomically friendly, and solely for work. Ideally, a reading table or a separate room will suffice, not a dual-purpose location like your bed or living room sofa.

A separate workspace creates some mental distance and can preserve your wellbeing.

It may sound comfortable to work on your bed or couch, but its best to avoid doing that. I have spent entire days in bed, working. It seemed convenient at the time, and the surge in productivity was exhilarating.

Eventually, I began connecting my bed with work so that, when I was finally able to turn off my laptop, it was difficult to fall asleep or even watch an episode of my favorite show in bed. Burnout quickly followed as I was working longer and sleeping less.

Even in a small home or apartment, you should try to create work-free zones to escape work. A separate workspace creates some mental distance and can preserve your wellbeing.

The lighting in your workspace can also help abate stress and anxiety. For me, natural light is best. I find that I am more productive and have an improved disposition when I work with my curtains open, allowing sunlight to flood my workspace.

Celebrity Interior Designer, Cheryl Eisen, emphasizes that proper lighting in our workspace impacts our mood and productivity and recommends natural light. If that is not feasible, Cheryl suggests LED lighting as an alternative because it creates comfortable, clean anti-glare light and is energy efficient.

2. Step AWAY from Your Computer

I take 5 min breaks hourly or between meetings throughout my workday; setting an hourly reminder has cemented this habit. I walk around my house in those five minutes, do a quick meditation/breath control exercise, or stretch. I have found that carrying out these small activities throughout my workday is a great physical and mental outlet to dissipate stress and anxiety.

pt Health, leaders in holistic healthcare services, propose that taking stretch breaks at work can have the following benefits: improved flexibility and posture, reduced risk of soft tissue injuries and joint pain, and increased energy and productivity. They also suggest taking a moment after stretching to practice breathing exercises to help release tension.

3. Communicate with People

Christine M. Riordan, a provost and professor of management at the University of Kentucky, shares that:

“Friends at work also form a strong social support network for each other, both personally and professionally. Whether rooting for each other on promotions, consoling each other about mistakes, giving advice, or providing support for personal situations, comradeship at work can boost an employee’s spirit and provide needed assistance.”

A work buddy — someone you can talk to about difficulties and pressures at work, can play a significant role in helping you navigate work-related anxiety. If you do not live alone, you can also talk to the people around you.

I live with my family, and when I am working on a difficult assignment or stressed out about meeting a deadline, I’ll share my concerns with my sister, and the task feels less daunting afterward. Sometimes just saying “I’m worried I won’t meet this deadline” to someone that cares eases feelings of pressure or anxiety and helps you get through the day.

4. Drink Water. Then, drink some more!

At the risk of being mawkish, I’ll say this: drinking water and staying hydrated alleviates most things. Often, when work responsibilities become inundating, we forget to take care of ourselves. We fail to eat, and most common, we forget to drink water. I am guilty of this, and, when this happens, I am very irritable, with a nagging headache at the base of my neck that lasts the entire day. However, when I am conscious about staying hydrated, my concentration is improved, I am less waspish with zero headaches.

Our brain is 80% water. Can’t focus? Drink water.

A clinical trial published in the National Library of Medicine has confirmed conclusively that even mild dehydration can compromise your mood, memory, critical thinking, and brain performance. Another study has also shown that dehydration causes headaches and migraines and, consequently, drinking adequate amounts of water can alleviate these symptoms.

Since our brain is 80% water, it makes sense that drinking water is beneficial to brain function. So, have a headache? Drink water. Can’t focus? Drink water. Dizzy or nauseous? Drink water. And eat too, of course!

5. Establish a Routine

It is easy to let go of typical routines while working from home. However, having a schedule and sticking to it can help manage work-related stress and anxiety. Elements of a daily work routine could include:

• waking up in time to shower, get dressed, and start work at the time you would have when you were going into the office and,
• maintaining your usual eating routine and self-impose lunchbreaks by actually stepping away from your computer to take a proper break.

A solid routine can help you cultivate positive daily habits.

Knowing when to “log out” from work was the most challenging adjustment when I started working remotely. It is easier to switch off from work when you leave your office and commute home. The change in scenery serves as a mental off switch from work mode.

A way to activate the off button while working from home is to find an activity to add to your daily routine that signifies the workday’s end. It could be working out or going for a walk around your neighborhood. Food is a significant motivator for me, so switching off my laptop and cooking dinner is my go-to activity.

There are proven correlations between having a daily routine and improved mental health. According to Salynn Boyles on WebMD: “Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine report that bipolar patients fared better when their treatment stressed the importance of establishing daily routines for sleeping and eating.”

Whether you suffer from bi-polar disorder or not, a solid routine can help you cultivate positive daily habits, feel more productive, and reduce anxiety and stress levels.

While the idea of un-ending workdays may seem appealing from the viewpoint of productivity gains, these outcomes may be short-lived due to inevitable burnouts. Therefore, we must take the time to prioritize self-care and cultivate healthy habits and routines that promote our physical and mental wellbeing, which will, in turn, make us consistently productive at our jobs and businesses.