Work From Home Depression and How I Had To Overcome It?

Live a Laptop lifestyle with peace

A study from Economist Adam Ozimek on Upwork broke down how Americans could save 90$ Billion due to the current work from home situation.

Apart from these financial stats. I want to talk about the mental impact the (Work From Home) had bought

Too Much Isolation Became Normal

Yes, the rat race of 9–5 made people work for 8–9 hours and commute for 1–2 Hrs on average in a day. It was tiring to do it regularly. But now what?

Many people sit with their computers and are staring at it for 12–13Hrs. Its eventually like you’re doing a 9–9 job. Since people got used to allowing 12–13Hrs for their regular job in a day. Those few extra hours made people site inactive and stare at something

Throughout the whole day’s of work. You are alone, and maybe sometimes, you might on a Skype call for a few hours. You would miss the socializing talks that you have at your office which kept you charged.

Now, most of the time, you are talking to your self and getting distracted by yourself.

Pressure Is Not The Same — It Increased

I bet, you had felt when this whole work from home scenario started. That you might have said to yourself, ‘Now I can have the extra hours to sleep be productive and take pressure off me’

It turns to be different. Now there are two kinds of people in Stress due to the current work from home

1. People with a Job
2. People without a Job

If you’re still in your job. That’s awesome, but you always have that thought on the back of your mind — that ‘Recession will affect you.’ So now, you want to work twice as hard to make money and pay bills. The pressure in onto you 24x7 all the time.

While you handle such Stress and throughout the day you are sitting numb, being unproductive is making you feel even more ‘stressful.’

Unfortunately, you lost your job. Then all you are hoping is to get a new one and cover up your bills. You are in the pressure of losing all your savings and going to being ‘zero’ again.

Weather you are in a job (or) not. Your hustle is on throughout the day — 24x7 physically and even mentally

How To Get Away From This Work From Home Depression

I want to share the few steps and life changes that I made to tackle work from home effects.

Don’t worry — If you’re someone who had just lost the job. To reconcile you. All I say is even I lost my job. I will share How I tackled it.

Make a Morning Routine

My job was a regular 9–5 job. Since I am lazy and at the start of this whole work from home thing started. I used to wake up late and directly jump into my work. Me sitting their whole day in front of my laptop made me sick and I forgot about life.

Soon I realized this, and I convinced myself to have a morning routine. My routine was simple

• Waking up from the bed 2 Hours before my work
• I am doing Yoga (or) doing workouts for 40 Mins straight.
• Then I will take a shower and get ready to work.
• Just 30 mins before logging into my work. I would get myself something for breakfast.
• After this, I will focus on my work and prepare a daily tasks list, which helps me plan my day in a single note.

This routine helped me stay strict with my work timings and get my things done according to the estimated time assigned in my tasks list

Catching Up with My Friends & Colleagues

There were several times when I would feel exhausted for doing nothing and no motivation to do my tasks.

To keep things moving, I would call my favorite colleague and gossip about the work. Sometimes I would make them agree to work with me on the same project and would create an office vibe by interacting with him during the work.

Since the Lockdown, nobody was able to meet frequently outside their homes. My buddies and I would catch up via calls and have a fun 30–40 mins session to feel charged up for work

Learnt To Say ‘No’

The agency that I was working with lost 90% of its clients in one month. So most of the staff got laid off, even though I was in that few lucky people who was still in his job.

A lot of work was shifted to my shoulders, and I just couldn’t focus properly. After a while, I had to work on Sundays to get my work done and catch up with my schedule. It all felt exhausting because I was no more following my schedule and was in stress all the time.

I learned there was no point in sticking around and doing more work for the same paycheck. Soon I said ‘no’ the work which was assigned to me but not related to me.

(Example: I am an SEO guy. So giving me a task of handling social media creatives on my own and later doing iterations to it all myself made me demotivate myself)

I knew my time had come, and eventually, I lost my job. I relaxed for a few weeks, but I had thought in my head on what’s next?

I soon traced back my way to my first own project that I started, and I haven’t worked on it until this time. I prepared a plan and worked on it. To my fortune, I saw good results coming in, and Now I have a little side hustle that can pay off my expenses.

— →I learnt To Say ‘No’ Even To My Failures ← —

Check my other articles related to my earnings in Lockdown