How do I cope working from home?

Lots of us are looking at a huge length of time with no commuting right now. Working from home might seem like the dream but often times you can start feeling cooped up really quickly.

It’s important for your mental and physical health to remember that offices are, generally, considered before being filled with a group of people. Desks, chairs and PC’s or laptops work in unison because they are designed to. If you are all of a sudden sitting at the breakfast bar, dining table or on the sofa you may start feeling it… physical aches & pain, mentally cloudy or even not quite as sharp as you are in the office.

No-one can deny we are in strange times, everyone will agree allowances have to be made, we need to set some ground rules.

Here are my top tips:

Hydrate – even more than in the office, no excuses as you are probably nearer to the toilet than ever before. It will give you more clarity if nothing else.

Movement – I heard a great tip today at my regular networking group, set your alarm on your phone to go off at least every 45 mins so that you can stand up, stretch and walk around for a minute or two.

Light – when you designed whatever space you are now working in it is unlikely that you ever thought you would be working there for any length of time. If you don’t have enough natural daylight add getting some in to your movement. Get enough light to see what you are doing however you do it.

Hours – your commuting time should not now be working time, instead use those hours for self-care, reading, exercise or connecting with friends and family. Take your lunch the same way you would if you were at the office, ok you might not be able to run errands, but make lists, eat healthy, step away from the work and refresh!

Some of us will need more flexibility, some of us will have little ones at home too that need attention, feeding, motivating and generally looking after. Plan for them.

Some of us will have older family members that may need shopping, chores doing or communication. Plan for them.

Working from home might seem like the ideal, for those of us that have been doing it a while, we know it takes getting used to. For those of you that need that bit more flexibility of working from home then I truly hope that employers finally realise that, actually, it is a much more productive option than they believe it to be.

I do hope the landscape changes in that respect when we get through the other side of this chaos. In the meantime, stay safe everyone!