Wellbeing and working from home
Working from home has been around for a while. During the past 2 years, many more people have been juggling the demands of home life and working from home – often without separate areas for each. Although many companies are moving back to the office now, there remains a desire from employees and employers to have at least a more flexible working pattern than existed before the pandemic, so an element of working from home looks to be staying.
The blurring of lines between home and work has been both a blessing and a curse. In this week’s blog post I’m exploring some of the areas that have come up:
The Commute
No more commute – yay for more time for ourselves/family/at home and great for the environment
No more commute – boo, lost time to gear up for work or to decompress. Many people used their commute to read, listen to podcasts, for quiet time, or to think and have ideas
When I first began working at home I felt this very keenly. I loved having an extra 2hours at home each day, loved that petrol costs went down but I did miss that time alone to work through stuff – and if I’m honest, I still do.
Working hours
As our commute is so short when working from home, we can often be tempted to put more hours in at work. I found myself saying, “I’ll just look at one more email” / “I’ll just finish this presentation” / “another few minutes won’t make a difference, I’ll still be ‘home’ before I would usually”.
Whilst this can benefit our work in the short term, this can confuse the line between home and work. It eats into our home time (whether that’s time for house admin so you have more family time later, or it’s quiet time before the others come home) and it can build unsustainable expectations of ourselves and from others.
Knowing we had a train to catch or that we needed to factor in travel time meant that there was a distinct bookend to the day. That’s not to say we didn’t check emails when we got home (I know I did), or that staying late to get things finished is a bad thing. Often it’s not, often it’s necessary. The key here is having defined times and areas for work so that we can switch off for essential rest and recharging.
In the long run our work can also suffer as we become sluggish. It took me a while getting used to extra time in my day and I felt guilty for not filling it with my job. However, over time I have definitely found things to fill it with and actually those other activities have helped spark ideas for my day job.
Physical movement
When commuting we’re often doing more physical activity too – walking to/from the car/train, we’re cycling or even walking to work etc. Walking from our kitchen to the dining room/make shift office isn’t quite the same. We’re also not going over to other people’s desks for a chat, or moving between desks and meeting rooms.
My step count dramatically fell when I began working from home. My job was fairly sedentary anyway, and now I didn’t have to walk from the car to the office (10minutes each way), I could go for days without moving much. I didn’t even have to walk from one end of the office to the other, or across the road to where the rest of my department was based.
Without physical movement, we can become stagnant in thoughts, creativity and productivity. It can also be bad for our overall health and wellbeing.
Social
Introverts – yay! Peace and quiet and no interruptions!
Extroverts – boo! I need people, I need to be social.
It’s also not as clean cut as this. For most of us, we need a mix of quiet times to concentrate on our work, social times to give us a break and energise us and other times when we need to bounce ideas off each other, test things out, ask for help or to check understanding.
This also very much depends on your work environment. For me, working in large, noisy open plan office was not productive. I like people, but many of my tasks were solo that required a lot of concentration. The constant interruptions, other people’s conversations, people gathering behind my desk to watch the TV or to catch up with each other was trying. However, on occasions where my area was quiet and there was absolutely no one to talk to, I often went in search of other people.
Once I was working from home, I had to find a balance. I got a lot more done as I could concentrate for large periods of time, but then I had to create that social element at home. If someone else was in the house – great, I could chat to them, get them coffee etc and if they weren’t, I would often talk to my cat. There was also Zoom, Teams, emails and messenger to talk to colleagues and friends on. It was a bit more forced than in the office, but we got it to work, just about. For those more extraverted than me, there is more of a struggle to get enough of the social element into their day.
Now as I work for myself, it’s still important to find that balance. I’ve set up co-working sessions with other coaches and other small business owners and find that’s really beneficial. If you love being in the office sparking off each other, then it’s not exactly the same, but it’s worth experimenting to see what works for you depending on how much of an introvert/extrovert you are and what type of work you’re doing.
Here are my 5 top tips for keeping work and home separate, even when working from home and how they can boost your wellbeing:
1. Create ‘going to work’ & ‘coming home’ rituals
This an activity or routine you do that gets you from ‘home thinking’ to ‘work thinking’. For me, it’s moving my laptop from the bedroom downstairs to the office, making a cup of coffee, turning off social media notifications and taking out the work notebook. It might include putting on your work outfit, or walking around the garden/road to make it seem you’re changing buildings. It is just as important to reverse this at the end of the day. Think about putting away your work laptop, your books, doing the walk around your garden again, changing into something more comfortable, or even just putting your slippers on. This helps our brains see the change and help us switch from ‘work mode’ to ‘home mode’. We need to have this separation in order for us to thrive at work and at home.
2. Have a routine - keep to your regular office hours
Easier said than done, I know, but maintaining what hours you would work in the office is good for you and good for your work. Try and come up with something to do in that ‘commute’ time as an alternative to work. Also, include a lunch break. Not only do we need the food and drink to restore us, we need to step away from our work. Ever experienced remembering a word or finding a solution when you thought you’d forgotten about it? Your brain was working on the problem subconsciously and this can be true at work too. It’s important to remember that without that down-time you won’t be as effective. In fact, having more ‘home time’ will make you a better worker.
3. Be social
Working from home doesn’t have to mean no contact. Perhaps you can arrange to meet someone for a walk at lunchtime, or have a chat to someone on the phone/zoom. Even checking in with colleagues on email can keep you in touch. If this isn’t possible during work hours, try and make use of the commute time to make this possible.
4. Move about often
Set yourself a timer and move at least once every 30minutes. This could include a walk around the garden, some light stretches at your desk, standing up and walking around the room, maybe even rotating your ankles and wrists a few times each way. Can you ‘walk and talk’? If you’re on a phone call can you walk up and down the room whilst taking part? Sitting too long can impact our posture, blood pressure, cholesterol levels and even our metabolism.
5. Spend time outdoors or with nature
Whatever the weather, try and go outdoors each day for fresh air and a longer perspective (even if it’s looking up at the sky). If you can’t get outside, try and sit in a patch of sun, listen to nature tracks, bring in some flowers or at the very least open the window. Nature has a major positive impact on our mood and wellbeing, reduces feelings of stress and anger and helps you relax.
