What Remote Workers Need To Know About Mental Health

No one can deny the perks of working from home: it’s comfortable, easy,  you are able to organize your day in a different way, you avoid things like traffic and getting ready in the morning; it definitely makes things easier. 

But, as easy as it sounds, there are a few cons like not having the chance to meet or share much with your co-workers, sometimes it gets harder to concentrate or even to stop working. And the truth is that sometimes you finish your day and realize you barely went out to talk to someone face to face. 

Our team’s well-being and work balance are essential for us. Therefore, here we leave you some tips from our experience to keep in mind.

Pay attention to the signals 

A great place to start is to check if we are being affected by our remote job, we need to recognize if something is off. For example, do you end your day feeling exhausted, even though your day wasn’t particularly busy? Or have you ever finished with your work, but you thought “well I can do a few more things” and suddenly you spent much more time doing things that were not really urgent? 

The tendency to keep working long hours after work or feeling exhausted can be signs of burnout. Lack of sleep, difficulty concentrating or solving simple tasks, missing contact with others persons, these are all things that we should pay attention to. If this is the case, and you have identified some of these singles, pay attention to the next piece of advice! 

Organize and respect your schedule

Like we do when we go to an office to work, it is key to have a start and an exit time for the working day. The temptation to work longer hours than usual is easy when you’re at home, but it’s important not to overdo it and burn out. Unless it’s totally necessary or urgent, we should end our work day at the hour we established. 

Also don’t forget to take your lunch time and if you are feeling too overwhelmed or if it’s getting hard to focus, take a short break and take your mind off work for a while. This will help you to clear your mind, relax and get the energy you need to carry on with your working day.

Settle your work environment at home

When you’ve been workin at home for a while you start to realize how important it is to have a space dedicated to your working hours. Of course you can work sitting on your couch, in your kitchen, outside, but probably to a certain point you will realize that you need a quiet space where you can concentrate and have everything you need to work comfortably. 

Make sure to find a place with good lightning, and ventilation, find a comfortable seat , make sure that your wifi connection works correctly and find a place in your home where you will have the privacy you need to work. 

You don’t need to have a whole room in your home to work as an office, sometimes it’s just about finding that special spot at your house that allows you to work properly. 

Make plans after your working hours

Even though you have your schedules super organized and well defined, it is hard to respect them, especially when it comes to the end of your working hours and you have to turn off your computer and carry on. 

For those cases, we recommend having activities after work that push you to go out and take your mind out of work. It really doesn’t matter what, plan fun activities, like working out, hanging out with friends, go for a walk with your dog, but make sure that those things push you to finish with you tasks on time, without procrastinating them. 

Key takeaways

• It’s always hard to find the balance between work and your personal life, especially if you work from home, but if your working routine is a healthy one, you can do it
• If you find something is a little bit off, put limits to  work through schedules and healthy environments so you can feel better and more balanced. 
• Our routines can be stressful, it doesn’t matter if you work at an office or from home (in your pajamas), it’s essential to look for activities that help you get your mind out of business, relax, and go out and enjoy other spaces.
• Virtuality is awesome, but we need to remind ourselves that it is very important to connect with others in person. 
• The key is to always find joy in what we do and to remind ourselves that nothing is so urgent that we have to do it at the expense of our well being.