The Covid’19 pandemic has brought us to a new normal. Most of us are no longer working in offices; in fact, we are working from home, bringing unique challenges. More than anything, you feel isolated because you longer meet their co-workers in person.
Also, it is easy to feel disoriented because the line between professional and personal life blurs. Given distractions like pending household chores, noisy environment, you would not be able to work in peace.
If you do that, you will tackle work-life challenges with self-control, focus, and concentration.
So, in this article, I will walk you through simple mindfulness practices that you can add to your work from home routine.
1. Define your workspace
It is important to draw physical boundaries between personal and professional. For instance, find a spot in your house with good lighting and set up a fixed workspace. If it is possible, I suggest that you transform one room into a workspace. Similar to how you organize your office cabin, arrange your laptop, office documents in the room.
2. Take regular breaks
Now that you have a separate workspace, it is time to think about improving the work experience. By taking regular breaks, you can be more productive at work. For instance, you can go for a short walk in the neighborhood or exercise for a while.
The idea here is to remove the monotony that comes while working in confined spaces. Taking short breaks and moving around the house will keep you fresh and active.
3. Build a daily routine
One of the major problems with work from home is that it rattles your sense of order. Meaning, you no longer sleep and wake up at fixed timings, you no longer eat your breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the right time, and you have many pending household chores.
It is important to be mindful of your daily routine. For instance, make it a point to wake up in the morning at the same time. To organize your work, make a to-do list and write down your goals. In short, stick to a routine to have a sense of order and stability. Once you get the routine in place, it becomes easier to work.
4. Set a schedule for work
If you work from home, there are high chances that you feel as if work never ends, which can trigger mental health problems like anxiety and mood swings. For your mental health, it is important to make a schedule for your work and stick to it. For instance, start and finish your work around the same time, say 5:00 p. m and communicate the said timings of work to your boss and co-workers.
5. Turn off your computer
Whenever you are taking a break from your work, detach completely. Make sure that you switch off the computer. If you have your computer switched on, there are high chances that you might get consumed by your work and find it hard to take out time for yourself.
6. Take time to connect
Work from home can feel lonely after a point in time. So, it is important to spend time online for things other than work. Yes, stay connected with your close ones while working from home. For instance, you can ask your team to be online and have a chat over coffee together. Otherwise, you can hold virtual dinners as well. The key idea here is to make time for people and strengthen connections with them.
7. Do breathing exercises
Sitting before your computer screens can get you all anxious and stressed out. To deal with stress and anxiety, you should practice breathing exercises. For instance, there are exercises like deep breathing, alternate nostril breathing, belly breathing that help reduce anxiety, lower stress, and improve focus while working.
8. Cultivate self-compassion
When you feel stressed, you often forget to be nice towards yourself. You find yourself resorting to self-criticism, blame, and regret not working to the best of your ability. Especially when you work from home, it becomes difficult to diffuse stress because your co-workers are not around to share your difficult experiences.
Therefore, you must practice self-compassion. Talk to yourself as you would talk to a friend. Give your pep talks when you are feeling bad about yourself.
Conclusion
Work from home has altered our sense of time and space. One does tend to develop feelings of anxiety and suffocation while working in a confined space for long hours. So, it is important to use mindfulness practices like defining workspace, building routine, scheduling work, turning off the computer, doing breathing exercises to take control of your time and space. As a result, you can work from home in a calm, stable, and balanced manner.
