How to Manage Your Mental Health While Working From Home
So for those that don’t know as well as being a Magician and Mind Reader , I am also a Contract Coordinator for a local Health and Social Care Charity and for the last few months have found myself working from home. I wanted to share with you some of the tips to help you mange your mental health while working from home.
I have included 5 top tips and a bonus tip to help you become more productive with your time.
Tip No1 - Setting Your Self a Routine
Working from home is quite new for many of us so we have to navigate this new way of working, and one of the best ways to do this is to treat your day like a normal office day.
Make sure to get up in time,
have a shower
and get dressed (I think we have now passed the novelty of working in our Pyjamas.
Getting dressed properly like you would if you were leaving th house for work is really important in getting into the mental state of being at work.
Set yourself some work related tasks and goals for the day regardless of the size and the time-sensitive nature of them, its important for home workers because not only it gives you a time frame to get things completed it is also important for keeping you motivated.
Most importantly with regards to setting yourself a routine when working from home is to make sure when the working day ends you stop, stop checking emails and focus instead on your home life and whatever you enjoy doing.
Tip No 2 - Have a Dedicated Workspace
Having a dedicated workspace at home has a lot of benefits. A dedicated workspace allows you to mentally get into that work mode and its also about minimising your distractions around you and creates a great work life balance.
So here are some additional tips to creating a dedicated workspace at home:
Find a location - If you have the space or even a spare room thats the perfect place to create your workspace however if thats not an option for you setting up a remote workstation in your kitchen or your dining room can work just as well.
Organise it - Keep your workstation clean and tidy, I tend to work with a lot of piles of paper everywhere but I make sure to clean them up at the end of the day so that I come into the next day clean and refreshed and a somewhat organised fashion. Create an environment that you want to work in create something thats just going to keep you motivated and productive for you to work in.
In fact I made my own desk to fit in with how my room worked and I needed the extra room for the computer and things like that and I absolutely love it! Its made from scaffold boards and iron pipework.
Obviously you don’t have to build your own desk but you do need something to work on and make sure its the right height and gives you enough space to work on. Make sure you have a comfortable chair and sat up in the right position
Keep work work - working from home makes it difficult to keep personal life and work life balance so having a dedicated workspace really helps you to turn off from work, you can even close the room and turn the lights off and come out until the next working day.
Tip No 3 - Have a KitKat (Take a Break)
Working from home can make us feel like we have to be available all of the time, however thats no use to anyone if our mental health is suffering.
Making time for breaks is important it helps us to manage the stress of the working day. Make sure to give yourself screen breaks for those working a lot with computers.
Also taking breaks from a particular work task can help and can help you to concentrate on it more when you return to it , even for just 5 - 10 minutes can rally help your productivity.
Also working from home means that you might be spending a lot more time without moving , sat at your desk or computer screen so if your feeling a bit stiffer tense you might benefit form stretching or a little exercise. A little walk can help but I do suggest not walking back and forwards from the fridge thats not exercise!
Tip No4 - Stay Connected
So while working from home does have its benefits it can also make you feel very isolated. I have been using Zoom and Microsoft Teams a lot to catch up with people. Its important to check on your colleagues as they are probably feeling the same way you are! Human interaction is really important so make sure to schedule in video calls or just pick up the phone instead of emailing.
If you are struggling with working from home make sure to talk to your colleagues or even your manager, also make sure to socialise virtually and schedule a digital coffee morning or something where you don’t necessarily talk about work but just the usual office chatter you might be missing.
Tip No 5 - Look After Yourself
Remember this is an unusual situation and things will feel different be kind to yourself, be realistic with what you can achieve and most importantly relax when work is done and get outside get outdoors get some fresh air , that can really boost your mental health and productivety and your overall wellbeing.
Bonus Tip - Utilise Tour Commute Time
The time you used to use commuting to work you can now utilise that time better my learning a new skill, in a previous video and blog post (here) I talked about the benefits of learning to juggle so you could learn to juggle or you could read that book that you have been meaning to for months, and can also use that time for your hobbies. One way I like to utilise my commute time is to listen to an Audible book.
I love Audible and use my commute time to listen to books and i have teamed up with Audible to give you a free 30 day trial.
Follow the link below to start using Audible. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Audible-Memb...
I hope you enjoyed these tips and found them useful, I am really interested in your experiences of working from home and how your coping and please do share any tips that you have that you would like to share with others