Self-care tips for working-from-home for you, digital players

Photo by Mikey Harris on Unsplash

With a few new waves and recent spikes of COVID cases in the communities, some of us are taking a step back to the days where working-from-home is by default while necessary actions are taken against the spread of the new delta variant. Though it is not the first occurrence now, the challenges of working from home persist – affecting physical, social, and psychological health. It is therefore essential and beneficial to take some actions to maintain all aspects of wellness.

In this short reading, we will discuss a few tips towards a healthier WFH life for people who generally spend hours in front of laptops, jumping from meeting to meeting and hardly take a break when the project is running under a tight schedule.

Be groomed and ready at all times

Thanks to the working-from-home-as-default arrangement, commuting is minimised: literally, you can be ready for a daily standup meeting 20 minutes after opening your eyes in the morning.

Nonetheless, I do think keeping groomed and be ready at all times, despite working location and meeting occasions, are essentially important. Working from home may enable us to dress up more casually than what we used to be in the office, but it is never equivalent to having a wild hairstyle, unbrushed teeth and wearing recycled-from-two-days-ago that’s randomly picked up from some corners of the house.

In the contrast, I think having a personally grooming moment in the morning is an absolutely necessary me-time while getting ready for the first meeting or first task of the day ahead. Making use of the grooming “ceremony” will definitely bring out an attractive and positive aura, and people can really tell the difference even in front of the webcam.

Invest in ergonomics

At the start of the circuit breaker last year, I was once very fond of working on the couch while having the laptop on my lap, literally making it a laptop. On one hand, I was too busy and running low budget of having a well-designed desk, on the other hand, my laziness defeated the momentum of taking care of my body while working. That was such a terrible decision.

My body began to protest not very long after that and all sorts of ergonomics related pains started to haunt me frequently: migraine, stiff neck, lower back and hip pain, anything you can name of. Moreover, I felt exhausted at the end of each day, despite that the tasks I completed very not considered to be very heavy. I then realised it all started with my terrible Greek goddess alike lying posture on the couch. Soon I switched my workspace to the dining table, while waiting for the newly purchased work desk to be shipped and assembled and, with no doubt, my migraine and lower back pain were relieved a lot. I am still having a stiff neck from time to time, so I do set aside some budget to go for physiotherapies once or twice monthly.

Having a comfortable and ergonomic workstation setup is essential for working-from-home life, and it should be the first consideration when you are thinking of bringing some changes to the way you work. Such investments are really worth it.

Be in the flow

While at the workplace physically, we can avoid unwanted (mostly unintentional) disturbs from colleagues by shutting ourselves in a meeting room or a small enclosed cubicle. Such boundary does not exist anymore now. Endless notifications, chimes, and ringtones flood into every digital device in the house — creating a prolonged distraction to the tasks we are trying to focus on. Definitely, we can simply toggle do not disturb mode on the device, but on the other hand, we are also scared of missing out on any important request or announcement. It’s basically very hard to keep ourselves in the flow than before.

Flow, or flow state, or also known as “in the zone”, is a psychological term used to describe a mental state that a person performing some activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energised focus.

Not too difficult while not so easy to get bored while fully immersed and completing the tasks — “be in the flow”.

It has been proven by research that, to reach a flow state, we must eliminate all external distractions. Every time we get pulled out of your focus, we will be taken further away from the flow state. The ideal duration of eliminating distractions before getting into a flow state is at least 10 to 15 minutes. We can achieve that without much effort by implementing the Pomodoro technique at work, simply follow these steps:

1. Plan the tasks you want to achieve in the upcoming work cycle;
2. Turn on do not disturb mode;
3. Grab a kitchen timer and set it to 25 minutes;
4. Try as much as possible to complete the task before the timer buzzing;
5. Take a 5-minute break;
6. Repeat step 1.

Create a separation from work

According to Blake Ashforth from Arizona University, the commute process is actually a “relatively efficient way of simultaneously facilitating a physical and psychological shift between roles”. We are usually wearing multiple hats throughout the day, regardless of whether we are in normal life or in the midst of a pandemic. We are colleagues at work but maybe church mates during weekends, or simply parents after office hours. Commuting is a natural separation between these roles.

At the start of the day after leaving the house, we are adjusting ourselves to be the best version before reaching office, and after a tiring day of work, we may recharge ourselves while on public transportation or driving, ready to enjoy family life with beloved ones when reaching home.

Lacking commuting can contribute to overworking due to the lack of work-life separation, as we barely notice such separation as mentioned. Thoughts such as “hang on, just five more minutes before I call it off a day” frequently happen to us, although most of the time work can be literally endless unless we are manually putting a stop to it.

Therefore, towards the end of the day, it is courageous and absolutely okay to say “no” to the incoming email threads or messages from others at work. “Let’s call it a day” does great psychological benefits to our emotional wellbeing.

In a nutshell, knowing when to work/take a break, how to work productively and creating a comfortable environment for complete immersions of flow state is the key to a healthier WFH life.

On top of these, general practices such as keep the house hygienic and germ-free, good ventilation of rooms, wash hands frequently and getting enough rest each night are still the most fundamentals to enhance our protection against any form of outbreaks. By implementing these tips, we can not only work with a positive attitude, our physical, social and psychological well-being are generally maintained as well.