How to WFH without losing it
Hey there, welcome back to our channel.
This time, we’re talking about mental health and productivity within the confines of working from home.
Now, you’re probably wondering why we’re bringing this up a year after the pandemic sneezed all over our plans. A pertinent question. This time around, things are worse than they’ve ever been. We’re hit with so much grief and turmoil that it leaves many of us feeling completely lost. Not only has it affected the way we work, it’s also largely affected our mental health.
Although most of us are fortunate to stay home and keep our jobs, it’s not all sunshine and daisies. All things considered, the crisis has transformed our days into a work-life balance + mental health sh*tshow.
That’s precisely why we’re in your inbox right now. COVID doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere and people are still struggling to acclimate. For that reason, we condensed our first-hand wisdom into the “How To WFH Without Losing It” guide.
1. Draw Your Boundaries
The major concern every professional has right now is the poor balance they’re striking between work and personal life, which is a valid worry. WFH means flexibility and the lines are pretty blurry, but that’s exactly why you have to be firm about drawing boundaries.
Unless you start scheduling your work hours and stick to them, you’ll find yourself teetering close to a breakdown almost every other week. Let the people you work with know what your other commitments are, so you can avoid clashes down the line and set realistic expectations about how quickly you can respond, when you can work, and when you can’t.
2. Work Smart
To make ourselves feel better, we tend to dive into work only to grasp the illusion of productivity. Repeat after us: I am not going to fall into this trap. Trying to ‘be productive’ isn’t a bad thing, obviously, but it’s still a slippery slope.
Don’t end up doing unimportant tasks just to chase that feeling. Prioritize the most important ones, ignore the others, and don’t skip out on your breaks. All this will preserve your sanity, and you can thank us later. And to help with this, let’s remind ourselves of the popular Eisenhower Matrix.
3. Find Your Routine
You know how, in all those sci-fi movies where the hero turns into a monster, it takes the power of true love to bring him back to being human?
That hero is you now.
You need to find something that tethers your day back to normal, even when it feels like you’ve had the worst twelve hours of your life. Maybe you want to wrestle with a sudoku puzzle before bed, or spend half an hour on skincare — it doesn’t matter. Do something that brings normalcy to your life and doesn’t add to your distress. Even better, find yourself a morning and nighttime ritual.
We guarantee, they work.
4. 4-Day Work Week(s)
The trend of experimenting with 4-day work weeks is slowly catching on, and we thought we’d jump on the bandwagon, too. The idea is to work 4 days a week instead of the usual Monday to Saturday routine. We don’t need the extra pressure of trying to keep up with our old work schedules while battling a deadly virus.
This calls for us to rethink and redesign our mental workspace(s).
The 4-day work week allows you and your employees to rest and take care of other things without the pressure of having to fit them into busy work schedules.
If you’re the employee, ask your boss if you can try it for a month or two to see how it goes. If it doesn’t seem to help, you can always go back to your usual schedule or try something else that might work (like a week-off across the board, or a holiday every second Friday of the month).
Don’t be afraid to experiment. If it works out, you have Adam Ross, CEO at Awin to thank.
Now, you know the drill. We don’t waltz in here just to yell a bunch of things that you can’t verify.
Take a look (and maybe another) at what these industry professionals have to say. You can even listen to some of them talk about mental health and productivity in the WFH context here and there.
Before we go, we’d like to remind you that it’s completely okay to take it easy, especially in times of crisis. Let’s accept that some things are not in our control, and focus on what is. We’d hate to see you cave and start hunting for spells on the Dark Web.
That’s all we have for you, for now.
(Part II coming soon)
