5 Tips to Help You Embrace Remote Working

Many of us have been forced to face the challenge of working from home full-time for the first time since lockdown began due to COVID-19. As remote workers ourselves, we’ve compiled a list of tips and tricks to help you embrace remote working and maintain your mental health while navigating this unprecedented time.

1. Designate a Working Space

While getting up in the morning to head to your place of work could have been daunting in the past (looking at you, 6am), having a physical separation between work and home allows for us to better compartmentalize our days and maintain boundaries. Compartmentalizing is essentially a positive coping mechanism that allows us the space to focus on one thing at a time. Now that we’re working from home, try setting up a small space in your home to mimic this separate work life. For example, by using a section of your dining table or counter space exclusively for work, this can provide a sense of separation between work and home all while being in the same place. This can further help recreate the boundary we’ve lost by being unable to physically go to work and bring a sense of separation to our days. We also highly recommend creating a calm and productive work space using plants, lamps, candles, diffusers and whatever else you’d normally have at your desk to make you feel at ease. You also want to be mindful of your posture and make sure you have a supportive chair, or standing desk. We really love walking around during calls, or sneaking in a little stretch on a yoga mat, to keep the blood flowing.

2. Keep Out of Your Bedroom Unless It’s Bedtime

Nothing is cozier and more comfortable than our beds in the morning, but studies have shown that working from bed can be detrimental to our wellbeing. Working from our bedrooms can enforce a mental link between bed and work rather than bed and sleep which can throw off our natural sleep cycle. Lack of sleep eventually leads to lack of productivity and even a decrease in our immune system, which is important now more than ever. Even if you live in a bachelor apartment, trying to find a separate workspace (your couch is great!) is key to maintaining a healthier remote work-life balance.

3. Stick To a Routine (It Doesn’t Need To Be Complicated!)

Think back to when you were in high school and how much you got done in a day simply because it was all carved out for you. You learned so many different things, kept active, interacted with friends and peers, and had time to explore your personal interests. Consider recreating a similar routine for yourself even while at home. Think of your morning alarm clock as your first school bell of the day and work from there. Get up and get dressed (shocking, we know!). Even if it’s getting into comfortable athleisure wear, just get out of your sleep clothes to signal the new day. Give yourself time to be active, to learn something new (reading the newspaper, listen to a podcast, or scroll through twitter for a half hour), eat breakfast and lunch at the same time every day, catch up with pals over zoom or FaceTime -- you get the idea. You’ll notice your days moving much quicker and you may even find calm in controlling your schedule during this uncertain time.

4. Adhere To Clearly Defined Working Hours

With smartphones, it’s so easy to feel a massive sense of urgency when an email rolls-in, especially if it appears in your inbox after working hours. While some jobs require 24/7 monitoring and being “on”, if you’re able to choose to set boundaries by defining “on” and “off” working hours, you’ll find yourself quickly establishing a healthier work-life balance, even when work and time at home are happening from the same place. Oh, and actually take an intentional lunch break! It’s so tempting when you work from home to continue staring at the screen, and we are guilty of this too, but having a dedicated lunch break allows your mind to rest and recharge in order to tackle the rest of the day.

5. Keep Active and Try Meditation

It’s no secret that physical activity has an incredibly long list of benefits, both physical and mental. From increasing your cardio fitness to leading to better mental clarity, exercise is an incredible tool to fight anxiety which is a very common response to what is happening in the world right now. Try 20-minutes of vigorous exercise with a High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) workout (there are some great videos on YouTube and apps like Nike Training Club), or start off with something less high-impact but a little longer, like a long walk while listening to a good podcast.

When you’re looking to cool down and recenter yourself, we strongly encourage you to try meditating. If sitting still in silence for 20 minutes isn’t your thing (it isn’t mine, either), try something more engaging like Yoga Nidra (this playlist is great!)-- a guided body-scan meditation that brings awareness to your body by starting at the toes and working its way up. It invites you to become aware of what tension you may be carrying in your muscles and helps you find the space to let them go. Give it a try before bed and see just how relaxed you can allow yourself to be, even when the world feels unbalanced.

Lastly, give yourself grace and permission to be uncomfortable in this new routine. This was thrown at all of us without warning and so it takes time to adjust and create your comfortable and most productive work space. With partners and children there is the added difficulty, and so don’t beat yourself up if you’re not hitting those targets like you once were. We’re all in this together and if you need any legal advice during this time, or some more work from home tips, please contact us at: info@awelegal.com