Over the past few months, many people have found their work-life balance transformed completely. With many offices closed and events postponed, the new reality sees many of us working from home and juggling many different tasks. Whilst event spaces at venues such as the Montcalm Hotel London have started to open up again, the day to day life of the office worker still remains mainly home-oriented. Many people have had to find more space in their home, juggle childcare and battle with WIFI cut-outs. Those who worked from home before the pandemic struck are used to this, but it may very well have come as a culture shock to those who are more privy to the daily commute.
That’s why this blog is focusing on the difficult task of keeping mentally fit, healthy and flexible to the day to day grind of working from home. Whether you’re new to it or you’ve been at it for a while, knowing how to keep happy and healthy is key to the sometimes isolating, often claustrophobic existence of the working from your own living space.
Exercise Every Day
Whatever you’re preference, it’s vitally important that whilst we’re not running down escalators to catch our train and chasing rush-hour buses, that we remember to keep fit. Whether it’s a jog, a marathon or a digital Zumba class, keeping healthy is key to keep mentally fit. With endorphins and energy running through your body, work and focus will come a lot more naturally.
Adapt You’re Exercise to Your Living Space
If for whatever reason you’re shielding or still under lock-down, it’s even more important to stay fit and healthy. Find some time and some space, however small it may be, and use it to focus on your fitness and energy levels. Whilst many might not have it in them to keep healthy over lock-down, some might find that it gives them something to focus on and improve in themselves. Not only will this help your fitness but the time you take out to exercise during a day, is a pocket of self-care time, giving you a chance to relax, reflect and focus on yourself.
Develop A Network Of Other Work From Home-ers
If you’re struggling with your mental health and well-being during the lock-down, there are undoubtedly many others in the same boat too. Whether it’s friends or a collection of peers and colleagues, make sure that you keep sociable and speak to others throughout the day. Maybe this will just be to check up on one another, or maybe it’ll be to exchange ideas and notes, but with the abundance of video call services and messaging apps available - often for free - the society we live in has never been better prepared for long periods of isolation.
Find Calm In Sitting Still
We’re all very used to moving around throughout the day. Whether it’s walking between meetings or heading to the printer, the COVID situation means that almost everything we need is within reaching distance, or just a few steps. This means that we have to get used to longer periods of sitting still, not something that everybody finds easy nor directly beneficial for their mental well-being. Whilst it’s important to keep exercising, it’s also important to find calm and focus on those stiller moments of the day, and train yourself to enjoy them.
Separate Your Work From Your Leisure Space
It was easy to keep our work and leisure spaces apart in the days where wellness travel and entertainment venues were open to us. In the era of COVID, the boundaries have closed in, and the lines between these spaces have been more than blurred. The easiest solution is to try and make sure that you don’t work from your bedroom or sleeping space. Save these for winding-down time. Alongside this, don’t work whilst watching television, and try to find a table or desk in your home that you can use as your work area.
Avoid Distractions Such As Social Media
Whilst you’re “in the zone” distractions like social media can pave a way to procrastination. Unless you use your phone for work, try putting it on silent mode for those periods of time where you really need to knuckle down.
Keep Your Diet Balanced
It’s easy to fall into a habit of ordering takeaways most nights, but take the time to cook and eat healthily. Even aspects of our own Montcalm care protocol focus on food sanitation and balanced diets, and it’s even easier to do so from home. Cooking and keeping a balanced diet of fruit and vegetables will help you maintain that elusive routine, and also exponentially benefit your mental and physical health.
