Tips to Avoid a WFH Burnout
For many of us working from home maintaining a healthy boundary between work and life is proving to be impossible, especially with current guidelines asking us to stay in as much as possible. Our work and personal lives are suddenly blurred and it seems many of us want to avoid a WFH burnout; so therefore we need to make some adjustments asap!
So for those of you fighting to switch off or are panic-working to overcome anxieties, here are our tips to avoid a WFH burnout including some mild adjustments for keeping healthy work-life stability.
How to avoid burnout while working from home?
First things first, it’s really important to have a hard stop in place, yes, there is always work to be done but you’ll have to accept that it’s not possible to finish all of it in one day. If you try, you will burnout!
Decide what your daily working hours will be, and stick to them no matter what; this means no answering work emails outside working hours. As a remote worker, your greatest challenge is generally yourself; you have to be more proactive about sticking with priorities and setting boundaries.
Still act as though you’re heading into the workplace
Ok, hear us out. Although it might seem pretty cool to stay in your pj’s and take morning conference calls from the bed, it’s actually been proven to be counter-productive for our mental health and productivity.
so keep your morning routine in place; get out of bed, get dressed and brush your teeth and whatever else you did before your morning commute, speaking of, for most of us our morning commute was a chance to fit in some much-needed movement during the working day, with the commute no longer needed its a good idea for both your mental and physical health to replace that experience with a walk or an at-home workout before sitting down to work. The same goes for your daily lunch break try not to eat where your work station is set up and allow yourself time to enjoy a lunch break as well as short breaks throughout the day.
Adjust your attitude and make changes to your workload
Not having that immediate in-person interaction can quickly hinder your spirits, and given we’re in our fourth week of solitude you might be noticing the effects of being isolated. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, a sense of exhaustion or depletion or find yourself working above and beyond out of fear of losing work, and/or are feeling disengaged from your teammates, you may be heading towards a burnout.
The common advice when feeling the above would tell you to take some time off, and, yes, a break can at least give you a bit of breathing room but given we’re in this unique situation with COVID-19, taking a holiday or break is no longer an option. so what can you do?
Firstly, shifting your attitude will help and next changing your workload.
To improve your attitude you need to spend time recognising the negative habits and thought patterns emerging and work to stop them when they appear. The second adjustment is to reduce your workload for a short time or permanently. Our advice is to be open with management about the state of your current mental health and work with them to identify ways that you can manage a more reasonable workload while working from home.
Immediate shifts to make today:
- Create your own personal recipe for a successful day, both in work and life. eg. morning walk, short break outdoors etc.
- Set boundaries on your time. Work fewer hours and make them productive.
- Invest time in family and friends through video chats, calls or messages.
- Try Meditating for just ten minutes a day as it’s proven to gradually rewire your brain so that you are naturally more able to focus on the task at hand.
- Create an at-home wind-down ritual that separates work from non-work hours.
- Prioritise sleep; to restore well-being and relax your mind.
Try these tips to avoid a WFH burnout yourself and let us know how you go
