By Naomi Shaw
Photo courtesy of Unsplash
Working from home might sound like a dream to some, but there are challenges working from home brings that are not present in a typical office. Working remotely certainly has benefits, but you should take steps to keep yourself healthy and balanced. Flying by the seat of your pants or figuring out how to healthily work from home as you go is a recipe for disaster that can lead to far more severe consequences in the future. Mismanaged stress, eating habits, work-life balance, and more can lead to issues like weight gain, leaky gut, or other chronic conditions. Thankfully, by using these eight tips and tricks, you can live a healthy and productive life while working from home.
Set A Schedule
When you are working from home, you can generally set your own schedule. When you work in an office, you have a set time to get up and commute to work, along with a set time to leave the office and commute home at a minimum. However, when you work remotely, there is no one around you to tell you when to start or stop work. If you don’t establish your own schedule or routine, you can easily find yourself working more than you should or ruining your work-life balance. Determine what time you need to get up for work and set a time to end work for the day so you can separate work time from home time even though you aren’t changing locations.
Create A Home Office
Another method that can help you separate work time for home time is creating a designated workspace or home office. It may be tempting to work from your bed or the couch, but setting up a space only or mainly for work will not only help you stay productive but will also help you maintain a work-life balance. A sturdy desk with a comfy chair is the bare minimum for a home office to keep you focused on work while letting you distance work from leisure time.
Photo courtesy of Naomi Shaw
Take Breaks
Breaks are critical for efficient work. All humans need short breaks every so often to help our brain reset and go back to work with renewed focus. A single 30-minute lunch break is better than nothing, but you should incorporate five-minute breaks into your workday too. Take a short break when you feel your brain fog up or slow down; you’ll find a quick breather can clear the fog and help you work more optimally.
Self Care
While working from home, work, and home can blend, making self-care outside of work even more critical. After work, take the time to do things just for you like watching a movie, trying out a new hair dye, having a home spa day, or a video call with friends worldwide. Without a frequent change of scenery to keep things fresh, self-care becomes critical while working from home.
Healthy Diet
While your diet might not be a part of your job description, your diet will impact your work. If you are working from home and eating a poor diet, you will likely feel the effects. A poor diet, plus stress, and a mostly sedentary career can cause many health problems ranging from daily aches to repetitive stress injuries while increasing your future likelihood of more severe conditions like diabetes. What you eat is essential, so take the time to create a healthy diet that will help your body rather than hinder it.
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Adding supplements to your diet may be a good way to make sure that you have enough energy to face everyday challenges. Products including kratom (Mitragyna speciosa, a tropical evergreen tree from Southeast Asia) have exploded in popularity in recent years, with over 10 million people using it daily in the US. Traditionally, kratom leaves have been used by Thai and Malaysian natives and workers for centuries.
Kratom can help with energy, focus, euphoria, pain and help with anxiety. What people don't know is there are ways to make it even stronger, and those are called potentiators.
Top five Kratom potentiators include: Grapefruit, Chamomile Tea, Watercress, Cayenne Pepper, and Turmeric.
Get Up And Move
Working from home can cause you to lead a relatively sedentary lifestyle. Working from a computer does not involve exercise or even simple movement, and if you combine that with sedentary hobbies outside of work, you are now living a mainly sedentary and unhealthy life. Movement and exercise are essential for health. Take a walk on your lunch break or even a quick walk around the block. Try to commit to 30 minutes of exercise a day to keep your body working at it’s best.
Make Sleep A Priority
We often take sleep for granted, and most adults do not get enough sleep. Sleep might feel like your reward at the end of the day or something you can cut back on whenever with no ill effects, but that is not the case. Sleep is an essential part of daily life, and adults need at least seven hours of sleep to recharge properly. A lack of sleep can compromise your decision making, reflexes, judgment, and will also affect you physically. Do not view sleep as a nice bonus at night and instead view it as a necessary bodily function that must be respected. Create a sleep schedule to know when to go to bed, so you get enough sleep before your morning alarm goes off.
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Do Not Bare It Alone
Working from home can feel lonely as you have no coworkers to talk to in the breakroom or walk to your car after work. When you feel the loneliness coming on, message a coworker to set up a video chat or text a friend to do the same. As adults, socializing is often not a part of everyday responsibilities, so it is on you to find ways to socialize and stay connected. Technology has provided tools to let us talk to people anywhere globally, so use them to get your social fix while working from home.
Working from home can be a fantastic thing for some people, but it is not without challenges. When you work remotely, it is your responsibility to stay healthy and manage your work-life balance. Use these eight suggestions to optimize your life while working remotely so you can perform at your best while staying healthy.
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