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87k health staff infected with Covid, 573 dead; 74% cases from six states
3 Tips to Regain Work-Life Balance After Working from Home for 6 Months
With many of us working from home due to the pandemic, we’ve had to adjust our work routines to fit the new normal and carry on in our professional responsibilities. Working from home has come with its own set of benefits and drawbacks; maybe you’re seeing a noticeable increase in workload, or finding it difficult to adjust your working practices to manage what you need to get done. Whatever your situation, if you find the “new working normal” is starting to negatively affect your emotions outside of working hours, you’re not alone.
The good news is that there are measures to put in place which will reinforce your work/life boundaries and help get you back to reclaiming how you think and feel about working from home. Here are 3 tips to beat the “work at home blues.”
1. Be Deliberate in Where & When Work Happens
The change came quick, and once the initial shock of what was going on outside our homes started to wear off, we had to adjust to a new working norm just as quickly. With that, the definition of the line between “me at home”, and “me at work” may have gone out of the window.
This means that the boundaries between work life and home life likely need to be reinforced. Having a dedicated room or space where work happens is the first step in this process. But if this isn’t possible, and you are forced to work in the kitchen or bedroom, try putting your equipment away at the end of the work day or throwing a towel or blanket over your workstation. This way, outside of working hours, the kitchen stays as a place where we unwind and cook, and our bedrooms don’t become our boardrooms! That was bad, sorry…
The same principals hold true for our boundaries around when work happens in the new norm. Maybe it’s an extra half hour of writing here, maybe an extra 10 minutes reading a report there. Either way, when we’re spending all of our time at home, work can easily spill over into areas it does not belong. This is where time scheduling can help us be as accountable to our time off as our time on. Scheduling can take the form of hourly water/stretch/walk break reminders on our phone, or a printed out calendar filled in with activities between the hours of 5:00pm-9:00am.
No matter the form it takes, spending more time thinking about how to use your time away from work is sure to be a step in the right direction. *Bonus tip* develop your “pleasure schedule” together with an “Accountability Buddy”, to maximize your chances of sticking to it and have someone to share your experiences with!
2. Get Ritualistic
Another way we solidify boundaries in our work and personal lives is through the rituals we typically go through in those settings. For most people, before the pandemic, getting ready for work usually involved putting on pants! Look, I get it, I do. That extra half hour it might have taken us to shower, dress, and do our hair adds up, and being able to roll out of bed and into work in a matter of minutes is pretty appealing. But it may not be doing you any favors in terms of getting your mind and mentality ready to work.
On the other hand, having what I call reverse rituals is just as important to help our minds through the process of leaving work behind at the end of the day. Once upon a time this may have involved closing down your workstation, commuting back from office to home, having a shower, or changing your clothes when you arrive home. Whatever your de-stressing, boundary-reinforcing rituals used to be, I encourage you to think of the ones you can bring back into your day.
For those rituals which may not be realistic anymore, try to think of ways they can be adjusted/transferred into new forms. This goes for rituals within your workday/workweek as well. Missing your coffee break/”venting time” with your coworker? Try scheduling them over Zoom, make a coffee, meet up, and vent. Used to going for a drink with friends/coworkers at the end of a long work week? Set a recurring meeting with them for every Friday and stick to it. Whatever your rituals are, the science behind what they can do to help your mind adjust to new realities is powerful.
3. Give Yourself More ‘Miracle Moments’
Maintaining those activities which remind us of that part of our identity which has nothing to do with work, goes a long way in helping us to remember that we are more than just employees. You are a complex human being, and feeling fulfilled and balanced cannot come exclusively from work. So what are those activities, relationships, routines, and practices that make up the rest of your ideal day/week? I call these practices and activities “Miracle Moments”, because they add balance and relieve stress in areas of our life and mind that we may not even be aware of.
One way to give you a bit of a road map back to your Miracle Moments is to take some time and write out what your perfect (work) day would look like. Starting with the moment you would wake up: What time is it? How would you spend your first 1-2 hours? Would it involve meditation, exercise, prayer, music, food? How would you then get ready for work? And exactly how would you feel when you start working? How many breaks would you take throughout your day, when, and what would you be filling them with? You can map out your entire day and pick a few Miracle Moments to begin plugging into your next workday. Before long, you may find yourself feeling more energized and comfortable with your at-home work routine.
Whether you have yet to find a good groove or have fallen off the wellness wagon, when it comes to feeling good while working from home, being deliberate in how you spend your time while working, and not working, holds the key to a better work/life balance. Hopefully these three tips can give you an advantage while working from home, help you to take back your time, and ultimately provide you with more hope in what we all seem to be searching for these days: a better “new normal.”
The post 3 Tips to Regain Work-Life Balance After Working from Home for 6 Months first appeared on World of Psychology.
Is Your Brain Tired? You May Be Mentally Fatigued
It seems like everyone I talk to lately is tired, and not because they’re suddenly more active or more productive than usual. In fact, most of them can’t tell you exactly why they’re so tired, they just are. This isn’t to say people aren’t busy, they are — just in new and taxing ways. But these new kinds of busyness and the “new normal” brought on by the coronavirus is causing many of us to feel mentally fatigued.
Mental fatigue is something that occurs when your brain goes into overdrive. You can’t stop thinking, worrying, anticipating, planning, etc., and this constant parade of changing thoughts can lead to exhaustion. This isn’t uncommon, most of us have experienced this at one point or another, usually when there’s a big project or event coming up. But lately mental fatigue seems to be the rule rather than the exception for many.
Why Your Brain May Be More Tired Than Normal
Most of us feel we’re rolling with the punches to some degree while the world around us changes. But the truth is these changes take a psychological toll on us all. You may be working, but your work has changed. Kids are in school, but school has changed. You may be healthy, but for how long? And there are marches, riots, and an upcoming election to consider. No matter how much you try to focus on your own small piece of the world the world around you is having an effect on you.
In a normal environment, you know what to expect and how to navigate things. You probably have work under control, school schedules are structured, and the regular chaos of life ebbs and flows at a fairly predicable rate. Sometimes you’re stressed, sometimes you’re not, and occasionally you feel mentally fatigued when things are particularly crazy.
But our current state of prolonged instability and change is something different. It’s like noise that’s always playing around us as we try to get through the day-to-day. Our brains naturally try to assign structure and normalcy to our personal environments, but the current noise can be deafening and distracting, and is changing all the time making it all that more difficult to put things in order and operate normally. This means your brain must work even harder to try and be productive and create routines and stability.
What Happens When Your Brain Is Tired for Too Long?
If you work your shoulders or legs too hard, they get sore, right? Well, your brain may not become sore like overworked quads, but it absolutely shows signs of overuse.
Mental fatigue has several tell-tale signs. See if any of these sounds familiar:
- Inability to focus. When your brain is tired, it isn’t working at optimal levels. Just like your legs won’t carry you through marathon after marathon (or even fractions of that for most of us), your brain will eventually slow down too. This often shows up as an inability to stay focused on tasks and responsibilities, leaving you feeling scattered, disorganized and impeding your ability to complete tasks successfully.
- Physical exhaustion. Yes, your brain affects your body. When your brain is tired, it can make your whole body feel tired, effectively signally that you need a break. Shutting down through sleep is our normal physiological method for relieving the stress on our brain. Unfortunately, mental exhaustion itself can make sleeping difficult.
- Difficulty sleeping. While you may be tired and your brain may need a break, it can often be very difficult to turn things off. The overstimulation caused by the environment around us means that we may not sleep as well. How many times have you tried to solve the world’s problems while laying in bed? Or stewed over the things you should have said or done earlier in the day?
- Constant feeling of stress and anxiety. Mental exhaustion and the persistent noise around us can lead to a constant feeling of stress and anxiety. It can feel like there’s ALWAYS something to worry about, so even if your corner of the world is handled and organized, there’s no relief or sense of calm. Over time, unrelenting stress and anxiety can lead to depression as well.
- Lack of patience or sudden bursts of anger. If your fuse suddenly seems shorter than normal and you find yourself feeling irritable and angry all the time it can be a result of an overworked brain. When you’re not operating at optimal levels and feel scattered, tired, and stressed it can be very difficult to exercise the appropriate levels of patience.
Any of these ringing a bell?
Tips To Rest and Reset
This can be harder to do than it sounds. Turning off and tuning out the noise around us initially requires concentration which is difficult when you are already having a tough time concentrating. But the focus in this case is on being mindful and calm in order to give yourself a break.
Mental exhaustion won’t just get better — you need to give your brain a rest and break the cycle. Any of these can be helpful.
- Get outside. Nature is calming, so use what’s around you. Being mindful of what you’re seeing and experiencing.
- Turn off the TV and internet. There’s bad news everywhere right now, don’t let yourself be inundated with it. Try music instead.
- Exercise. This is a good idea for so many reasons. By getting physical you’ll relieve stress, sleep better, and improve your physical condition.
- Read. The escape into something that has nothing to do with the world around you can provide a healthy break.
The longer we let mental fatigue continue the harder it becomes to break the cycle. Over time you may experience physical issues, emotional problems, or full-scale burnout. And these all leave you incapable of navigating your life in a healthy and happy way.
The post Is Your Brain Tired? You May Be Mentally Fatigued first appeared on World of Psychology.
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