Here's a little more thought about working from anywhere. It fits nicely into the episode Okay Everybody ... Back to the Office!
I’ve been seriously thinking about why we are feeling so stressed lately.
We’re super busy but that’s nothing new. Thanks to the pandemic, many of us are now working remotely from home and enjoying this new work option. I like working in jeans when I can and welcome those extra few minutes of sleep I get back since the commute to my upstairs office is much shorter than the commute to the brick-and-mortar office.
We are also doing more with less due to staff reductions and reconfiguring our work activities from in-person to virtual offerings, but it doesn’t end there. When you work from home, you’re always at work.
I personally feel like my stress level over the past year ratchets up and stays there, there’s no ebb and flow so to speak. Instead, the elevated level becomes the new baseline, increasing each time stress is introduced. We don’t have opportunities to stop by a friend’s desk and ask for an opinion or go to lunch and talk about a project when we are not in the in-person office setting. We feel guilty interrupting our remote coworkers during the day knowing all too well they are also overwhelmed with work and trying to figure out the challenges of their own projects. So instead, we isolate ourselves and try to figure things out on our own. We experience frustration, spend more time than we need to accomplish tasks, and ... what’s that sound you ask ... it’s the ratchet going up another notch.
Working from home adds new challenges to achieving work-life balance. Since work and home are in the same physical location, we must set other types of guidelines for ourselves to leave work at work, even if our office is in the next room. I frequently announce, “I’m home from work!” as I walk into the living room at the end of the day.
Even though technology connects us in ways we never imagined, it also enables us to obsessively check work emails and respond to channel-based messaging platforms like Slack at all hours of the day and night. At the end of the day, set your away message. Give yourself and your family the gift of your attention by not checking work email after the workday ends.
Exercise is the ultimate stress reliever, but exercise options also changed during the pandemic. Pre-covid, my routine was to leave work and go to the gym, then the gyms closed. So, I bought a treadmill and replaced my after-work gym routine with hopping on the treadmill at the end of the day to de-stress.
It’s amazing how a change of scenery can be uplifting. Find an excuse to get out of your new work/home location. Fight the urge to turn on the TV - give Netflix a break at the end of your day. Take a refreshing walk. Be mindful of the sounds of nature and the quiet that surrounds your hectic day.
It takes discipline and creativity to achieve work-life balance when you experience a sudden and unplanned change to your work routine and way of life, but you can do it! Pause your technology at the end of the day, figure out a way to be physically active to blow off some steam, and get outside and away from the TV.
Last but not least, contemplate all of the things you have to be grateful for.
Take care of yourself,
Kelli
