After so many months of social restrictions and the ‘Stay at Home’ lockdown in the UK, most people needed to readapt and get used to working from home. At first, there was a lot of anxiety and doubts if the companies would be able to sustain such a new work frame. But the ‘working from home’ system seems to have been successful for many companies, and employees have quickly adapted to the new technologies and ways to communicate.
However, this comes with a price. Most people are finding difficult to switch off from work and separate their personal and professional lives. On one hand we are saving time from commuting, moving around between meetings and travelling. On the other hand, that time seems to be transferred and fully dedicated to work duties, without much change or respite.
Suddenly, life is becoming an endless list of obligations and demands, without the release that comes from social activities and other distractions, from meeting different people and being in different environments.
How is all this affecting our mental health and our emotions? How can I then separate my personal and professional life? How can I switch off from work?
Set Boundaries.
A very important first step is to decide what time is your ‘work time’ and truly stick to it. Let your colleagues know when you start and finish work, and put those times in your calendar. If you don’t respect your own time boundaries, how can others do?
Take Breaks throughout the day.
This is crucial for your mental health and your emotional balance. It’s easy to get into work mode and feel you can’t possibly stop. Or you might catch yourself with a diary packed with meetings and no breathing space. Please don’t let that happen. Include breaks in your calendar (in big red blocks, so you can’t miss them!) and respect them.
Lunch break is essential.
No excuses here. We all need fuel to keep going. We need rest and nourishment if we want to be productive at work and in life in general. A healthy body will help your mind to function well and help to balance your emotions. You’ll have a much fitter brain after a good meal and some rest.
Get out of that room during breaks and after work.
It’s very important to change scenes constantly. Leave your desk at breaks, lunchtime and after work. We are all feeling stuck and contained as it is, so why lock yourself at a desk as if you were a prisoner at work?
If you are spending most of your day in the same room, this will increase the sense of restrictions and isolation. Go to another room, go outside, go anywhere else, but leave that workspace.
Especially at lunchtime, don’t ever ever ever eat at your desk. Please don’t.
Exercise.
This is essential and should be part of your daily schedule. You don’t need to be an athlete or spend hours on it. Find something you enjoy, anything physical, for as short or as long period of time as you can fit into your day.
It’s all about the interaction between ‘body, mind & feelings’. One helps and supports the other. When you connect with your body - by doing whatever exercise is good for you - you give your mind a break. You switch off from everything else for a few minutes.
This will make you feel better, lift your spirits, and clear your mind.
Again, no excuses.
The importance of Nature.
There must be a piece of green space near your home, right? A park, a garden or even just your local village green? Or even a path by the river or a lake? We really don’t need anything glamorous or fancy to help clear our minds. Retreats and spas are lovely, but Nature can be incredibly healing and reenergising.
Go for a walk, or just sit in nature, take your time, listen to the sounds, notice the colours around you, the smells, the movement or the stillness. Try to just ‘be’ in nature. You don’t need to be constantly ‘doing’ something. Allow yourself to relax for a while and just ‘be’.
After work, Switch Off.
I mean it. Literally.
Once you set your time boundaries, your working hours, truly respect them. Turn your computer off, don’t look at your emails, or WhatsApp work messages, turn your phone off. I know, shocking, isn’t it?
And leave that room where you spent the whole day in.
Change scenery, go to another place, anywhere else.
If you spent the whole day staring at the computer, try to avoid going back to the screen for entertainment. I know it’s difficult, but your mind really needs a visual change and some recovery right now.
Do one thing that you truly enjoy every day.
Whatever that is, do (at least) one thing that brings you joy.
Well, if you can dedicate so much time and energy to work, why not direct a little of that attention to something that’s only yours, something that matters to you?
It doesn’t need to be anything grand. You don’t need to write a novel or learn a language. Probably the simplest, really banal things will be the most helpful right now. Read a book, a magazine, do a jigsaw, watch a comedy, listen to music, play games, dance around the house, whatever you like.
Choose something that you really enjoy every day, as if nobody else will know about it. Something light and without any pressure. Something yours.
Try to relax & look after yourself.
You don’t need any more obligations right now. Life is full of restrictions and containment as it is at the moment.
If you can work hard for so many hours, if you worry so much about your duties, why not do the same to your personal life and wellbeing?
If you don’t look after yourself, if you don’t take care of yourself, if you don’t make changes that benefit your life, if you don’t choose what’s better for you, nobody else will do it for you.
It’s your life, your wellbeing, your choices.