Ever since the global pandemic has affected our daily lives, the major change that happened to all of us is the fact of working from home. Well, there was a time when we used to enjoy work from home occasionally but that is no more as enjoying as it did before for many.
Working from home has resulted in affecting both physical and mental health for a large number of the workforce due to various reasons. However, the core cause is the shift from a working environment to a more homely environment which we are not seasoned enough to do work.
Impact on Physical Health:
As expected, many researchers concluded that within the initial days of working from home, people started facing various physical health issues. The most common ones were muscular aches like back pain, neck pain and shoulder pain.
The main causes of all these above-mentioned health issues are due to the prolonged duration of static work at home and lack of ergonomic workspace at home.
Impact on Mental Health:
Just like physical health, mental health has been affected due to the work from home in many ways. It is seen that people have become more stressed and anxious due to their "always-on-work" feeling.
Video callings and other digital aids have been taken full advantage of during the work from the home era, which is often the major contributing factor of fatigue and boredom in the tasks your job.
How to Overcome these Physical and Mental Health Issues?
Whether you have been affected by any physical or mental health issues due to working from home, few things if rightly focused on can assure not only good health but also to become more productive.
Here are four essential tips to make your work from home experience better -
1. Prepare a Schedule
As you would have heard a hundred thousand times this mantra called “planning is everything”, it holds valid for this too. Planning and charting your work schedule in advance can reduce a considerable amount of distress.
Schedule time for each micro-task in your work (if possible), it could be more beneficial for you to accomplish your tasks on time. The major change you need to incorporate is to train your mind to not work beyond the scheduled time and use that time as personal time.
In a way, you can plan your 'outside work hours' too like including your time with family, sleep cycle, etc. Solid planning and scheduling of tasks can never let you down and can help you overcome any sort of distress or anxiety you are facing when you are working from home.
2. Cultivate a hobby
As children, we always get attracted and enthusiastic to one or the other physical hobbies which we may have or have not tried doing. However, this is the right time to sharpen the childlike enthusiasm in you by unleashing the once half left hobby in yourself.
As students, most of us try sketching pictures, create models from clay or do some crafts. In this technology-driven era, physical hobbies have faded but this is the right time and way to shift your digital fatigue into sound physical hobbies.
3. Exercise & Meditation
One of the ignoring factors these days which is also the major factor of physical health issues during work from home is the lack of exercise. Daily exercise is extremely important and should be given utmost importance in your daily schedule.
Meditation techniques and yoga are also wonderful methods to overcome back pain and shoulder pain. Spending at least 45 minutes per day in some sort of exercise or yoga can help you stay physically fit and healthy.
It is also recommended to take frequent breaks within the work schedule and practice a simple exercise like stretching, etc. which can rejuvenate your body.
4. Read Everyday
There is no such thing which can replace the practice of reading. By reading I mean to read anything that can help you learn something new or feel relaxed. It can be a newspaper article, a blog, a novel, a short story or maybe a personal development book.
Try to reduce e-reading as much as possible as too much electronic usage can strain your eyes and can hit boredom when you do your tasks. Try to grab some physical reading materials like novels and daily newspapers that can expand your knowledge base.
Endnote:
These above tips are simple to incorporate in your daily work from home schedule. But never limit yourself. If time permits, take up an online course and learn a new skill to upgrade yourself. Nurturing an indoor garden is also a great investment in your time and health.
Written by – Arun S.
Edited by - Ivanova
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