Manage Stress Working from Home
Have you experienced stress while working from home? Have you noticed some of your colleagues who seem mildly depressed, lethargic or disconnected? Have you wondered what you can do about it?
If you have experienced stress this year, then give yourself proper recognition and a pat on the back. Before we discuss things that you can do to manage the stress, it is important to recognize that feeling stress, or mild depression, is only possible if you already have passion, commitment, and a sense of purpose. To put this into perspective, an apathetic individual has no reason to feel stress or foreboding. It is because you care that you worry. It is because you know what it possible and what you can accomplish that you are concerned about having the opportunity to achieve it. It is extremely important to begin self-reflection with a recognition that you know that you are competent, you are capable, and you have passion about your goals and your success.
Many businesses have made a rapid transition to remote work / work from home, adjusted work schedules, and smaller teams of people in the workplace. As a result, many people have lost the opportunity to escape contributors to stress, or replaced a familiar stress with less familiar stress.
Prior to the pandemic, individuals feeling stress at work could find some escape by leaving the pressure at work, decompressing on the commute home, and creating a separation from the pressure with calm, family or entertainment at home. Conversely, individuals experiencing stressful conditions or thoughts at home could find an escape during the day by immersing themselves in work. Parents with children at home could achieve balance with a different environment in the office. Suddenly all of those environments and conditions merged with very little transition. Individuals who managed thoughts, pressures and caregiving in separate isolated environments may find it stressful when all of those environments converge.
Take control of your environment and your time. To address the change of environment, try to create new isolated environments, as much as possible, and isolated time management. As much as possible, identify and establish consistent personal zones. These zones are the workspace, the living and entertainment space, the family space, and some personal private space for reflection. Some space may be used for a combination of purposes. As much as possible, be consistent and respectful of the space that you identify for activities, and address the space accordingly. Make your work space effective for work, and your family or entertainment space effective for that purpose. In a similar manner, block and manage specific time for work, time for personal matters, and specific limited time that the work and personal are allowed to merge or overflow. This space and time management previously accomplished by transition between home and office are now within your control to manage in your designated space and allocated time. Take deliberate control of your space, and of your time, and manage it effectively. It may be necessary to communicate this clearly to family, children, colleagues or friends, so they understand your intentions and respect your time and space. It is important to respect the time and space management of colleagues, family and friends too.
Sleep. Make sure that you are getting sufficient, deep and restful sleep. Lack of sleep will exacerbate your mental and emotional state. Lack of sleep impairs your ability to achieve peak performance, and it impairs your ability to manage relationships and connections to your fullest, all of which contribute to increasing personal levels of stress. Much like taking control of you daily routine and space, take control of the schedule and the environment for your sleep. Designate a consistent schedule to train your body that it is time to sleep. Set an hour aside before sleep to avoid the phone or computer, even for entertainment purposes. Give yourself an hour to unplug from electronic devices before the designated time to rest your head. Use the time to relax and avoid all of the things that may be conduits of your stress, and replace them with things that deliver personal peace and calm.
Exercise or walk. If you previously had a commute to and from work, then you should certainly have time now for a walk or light exercise in the morning or evening. Take control of your time and manage it accordingly. Furthermore, working from home often provides some small personal time throughout the day. In the office you might have experienced ten minute breaks, or a break between phone calls, or shared some time getting coffee with a colleague. Once or twice a day, take a few minutes for yourself to take a short walk, stretch, or do a little light exercise. Do what you feel is appropriate for your physical condition and the allotted time, and enjoy it. This is something that you do for yourself, so do not feel guilty or embarrassed about it. You need it and deserve it. Treat yourself with ten minutes of stretching or walking and your performance will improve, so you can really afford to take the time for it!
Target tasks. As many organizations have had to implement workforce reductions, there has been an incremental increase of workload for the remaining workforce. In remote working conditions you may feel the work is more difficult without the direct personal support of direct team collaboration. To manage the workload, make a list of your tasks and prioritize them by urgency and importance. Review your list at the end of each day, add items as necessary, and use this to schedule your next few days. Once you have completed your end of day review, you can put your list away until morning to rest peacefully in the evening. Give yourself peace of mind that you have a plan in place for the next day.
Socialize. The rapid transition from workplace to work-at-home environments can also create a gap in social interaction with the team. At first the lack of coffee breaks and unplanned interruptions may seem to enhance productivity, but over time it also creates a gap in interpersonal relationships, reduced awareness of activities by other colleagues, and insufficient recognition for accomplishments. Those minor interactions in the hallway or at the water cooler were opportunities to vent frustration, share amusing anecdotes, exchange insights and knowledge, and to build the social camaraderie between colleagues. Balance this by investing a little time for general and personal conversation with colleagues from time to time. Take the time to freely and frequently give recognition by email and on group conference calls. Do not be embarrassed to tell someone else about an accomplishment that others might not easily recognize. Acknowledging and celebrating success is an important part of our social interaction.
The Silver Bullet. You may be reading the aforementioned suggestions with the thought that managing your time and space, organizing your tasks, getting good sleep, exercise and social interaction are not new groundbreaking ideas, and if so, this is good. Managing and reducing stress should not require groundbreaking new concepts to make a difference. On the contrary, it is relatively simple and attainable to take control of your own life, even after a significant transition of your work environment. However, there is another silver bullet to help combat the mild depression that can arise from increased stress, and this is to make the time to do something good for someone else. There are many other people experiencing increased stress, workload, fear, anxiety or mild depression. Take the time for a nice gesture, words of praise, a greeting card, a phone call or an email to encourage and recognize someone else. Maybe someone could use some encouraging words, or a few suggestions like the ones in this article. The conscientious investment of your time to do something good for another person or organization will be a healing step forward for you. A great journey often requires several steps, and if that is the case, then pay it forward with kind gestures and repeat as necessary.
- Give yourself a pat on the back for passion
- Take control of your space / environments and your time
- Get proper sleep
- Exercise, walk or stretch a few minutes each day
- Make a task list to manage your schedule around your priorities
- Take some time to be social with colleagues
- Pay it forward with conscientious good deeds
Word of Wisdom
“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”
- Reinhold Niebuhr
“Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional”
- Haruki Murakami
“There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full.”
- Henry Kissinger
“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”
- Stephen Covey
About the Author: John Mehrmann is President of Belcan Canada Inc., an IT and Engineering staffing and recruiting company that is dedicated to augmenting and empowering the internal teams at client businesses. John is author of The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity, and was contributing author to 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life Vol 3.