When you’re working from home, while it may certainly be a safer alternative to working in your typical office space, you must be weary of becoming too burnt out. In a more comfortable and less formal environment, it’s far easier to adopt habits that don’t actually lend themselves to your benefit.
Change up your daily work from home routine with these four tips that encourage you to prioritize wellness as a key aspect of your day. Remember, it’s not about changing everything you do all at once, but taking baby steps to reach a healthier and happier mode of operating through your workday.
What is Burnout?
We have all experienced burnout at some point in our lives – whether it be from stress, overworking, or lack of time to ourselves. Working from home presents a particular type of burnout in that you’re in the same environment 24/7, often doing the same tasks day after day.
Although it feels as though it should be an easy transition to turn your living space into an office space, too, you truly need to be mindful in how you approach working from home. Becoming burnt out is something that sneaks up on you slowly, and manifests itself in your mood, energy level, creativity, productivity and ability to collaborate; when your mind and body aren’t being fed what they need, or staying stimulated, your habits can change for the worse without you even noticing.
4 Ways to Prioritize Wellness During Your Workday
- Sleep Schedule
- Staying on a regular sleep schedule is one of the best ways to practice adopting healthier habits. You can help regulate your body’s internal clock by being dedicated to going to sleep and waking up at the same time every day. Another great way to nurture your sleeping habits is to get out of bed as soon as you wake up for the day; the longer you continue to wait for your alarm to go off, the more groggy you’ll remain throughout the day. If you have a difficult time falling asleep, take a look at these Herbs for Sleep remedies.
- Stay Active
- Keeping yourself moving is so necessary when you’re working from home for an extended period of time. This can be achieved by going to another room, or leaving the house entirely – take a walk, check on your garden, do a dance, try a thirty-minute yoga flow. All of these options will help your mind and body stay invigorated throughout your day.
- Set Boundaries
- One of the difficult things about working from home is that you are never truly leaving your work behind you for the day. For some, finishing that one last task, and then the next, and the next, becomes addicting. This bleeds into family time and time for yourself, while also not giving your mind a break. So, set the boundary to be done with work when you’re done with work; whatever is waiting for you on the other side of the screen will be fine until the morning.
- Nurture a Garden
- We are firm advocates of gardening for more than just the physical harvest. When you spend time with your garden, you are committing to a practice that gives back to your mind and body; gardening is a sort of meditation that allows you to recenter your energy, take a deep breath and relieve some of the stress of your day. Try starting out every day with 15 minutes in your garden and you will love the feeling of internal and external growth.
One Step at a Time
If you’re having a hard time at work, have faith in yourself and try implementing an aspect of any of these habits into your workday. Slowly, you will find that you have the power to improve your days of working from home. If you’re looking for more inspiration for your workday, take a look at this article, and don’t forget to add a desktop garden to your workspace and a container garden of fresh flavors when the weather says go.
