Our Cures for the Work-from-Home Blues
For those of us who have made remote work a way of life, it has benefits that an office just couldn’t beat. A ten-second commute? Yes, please! Control over your environment? Sign me up! But as much as we love those aspects, the hard truth is that it’s not always an easy transition.
If you’re used to having co-workers around at every turn for eight hours a day, the isolation that comes from working at home is just…weird. Even for the most introverted of introverts, spending all day every day in the same home can fatigue you in a way you don’t expect until it hits you.
What do you do when your home starts to feel like a cave of never-ending labor? Our LWR pros have been there, so try a few of our top tips.
Cures for The Remote Work Blues
Get Strategic Sunlight
Our brains need sunlight; it’s science, people. We’re generally meant to be awake during the day and asleep at night so when your brain isn’t detecting any sunlight, it naturally thinks it’s time to snooze.
If you’re feeling low on energy, try working somewhere where you can get some sunlight, either by working outside or by working near a window with plenty of natural light.
Break Up Your Schedule
It can be incredibly exhausting to look down the barrel of eight hours or more of doing the same thing all day…so don’t. Put little breaks into your schedule and focus on those small bits of time rather than the big picture.
Maybe you start working at 8am and you take a ten-minute break at 10am, a lunch break at noon, and another ten-minute break at 3pm. Or you could break it up even further by using the Pomodoro method: 25-minute periods of work separated by 5-minute breaks. Either way, the aim is to tell yourself, “I just have to work for two hours and I can take a break” instead of seeing the whole exhausting day in front of you.
Schedule Post-Work Hangouts
When you were working in an office all day, your favorite thing to do was probably to come home and sink into the couch. Same! But sometimes, when you’re working from home alone every day, the idea of spending your free time at home alone loses some of its appeal.
It might be time to step up your social game in that case. Line up some activities in the evening after work, whether it’s happy hour with a friend, meetups for a new hobby group, or even heading out for some solo shopping. You’ll have something to look forward to and you’ll get a dose of social interaction.
Try Coworking
Working from home affords you the great freedom to work in isolation when you want to, but depending on your work needs, it also means you can work from places other than your home whenever you want. If your home office is getting too monotonous, try a coworking meetup every so often!
These meetups are simple: folks who work remotely just get together at a local coffee shop, coworking space, library, or other space to work together. It’s your dose of water cooler chat while also getting the motivation of being around other people who are knocking tasks off their to-do lists.
Feeling down and want to break out of your home office for a while? That’s what we’re here for! Find a Ladies Work Remote meetup near you, or consider launching your own chapter if there isn’t a chapter in your city.