Wellbeing While Working From Home

Wellbeing While Working from Home: Digital Top Tips to help mental health and productivity JT Group Limited

@JT_Business

Remember when working from home seemed like a great way to break up the working week? For many it might have just been in a ‘policy’ somewhere, but never actually done.

Nowadays, working from home has become the new ‘normal’. What’s more, when you’re surrounded by all of the things you rely on to unwind — television, video games, books, movies, a fridge full of food, etc. — you could find concentrating more difficult than when you’re in the office. It can be jarring, to say the least.

However, productivity is directly linked to positive wellbeing; get more stuff done, and we feel better for it at the end of the day. With mental health an essential consideration for all businesses, it’s more important than ever to dedicate your time to worthwhile activities.

In this guide, we have put together the following Digital Tips to help mental health and productivity when working from home.

JT Group Limited

@JT_Business

www.jtglobal.com/business

1

Start the day right

With all your work now home-based, your entire routine could end up in a state of flux. One of the biggest changes is waving goodbye to your commute, and getting in the mindset to work from home.

When you travel to your job each morning, you’re entering a working environment. You’re there to be productive and achieve goals. But now you’re simply walking downstairs, or into your home office, and it can be difficult to get into the right mindset to focus on work.

So how can you mark the start of the day when working from home?

Give yourself the right fuel What you eat will also play an important role in productivity, and affects brain power, mood and general mental capacity. Food has a clear impact on cognitive performance, as it’s converted into glucose, which fuels your brain. That means a lack of glucose can lead to a lack of focus.

Take the time to prepare a breakfast that will leave you satisfied, energised, and set up for a productive morning. Put that hour you save by not commuting into making a hearty meal to start your day right (after your new meditation routine, of course).

If you want more inspiration, put together a Pinterest board of healthy breakfasts. You can also download the Pinterest App straight to your phone.

Check out Pinterest’s ‘Healthy breakfast’ pins >

Try meditation to de-stress and focus for the day ahead Meditation could help, and there are plenty of options, from YouTube videos to apps.

For example, Headspace is a popular mindfulness and meditation app (62+ million users globally and counting), offering a huge library of courses to choose from.

Users can learn how to meditate effectively with just a few minutes practice each day. Drawing on expert guidance, many Headspace exercises are designed to help you focus. Headspace has also prepared a resource for businesses to help their teams through the global crisis, which is well worth a read for employers.

You may find meditating at the start of your day helpful if you struggle to concentrate. However, it can also be a great way to unwind and switch off once your work is over, too.

2

Get into good habits

When designing what your working-from-home day looks like, you’ve got the opportunity to pick up some new healthy habits to support productivity and better peace of mind.

Try the Pomodoro technique At the office, you probably spend the day walking in and out of meetings, popping out for lunch, getting up to make a coffee, etc. At home, though, it’s easy to pass an hour or two without even looking up from your laptop!

However, there’s one golden rule for working from home, it’s this: don’t fall into the habit of working for hours at a time, without giving your brain and body a rest. It’s not sustainable, and it’s actually not all that productive either.

Consider the Pomodoro technique, a system that focuses on working with the time you have available, by breaking your day down into manageable chunks.

Stay hydrated to boost concentration Proper hydration is key for brain function, as your grey matter is around 75% water. It flushes toxins out and brings more nutrients in, creating better concentration and alertness.

There are multiple Pomodoro apps available if you want a little bit of help...

If, like most of us, you forget to drink water regularly throughout the day, try an app like Daily Water Tracker Reminder. This tracks your water intake, sets goals, and sends reminders to make sure you stay hydrated.

Drinking water is essential for your physical health, too. It can reduce headaches, combat cravings for sugary snacks, and help you maintain a healthy weight by making you feel fuller from less food. Something we all need when we’re exercising far less!

Focus Booster >

Toggl > PomeDoneApp >

Not drinking enough water?

Try the ‘Daily Water Tracker reminder’ app This app tracks your water intake, sets goals, and sends reminders to make sure you stay hydrated.

JT Group Limited

@JT_Business

www.jtglobal.com/business

Take a proper lunch break / exercise According to a survey, two thirds of UK workers struggle to take even 20 minutes for their lunch break, let alone a full hour. This might not change with the switch to remote working. But taking a restful break can help you come back to your desk feeling refreshed and ready to get stuff done.

It also gives you an opportunity to exercise, which has been shown to improve workers’ moods and performance. You might not be able to take a stroll outside, but a half-hour home workout can help you switch off from work and get your blood pumping.

Alternatively, booking a personal training session via video chat or taking part in a group activity online may combat loneliness, particularly if you live alone.

Keep in touch with colleagues and friends When you’re at work, you have colleagues to chat with during the day. This provides a welcome break and gives you a chance to vent your frustrations. And it could be more important than you realise, as research shows making small talk with colleagues can have a positive effect on brain function and lead to higher job satisfaction.

When you switch to remote working, this can be harder to maintain. But don’t let distance cut you off from your colleagues. Take advantage of tools like Webex Teams and Microsoft Teams to interact on a regular basis, for everything from casual chats to conference meetings. It helps to keep company culture alive and encourages you to do your part.

Live streamed home-workouts with Gymshark Gymshark are a fitness apparel brand, and are one of the fastest growing companies in the UK. During the pandemic they are putting on live-streamed home-workout classes around the clock.

Follow Gymshark on Facebook >

3

Make sure you switch off at the end of the work day

Maintaining a healthy work/life balance can become even more difficult when working from home. With no office to go to five days a week, the separation between personal and professional space will undoubtedly blur.

What can you do to maintain a healthy work/life balance when you can’t really leave the house?

Staycations: Activate your out-of-office replies Be sure to set your out-of-office replies and activate them the moment you’re on staycation.

This means that any colleague, manager, or client who emails you during your downtime will know that you’re out of reach. This might seem obvious, but it saves you responding manually and getting drawn back into work emails when you are having some much needed downtime.

Maintain a sleep routine Finally, set an alarm on work days and try to establish a fixed routine, just as you did before you started to work remotely.

Sleeping in a more organised pattern can reinforce your circadian rhythms and help you fall asleep at the same time night after night. As a result, digestion, immunity, and concentration may all be better than they would if you were to sleep in irregular patterns.

Try the ‘OFFTIME’ app Take out-of-office replies up a notch by using an app like OFFTIME to silence all work emails during your time off. This encourages you to keep away from your phone altogether and focus on relaxing instead.

JT Group Limited

@JT_Business

www.jtglobal.com/business

Immerse yourself in a new box set Streaming services seem more valuable than ever. Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, and others all offer a wealth of series to try, covering every taste. Experts predict these services will see solid growth during this crisis, while the movie industry experiences a decline.

Take advantage of one or more of these streaming services to switch out of work mode at the end of the day. And now that Netflix Party is available, you can join friends from all over the world to watch movies or series together, all with a simple Chrome extension.

This creates the communal experience you might have at a cinema, and is a great way to stave off any negative feelings that selfisolation could inspire.

Call a friend every day Get into a routine of chatting to a friend or relative at the end of the working day, even if only for a few minutes.

This helps you let off steam that might have built up during your 9 to 5. And, you never know, your friend may need someone to vent to as well.

Host a virtual dinner party Another way to connect with friends and maintain your social circle is to host a virtual dinner party.

Yourself and a group of friends can cook the same meal (or not) and eat together via Zoom or Google Hangouts (or even take advantage of Webex Teams or Microsoft Teams that we mentioned earlier). You can keep this as formal or informal as you like. Chat as you would if you were actually sitting around a table, perhaps play some relaxing music in the background, and just enjoy yourself.

This gives you something to look forward to throughout the day and encourages you to forget about work for a while.

Working from home can take some getting used to, but we hope we’ve helped you make the transition a little easier with some of the digital tips explored in this eBook.

JT Group Limited

@JT_Business