Working from home is an endless circle of waking up, spending hours on your devices working, going to sleep, and walking back up to the same routine. It is not a piece of cake. In fact, it’s harder to work from home. Not only do you overlook your work responsibilities, but you also have to take care of your responsibilities at home.
Working from home seemed like a dream until the recent outbreak of coronavirus compelled us all to stay at home and work.
It might be tiring and not as comfortable for people who are used to working in a professional work setting. This entire situation also becomes tiresome because of the extra workload, the disturbances at home, and people putting work as a priority and often overworking themselves in this process.
Even with staying at home probably surrounded by people, it is inevitable to feel lonely and distant from everything. This is because of the lack of exposure to other things in your life like your workplace, your friends, your co-workers, etc.
This feeling often makes it harder for people to successfully work from home while also keeping in mind the various responsibilities they have to take care of.
There are various ways one can divert their mind and cope up with this empty void in their life due to a busy work from the home schedule:
● Keep a check on your work schedule:
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Working from home can be very hectic, leaving you with a disrupted routine cycle to the work-focused. Tracking your work schedule can help you draw a line and have a work-life balance.
Always keep a check on your work and how much time you are devoting to it in a day. That will help you recognize the necessary changes you should make in that schedule to not completely drown in work, feel isolated, or lack time away from work.
● Give yourself breaks:
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Quite often a busy work from home schedule leads to a feeling of remoteness and distance from everything. Giving yourself plenty of breaks will be a good way to distract yourself and your mind from such feelings and it will give you a couple of minutes away from mental exhaustion or any thoughts about work.
The more breaks you give to yourself, the more you will be able to cope up with not only the stress and demands from your work but also the feeling of isolation and remoteness as a work from home person.
You can do an activity, cook, eat, sleep, watch a film, go out for a stroll, listen to music, or just talk to a family member. All of these will keep your mind running and buzzing and help you cope up with the added pressures of working from home.
● Talk to someone outside of your house:
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It is easy to feel distant even when being surrounded by people in the house. You can always cope up with it by talking to someone outside of the house. A call or a video call can always do you some good and it’s a great way to catch up with people you miss seeing and working with.
Being in the house all the time plus being confined to work can make you quite cranky as well so hit up a few friends or co-workers and distract yourself from your work for a while. It will be a good break for you and your mind and might help you when you get back to work.
It will also help you feel less lonely at times like these.
● Make a schedule:
Work from home could be quite a time consuming and you often tend to lose track of time by skipping meals or letting go of sleep and this is another reason you may feel isolated at times.
While your work is important too, you need to take breaks and focus on other things that don’t come across as hectic, unlike your work.
Hence making a schedule can be a great idea. You can divide time between things including work so you don’t feel overloaded and also get plenty of time to rejuvenate.
Also, making a schedule that provides you time for other activities too will affect your work from home ability in a better way. Devote only certain hours every day for work and try to not exceed it.
● Connect with people:
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This feeling of remoteness can very well be coming from not interacting with people on a daily basis but since you are stuck at home, the best way is to spend some time on social media and connect with people.
You can always hit up old friends, co-workers, or just anyone you know and talk to them. It can help a great deal with a feeling of isolation at a crucial time like this one.
Working from home limits your daily life and interactions with people in general and hence this feeling of remoteness or FOMO, fear of missing out on whatever is happening in the world is always there. Hence, try to maintain bonds with people over social media or any other medium of your choice to feel more included and not isolated with your current situation.
● Join a video conference or call:
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A video conference to discuss work-related things or one just with friends and family is also an easy or rather productive way to deal with isolation.
Quite often your current work and daily routine might lead to immense frustration as well. In such a case, a call can always be helpful in any way.
People working from home always tend to be a little insecure about their work due to their contribution only through online measures and might feel distant from the work itself.
Times like these, you can call up your workmates and talk about work to cope up and get back into the right zone to work. It can be a real deal-breaker for you and may end up helping more than you imagined. And if not work, video calls some close people to feel better.
These are just some minute ways to cope up with remoteness when working from home. You can always resort to some of your tried, tested and helpful ways for the same to not let it hinder your work. I personally would suggest some meditation too. It can help you clear your mind and deal with things in a more effective and rational manner.
And the best way to actually cope well is to have a well-balanced work and private life especially one where both are managed well and coexist in the best way possible.
This sure does take time and may get too frustrating at times but the more efforts you put, the better results you get.
Originally published at https://www.fuzia.com.