How not to lose your shit while working from home
It can be hard to focus at home even when we’re not in the middle of a scary, uncertain pandemic. One of the ways our brain keeps itself calm is by looking at past experiences to help us play out potential future scenarios. Since none of us has ever been through this before, we can’t do that, so there is a lot of fear and uncertainty present.
What does this have to do with work and productivity? Well, fear produces stress hormones and diminishes the cognitive functions of the prefrontal cortex such as problem-solving, thinking creatively, remembering things, and having the self-awareness to catch yourself before you tell off your boss via Slack (been there). We’re human, so fear and stress are going to show up, but they don’t have to fully run the show. We can consciously set ourselves up for success and sanity amidst all this uncertainty.
I like to look at WFH as an incredible opportunity to practice high-performance tactics that sometimes feel awkward in your standard office. For instance, taking a short nap, which NASA research suggests makes employees 35% more productive. Now that you work from home, your bed is just 15 feet away! You no longer have a commute, so put that time towards your new morning meditation. You can sing along with your music to keep your energy up (if your spouse doesn’t kill you).
Here are nine tips for how to thriving AND keeping our shit together while working from home:
Move your body! It’s important to not just sit in your chair on Zoom meetings all day long. Moving your body is one of the most important things you can do to keep your energy up and to shift you out of fear or stress (which also hurts your immune system).
MOVE your body at least every hour and encourage others in your team to do it with you
Take a stretch break
Do walk-and-talks on your phone
Take advantage of all the free yoga and workout videos online
2. It’s essential to have intense focus AND recovery periods. Only having intense focus periods makes you less productive and more likely to burnout or get stuck in endless Facebook scrolls.
Shut off your Slack/Email/Social Media/Anything with a notification during your deep work periods. Once you get distracted, it takes an average of 23 minutes to get back to your original task.
Set a Pomodoro timer for 50 minutes and then take a 10 minute, non-internet related BREAK.
On your break, read, dance, meditate, nap, pet a puppy, or go for a walk.
Print a list of things you can do on your break, so you don’t get sucked into the news.
If emotions come up, allow yourself time to fully feel them, so they don’t get stuck and come out in random ways. Breathe into what you’re feeling and make a sound and gesture that expresses it.
3. Limit the amount of news and social media you consume #ComputerDistancing. You don’t need to check the news more than once or twice a day for 5 minutes to stay informed. I know it sounds way easier than it is. That’s because your brain gets addicted to the stress hormones.
Start a text or Slack group of other coworkers or friends that want to build good work from home habits and have everyone share what their “red flag behavior is.
Use the digital well-being timers that now come with your phone
Delete the news and social media apps
Download or a social media/news blocking tool like Freedom
4. Stay super present in meetings. Multitasking is super tempting when the meeting is on your screen, but it will zap your energy and your focus budget for the rest of your day.
Close your tabs and turn off your notifications
Keep your sound and video on so you keep your self accountable
5. Remember, you are a whole person.
Make sure you have something more than work and zoning out to TV. It’s essential to keep your mind and emotional life healthy at this time. You get to do things for the joy of doing them, not because they’re productive. Play around and discover what brings you energy.
Throw a Zoom party
Take a dance class online
Whip out that cookbook that’s been building up dust.
6. Be a mood shifting wizard
When you feel scared, stuck, or exhausted when you’ve gotten sleep or find yourself in an endless addictive scroll or wondering about the end of the world, SHIFT SOMETHING! You don’t necessarily need a deep therapy session (although these are great too) to shift your mind, which will shift your feelings and emotions, which will then shift the actions you take.
Move your body (can’t stress this one enough). If you’re in your chair, stand up and stretch or do 20 jumping jacks. Have some go-to workouts or yoga videos you can do online bookmark them, so they’re easy to get to.
Reach out to someone! When we’re stuck on something at work, we can often stay there for hours or days when a short 10-minute conversation can give us new ideas and clear us of our funk.
Put on music and sing along — it will instantly lift your mood and help you process stuck energy
Shift how you’re sitting. When we’re hunched over, we feel contracted. Put both your arms up, open your chest, and practice your power pose.
BREATHE into your belly. Try the 4–7–8 breath technique where you breathe in for 4 counts, hold it for 7 counts, and breath out for 8 counts.
Do a guided loving-kindness meditation. Insight Timer and Youtube have great free options. When you find one you like, add it to your resource list.
7. Connect to your values. The values I’m speaking about are the things that make life worth living for you. Here is a link to a great simple worksheet to help you define your core values. We have the choice to go with our default response (shutting down, freaking out), or we can consciously choose how we want to respond and who we want to be for ourselves, our team, and our community.
8. Take your attention off yourself and put it on supporting others. Bonus, when you contribute to others, you get what’s called helpers high. Life becomes more meaningful to you, and you feel good about yourself. You don’t have to leave your house. It can be as simple as calling someone and telling them you’re thinking about them. Check-in with your teammates and see how they are managing with the transition. Offering an ear will likely have a greater impact than providing the latest news article you read. Also, please donate to your local food bank.
9. Create a structure with your family. If you are working from home with kids, you may not be able to work the traditional 9–5 hours, and that is OK. You may need to create shifts with your spouse and communicate your structure with your team. Let your clients know that your kid might pop up in the middle of a call and normalize it. For more resources, check out this post from Better Sessions.