The past few months have changed our daily rhythm of life. The Coronavirus pandemic quarantine and work from home are changing the world we are used to at lightning speed. Find out how to balance life, work from home, and health.
It has been proven that any changes, even positive ones, always cause stress and a feeling of fear, not to mention the changes caused by crisis and pandemic.
Quarantine And Work From Home
Our brains need time to adapt to new conditions, and each adaptation process takes place according to an individual scenario. Besides, at the same time, we must continue to work, carry out business and household chores, find time for the partners, children, parents, online dating, and best hookup sites review. Feelings of loneliness caused by social isolation can also bring psychological distress.
How to balance quarantine and work from home stress, and why is work-life balance important? To make your time spent in quarantine and forced isolation easier, we have compiled a selection of work-life balance definitions and tips to help you adapt to new conditions, stay effective and maintain balance in your personal life. Stay tuned to learn all the answers to your questions.
8 Tips For Improving Your Work From Home Process
So you are quarantined and working from home. For some people, remote work via online and mobile communications is normal and familiar. For others, it is a completely unfamiliar form. How to properly organize methodical work from home?
1.) Take A Look From The Bright Side
Consider working from home as something enjoyable that humanity has invented. Already, 45% of people in the millennial generation prefer remote careers with the best work-life balance to the classic work system.
74% of employees working from home express a high level of satisfaction with their work organization. No need to spend hours driving, no need to wait while someone is driving in a traffic jam to be late for a meeting, no need to run to a cafe for lunch.
Eat homemade food, or finally, order pizza. During the break, you can play with your child or take a nap. Is the child sick? No need to take sick leave, ask for time off, reschedule appointments. Just take care of your loved ones, and don’t worry.
2.) Communicate With Colleagues And Partners And Stay Accessible
Be available during working hours via Skype or Zoom, email, and mobile. Hold regular online meetings with related calendar entries.
3.) Be In Touch With Your Boss
He or she is not only the contact person who assigns tasks. It is also a person with whom you can discuss your current situation or problems that may arise in your new work environment.
4.) Teamwork – It Also Works Online
The best companies for work-life balance perform communication of employees regularly and exchange information, also informally.
Face-to-face video communication is better than exchanging information in writing only and often helps to avoid a lot of misunderstandings.
5.) Planning
When you work from home, work and personal life can interfere with each other. A clear daily routine helps. Plan fixed hours for work and free time for yourself.
When planning, keep in mind that workflows can be more complex and require more effort when working from home instead of in the office.
6.) The Red Flag Rule
When working from home, it can be very important to rest and focus without being distracted by household chores and questions from children and loved ones. Try the “red flag” rule – let a certain object (cup, flowerpot, toy, etc.) stand on your desktop and symbolize that at this time, you should not be disturbed.
Agree with loved ones so that they do not distract you with conversations, providing an opportunity to work quietly if they see a “red flag”. This will benefit everyone and will help preserve a lot of nerve cells.
7.) Personal Responsibility And Self-Sufficiency
Through the widespread shift to remote work, information flows can be complicated. Be proactive in receiving information! Know when to stop – remember your planned time for work and rest, and stick to it.
8.) Take Breaks
Remember to take regular pauses and breaks (take a breath of fresh air, move around, do some exercise). Also, plan your lunch break properly to fit it into your family lunchtime and spend a moment together.
Practical Tips For Work-Life Balance
Planning your day clearly and setting realistic goals has a beneficial effect on psychological well-being. If you have no work-life balance, a life balance sheet will help you cope with this. What your wish list would look like if you have the time?
- Maybe now is finally the time to read those books that have not yet been read and are waiting on the table by your bed? Or can you fulfill what you have long desired and finally reorganize your wardrobe?
- Family and friends are important – especially now! Stay in touch by phone, social media, Skype, or Zoom online meetings.
- Physical activity will help keep your spirits up. Exercises can be done in a small space too! Outdoor games are interesting for children and can help drive excess energy in the right direction). Or you can start training online, choose what you like – how about yoga, stretching, or even dancing?
- Try some relaxation exercises if you’re stressed, consider visiting some places like Miraval life in balance spa. Even if you’re new to it, many relaxation techniques are easy to learn. You can also find a lot of information, books, online courses, and video tutorials on the Internet.
- Embrace your feelings! Being involuntarily quarantined without leaving your home can cause very different emotional states. And these feelings are a normal reaction in this abnormal situation. Think critically. The information space, especially now, is full of incorrect data and obvious fakes.
- Use only reliable official sources to get truthful and real information. And, of course, your therapist/family doctor should also be a trusted source of information.
Get Some Personal Space
Perhaps, the most difficult test for many may not even be anxiety, but forced isolation within four walls with the dearest and close people.
Everyone had probably already heard that in Chinese cities where a monthly quarantine was preceded, the number of divorces had increased dramatically. It is not surprising. If there were problems and disagreements in the family, then being together 24/7 only worsened them.
Therefore, each family member must have their place to relax, their workplace, their cup. That is a sacred space or a thing that can only be considered special for you. It can be arranged even if you live in a loft apartment.
Separate in different rooms and corners to preserve each other’s personal space, to allow relaxing and getting bored, and in the evening, meet again in the kitchen and have dinner together.
The Bottom Line
Psychologists identify the biggest plus of working from home: aligning the work-personal life balance. You should not dwell on difficulties and problems. It is better to perceive this as an opportunity for professional and personal growth and development, new hobbies, given the huge number of distance courses available to each of us now.
We hope that our work-life balance examples will help you find stability between your personal life and work from home during the quarantine. We wish you strong emotional and physical health!
How long have you been working from home? How has quarantine and work from home treated you? Did you work like this before the Coronavirus? What is your work-life balance program? Do you find time for your personal life? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
Rebecca Shinn is a freelance writer and dating and relationship expert with a Psychology degree. Her field of expertise is relationship, dating, and marriage. The important part of Rebecca’s practice is to help couples with communication skills, problem-solving skills, stress management, or finance skills.
