Working from home: Tips from the team to protect your mental health
It’s now two years since the first national lockdown in the UK, when many of us started to work from home – perhaps for the first time in our lives. It’s certainly a hugely different way of working, especially if we have been used to chats around the photocopier, or popping out for lunch with our colleagues.
For lots of people, working from home has now become the norm, whether that’s full-time or as part of a hybrid working model.
Here at Trauma Treatment International, we’ve been thinking about how we protect our mental health while working from home. And we want to share those ideas with you! Here are our top tips on working from home, based on our own experiences.
Create the working environment that's just right for you. If you’re lucky enough to have a home office, add personal touches. Put prints up on the walls, get yourself a pot plant or two, and frame photographs of your loved ones to make you smile if you’re having a bad day.
Make yourself comfortable. Invest in a good, supportive chair where you’ll be happy to sit for extended periods of time. Make sure your desk is at a good height for you, and use natural light to its best advantage. If you feel comfortable in your surroundings, you’ll be much more productive.
Set a daily routine. If you were used to a half-hour commute when you worked in an office, take 30 minutes at the beginning of the day to take a walk. You could pop to your local bakery for a breakfast treat or just have a stroll around the park to get your head together. Our co-founder Brock also recommends wearing different clothes for work to get you into a different headspace.
Create boundaries between work and home. If you can, create a space in your home that is solely for work, so that when your working day is done you can turn your back on it and return to ‘home mode’. Try to avoid working on a laptop in your living room in the evenings, as this blurs the boundaries and makes you feel like you can never switch off.
Turn any work notifications off in the evening. If your phone is pinging with work-related emails at 9pm, it’s very hard to ignore those until the morning. By turning off the notifications, you’re taking away the temptation to respond out of working hours.
Take regular breaks during the day. When you worked in an office, you might have caught up with your colleague for half an hour while your computer booted up in the morning. Just because you’re now working from home, you don't have to be a slave to your computer from 9am to 5pm. Our clinical psychologist Sarah recommends working for 45 minutes and then taking a 30 minute break. She says that, while it might feel uncomfortable to do so, you’re likely to be much more productive if you let your brain have a rest. Give it a try!
Make nature a part of your day. The fact is, nature makes us feel good. So, whether you choose to head out to your nearest park, or whether you choose to fill your office with plants and flowers, including nature in your day will make it all the nicer. Our comms bod Claire swears by a walk in the forest with her dog Laika to clear her head and help her feel calm.
Make the most of good weather. Try to reap the benefits of the nicer weather now spring is in full bloom. If you normally eat your lunch at your desk or in the kitchen, maybe pack it up and eat al fresco? Feeling the sun on your face is a great way to re-energise for an afternoon’s work.
Enjoy a change of scene if you need one. ‘Working from home’ doesn’t have to mean literally that. If you need a change, why not take your laptop out to a coffee shop or find a shared working hub? Even better, arrange for a friend to meet you there, so you can have a chat while you tick off your to-do list.
Take time for yourself where you can. You want to have a bath in the middle of the day? Go for it! You feel the need for a quick siesta? Why not? More and more organisations now understand that work doesn’t have to be done between 9am and 5pm. So if you want a couple of hours for yourself in the day and then finish your work in the evening, give yourself permission to do just that.
Stick your favourite tunes on. One of the downsides of working in an office is that you have to consider others when it comes to things like music and air conditioning. But, at home, you can do what you like. So if you feel your energy levels slipping, put some music on and have a dance around the kitchen! It certainly works for our projects and partnerships co-ordinator Rhea.
Get some house jobs done in breaks from work. The beauty of working from home is that you don’t have to do all your housework at the end of a long day or at the weekend when you want to relax. Just putting a quick load of laundry on or emptying the dishwasher in between work jobs will mean there’s less for you to do when you clock off.
Connect with your colleagues. As our CEO Quen says, life is made up of relationships, not spreadsheets. Take some time to catch up with a work friend before going through your agenda. Check in with them, ask them how their kids are, see where they’re off to on holiday. Those little moments of human connection can make all the difference.
Make yourself presentable. We all spend a fair amount of time on Zoom and the like now – so avoid staring at yourself in horror during a virtual meeting by giving yourself a quick groom beforehand!
Make nice plans for the weekend. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, so line up something to look forward to when the weekend rolls around. It’ll give you a spring in your step for the next working week.
