Remember that sleep and exercise can help alleviate anxiety and stress and boost immunity. This is a particular concern in light of the current pandemic. While short-term stress can boost the immune system and help us achieve peak performance, over the longer term a lack of recovery opportunities can impair our mental health make us more vulnerable to infectious disease. When setting boundaries remember that adequate time for recovery is essential to ensure mental and physical wellbeing and optimum job performance.ĭowntime is essential for long term health and job performance and people who neglect their own needs are likely to burn out. You may need to be creative – work in short bursts and be prepared to change your routine. Regular disturbances will mean that you will get little done, so agree times that you will make yourself available. Thirdly, there may be a conflict between work and other roles, such as childcare. Secondly, be aware that people working from home often feel they need to gain the trust and approval of managers and may put in longer hours to overcompensate – this will be unnecessary. When working with others remotely it is important to manage people’s expectations of your availability. Firstly, people may find themselves working late into the night, at weekends and during holiday periods to accommodate the competing demands of work and domestic responsibilities. Working from home, however, generally offers more flexibility, enabling people to accommodate their individual needs and preferences. It is important to recognise the downside of flexibility though. Keeping regular working hours will help you maintain routine and communicate with others online. ![]() Most importantly, recognise that these are extraordinary circumstances and that it is OK if things do not go according to plan. Keeping a list of tasks that you have done each day will also help you reflect on your achievements rather than what you haven’t accomplished. Be careful about making ambitious ‘to do’ lists, as you may have little control over what can be accomplished as your working conditions may be very different to what you are used to. To boost motivation and feel more productive, you could set daily and weekly objectives and outputs that you wish to achieve. ![]() It is nonetheless important to accept that you may be unable to get as much work done initially as your access to necessary equipment, systems and information may be limited. Over the longer term, you may well be more productive as you will not be commuting or caught up in ‘unnecessary’ meetings. Health information and advice from the government and your employer is continually changing. ![]() Managing our expectations of ourselves and others in terms of the amount of work we can do is also crucial. If possible, get out at least once a day in the fresh air. Move away from your screen - make a cup of tea, go up and down the stairs or do some stretches. Take regular breaks from your workstation as you would do in the workplace (at least every 20 minutes or so). If you are sharing your workspace with others, remember that your working practices and preferences may differ, so it is important to agree some rules for co-working, such as managing timing, disruptions and tidiness. Make sure that your workspace is properly adjusted to avoid musculoskeletal problems. If possible, try not to work in your bedroom. A spare room or dedicated work area would be ideal, but this obviously depends on the available space in your home. It is important to find somewhere comfortable and quiet to work. Drawing on the research evidence, some ways to support the wellbeing of workers during this time of uncertainty are set out below: Balancing the demands of work with meeting the needs of children who are now also off school and caring for older relatives, or close friends and neighbours who are self-isolating pose additional challenges. Research findings also show, however, that it is not always beneficial and may even be damaging to health and personal functioning, especially under current conditions where workers may feel unprepared for such a sudden and major change to their working lives. The good news is that working from home can improve wellbeing, enhance work-life balance and boost productivity. Recent steps taken to control the spread of the COVID-19 virus means that many more people will be working from home for the foreseeable future. Guest blog by Professor Gail Kinman and Dr Kevin Teoh
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