Reducing Work From Home Burnout

Since March 2020, most of the working population to a great extent have been forced to work from home(WFH). For some, initially, this WFH felt like a relaxed setting to work rather than the long commute, traffic, and associated stress.

While the WFH necessity brought in a lot of benefits, it also has caused a lot of anxiety and stress to our life in general. Common observations I have heard from people:

• There is no real differentiation between work time and home time, whereas pre-pandemic you knew that when you came back from work, you were technically done even if you attended some meetings or tasks at night.
• Your usual way of getting collaborative work went digital, where now you had to wait for people to be available to chat, whereas previously you could walk to the person’s desk and have a quick chat.
• Water Cooler chats and banter went down drastically because of WFH.
• And many more that people have shared in various forums

Essentially, longer hours of work, if not properly managed, in this pandemic environment, will lead to more stress, anxiety, and finally burnout!

I have seen enough cases of that and the impacts are evident and visible.

So what can you do?

• If your job has you working on the computer for long, take breaks and walk around. Perhaps, have a total steps count for the day and make it a target-driven break.
• Have a start time and end time for work. Block out your calendar so people know when you are not available for a meeting. For example, I start around 9 am till 5 pm and from 5 pm to 8 pm my calendar is blocked that people can not use it for meetings with me. I use it for my personal nourishment — be it reading, walking, or just relaxing! Now, this is hard to follow but it helps people who work with colleagues in different time zones. I do allocate night time for work and shut off by 11 pm. All of them are blocked in my calendar. At the end of the day, people can wait, family and health cannot.
• If you are consumed by work all day, make it a point or excuse to get out of the house on the pretext of errands. I have felt that when I don’t do that, I feel a bit annoyed by night and it shows in my work. Errands outside definitely help.
• Another habit that helps is to have food breaks marked in your calendar. Eating on time is critical.
• If your second part of the day is when there is more work, take a power nap(20–30 mins) after your lunch. It makes a big difference to your work momentum and your focus during the second half of the day.

Obviously, I have not included general health habits here like workouts and other activities, because that should already be there if you are a health-conscious person.

What you need to constantly review is, are you slipping away and getting bogged with work. If yes, see what you can add to reduce the impact on your health.

Are there any other habits or routines you have that make you more effective? Do let me know!