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Healthy Working From Home: Part 2

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If you work from home, your friends have likely told you how lucky you are, or how they wish they could work at home too. Their minds immediately go to the benefits of working from home. They overlook the challenges of working remotely.

In the first part of this blog series, I wrote how remote workers can maintain good physical health by making a plan to avoid bad, unhealthy habits. However, in order to stick to any plan, a person needs to be mentally strong and disciplined. And as with your physical health, there are certain bad habits to avoid in order to maintain mental fitness.

Please Note: the following advice does not attempt to resolve, minimize, or otherwise simplify the seriousness and complexity of mental health disorders.

Bad Habits That Affect Your Mental Fitness

 

You’re Not Sleeping Well

This bad habit could very easily be discussed with physical health because it is foundational to your overall health. However, poor sleep can often be the first domino that falls in a series of bad habits that affect your mental fitness. Not getting enough quality sleep negatively impacts your judgement, mood, and memory. Poor performance in these areas can lead to further negative outcomes–physical health being one of them.

So any discussion of improving your mental fitness while working at home must begin with establishing a prerequisite for good sleep. The National Sleep Foundation quantifies that as 7 to 9 hours per night for most adults. Seems easy enough, but why is this a challenge for remote workers?

The late weeknight has many temptations: television, page-turning books, social media…a few drinks with friends. These are possible temptations for all workers, but there are little justifying thoughts that can pop into the head of a remote worker: “I’m working from home tomorrow. I don’t need to get ready for work. I don’t need to drive to work. I can sleep in a little. I can stay up a bit later.”

Five episodes of Game of Thrones later, you’re finally getting to bed at 1:00 AM. You plan to get 7 hours, but you’ll wake up at 6:45 AM, unable to get back to sleep. So you put the coffee on and start your day.

There’s no getting that sleep back, even with a midday nap. Your day is off to a bad start and you haven’t even started working. This provides the mindset for a host of bad habits to follow–some that are listed below or covered in part one.

Your Solution: Set a bedtime that provides for enough hours of quality sleep. And go to bed on time! To help yourself in this task:

  • Move to your bedroom at least 30 minutes before you plan to fall asleep.
  • Use that time to read, meditate, sudoku, crossword puzzle, or talk to a loved one, but NO screens (phones, tablets, TV’s, etc.)
  • Ensure that you have a completely dark and quiet room–blackout blinds, non-visible alarm clock, and a white noise machine will all help with this.

You’re Not Focusing

It’s hard to focus on a task when you’re tired, but there are other things that can cause you to lose focus as well. Stress–internal stress and external stress–can cause your mind to wander while you’re working anywhere, but at home it can become more prominent.

Internal Stress

When most people hear the word “stress,” they think of internal stress–worry, anxiety, dread. Often times internal stress is the result of outside factors associated with work, interpersonal relationships, or other ongoing responsibilities and commitments. It’s these factors that initiate the stress, but then it continues to exist in your mind.

When working from home, internal stress can often be exacerbated. Work stress is higher when communication with coworkers is weak or inefficient. Interpersonal relationships may be strained if family members fail to respect your home/work boundaries. And then there is the constant temptation to attend to house chores that you’ve been putting off–laundry, vacuuming, lawn care…that DIY project.

External Stress

External stresses are short-lived and immediate, though they may occur frequently. These are almost always a result of the environment and affect one of your five senses. They may also be a factor that contributes to internal stress.

If you’ve ever been dutifully working from home, only to be interrupted by the sound of your neighbor cutting grass, then you’ve been affected by external stress. That interruption might, in turn, remind you of the need to cut your own grass (internal stress), which you can’t do tonight because your child has a soccer game (more internal stress)…suddenly you’ve lost focus!

Your Solution: As best you can, make an effort to control your work environment and structure your schedule. One of the great benefits of working remotely is the ability to enjoy the coziness of your home. However, this should not be confused with working anywhere within your home at anytime. Set boundaries with the following tips:

  • Print out your work schedule and share it with your family members and overly neighborly neighbors. Let them know that you cannot be distracted when working.
  • Create a quiet, clean space with a quality desk and chair, free from distractions, to help you maintain focus on your work and keep external stresses at bay.
  • Lean on the side of over-communicating via email with co-workers. For particularly complex or important discussions that must take place while you are at home, call or use video chat.
  • Structure your free time wisely. Sometimes working at home makes you feel like you’re always on the clock. It can be difficult to transition from working for your employer to working for yourself, but by using your free time wisely to take care of household chores and personal commitments, you can lower internal stress while working from home.

You’re Not Engaging With Coworkers

Good communication with coworkers is important for productivity and to reduce stress when working from home, but it also serves another purpose when working at an office. Communication helps coworkers engage with one another through the sharing of experiences. This sharing can easily be threatened when a team is working from home.

We all know about the dangers of working from your email, or allowing email to manage your work schedule. Because of this, recipients often prioritize the emails they receive, and senders streamline the emails they send (no one wants to be the annoying emailer). Although these strategies help keep the focus on work, they also reduce the opportunities to share.

When working from home, there is no water cooler or break room for small talk. You really have to go out of your way to engage with coworkers, and it may seem forced or unnatural. The physical space between you and your co-workers may even make you feel that engaging in small talk while “on the clock” is somehow wrong.

Your Solution: Team bonding is difficult for remote workers, especially if they are working from home full-time. To a large degree, a team’s ability to overcome this really depends on their personalities. But organizations can facilitate bonding by creating a structure that provides opportunities for sharing. A few ideas for this include:

  • Schedule at least one day per week when the entire staff works from the office.
  • When a physical office is not available, have a weekly department meetup for remote workers at a coffee shop, co-working space, or library. Or have a team member host at their house!
  • Require staff to share a short, weekly “non-business” update with the team on Mondays. This could be a weekly “How was your weekend?” email chain.
  • Conduct remote meetings via skype or another video enabled chat service. Seeing each other’s faces may make you feel closer.
  • Host monthly, low-cost gatherings that are “non-work” such as a happy hour, miniature golf, or bowling.

You’re Not Motivating Yourself

Finally, your mental fitness can really be at risk when you fail to motivate yourself through work. No one wants to work in an office with a manager constantly looking over their shoulder, suffocating them. But the opposite scenario can be equally challenging.

Working from home by yourself can be, at once, both empowering and isolating. This is especially the case when communication or engagement is low or poor. Even for those who are intrinsically motivated, it can take some time to adjust to working remotely. Thankfully, there is no shortage of resources on self-motivation! But first, you have to recognize that your motivation may be lacking.

Your Solution: Take inventory of your current level of motivation.

  • Do you feel that you are accomplishing something meaningful everyday?
  • Are you staying “on task” on a consistent basis?
  • Are you contributing new ideas to the organization?
  • Do you feel that you have grown as a professional over the last 3 months?

The full answers to these questions can tell you a lot…more than just whether or not you are motivated. But what’s most important to know is that you are in control of these answers.

Answering “yes” to these questions will not always be easy. It requires self-motivation, goal setting, and discipline. And answering “no” to these questions cannot be automatically blamed on your employer. An organization can create a structure for you to succeed, but it’s ultimately up to you to get to “yes”–especially when you’re working from home.

Working From Home | Plan Healthy Habits

Sleep, focus, engaging with coworkers, and self-motivation are four key areas of mental fitness that are vital to maintain when working from home. Building strong, healthy habits in these areas can be challenging, especially for those who are transitioning to remote work.

A good strategy is to structure your workday as if you were, in fact, in the office. Arrive and leave at the same time everyday, and schedule breaks consistently. Do everything you can to simulate an office environment in a designated area of your house, and let your family and friends know your schedule–and its importance. To stay motivated, you can write reminder notes of your goals and post them in your workspace.

As you become accustomed to working at home, you can begin to make small adjustments to your schedule, like working on the patio for an hour or taking a trip to the gym over lunch break. This will make it easier to adjust to changes and allow you to enjoy the full benefits of working from home.

 

ExactHire provides paperless hiring software that makes it easier for teams to complete their work from anywhere. Our applicant tracking software and employee onboarding software provide HR teams with the tools they need to communicate and manage hiring processes effectively.

 

 

Healthy Working From Home: Part 1

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Working from home can be a fantastic benefit. You avoid stressful commutes. There’s no need to pack a lunch or get all dressed up. For that matter, you really don’t even need to change out of your pajamas. You can just roll out of bed and get to work.

However, the convenience of working at home can also lead to some convenient bad habits. Those bad habits can negatively affect your physical and mental fitness. Fortunately, you can keep bad habits at bay by anticipating them in advance and developing a plan to avoid them.

Working From Home | Bad Habits That Affect Your Physical Fitness

Most of the time poor fitness is due to poor choices. We all have the opportunity each day to make positive or negative choices for our health. While the choices available to some will vary, the following are the ones that I have encountered as I’ve worked remotely at home.

You’re Not Moving

Your home is comfortable. Your bathroom and fridge are nearby. You have a dedicated office space. Everything is at your fingertips. All of this helps you complete your work efficiently at home. However your super work efficiency can also translate into inefficient physical fitness.

I occasionally use a FitBit to track my movement at home. On some days, I log only 700 steps. Those are bad days. My back becomes stiff. My eyes are strained. And I’m exhausted at the end of my day–even though, physically, I’ve done very little.

To address this challenge, I schedule “active breaks” throughout my day that accompany other required movements. Here’s an example:

  • Bathroom break? Complete ten push-ups as I return to my office.
  • Just completed a task on my checklist? My reward is 10 “mountain climbers”.
  • Thirsty? Do some light stretching and arm rolls.

These active breaks–for the most part– are quick and easy. Along with these active breaks, I plan more intense exercise at the beginning and middle of my day.

  • Breakfast? Walk 15 minutes around the neighborhood.
  • Lunch? Run 2-3 miles, or spend 45 minutes in the gym.

Scheduling workouts for the morning and mid-day provide you with energy for the few hours that follow and allow you to relax at the end of your day–no pressure to go to a crowded gym after work, you earned some couch time.

You’re Not Clean

As mentioned before, working from home makes it tempting to avoid “getting ready for work”. It’s just you in that house, so who cares whether you shower, change your clothes, brush your teeth, or otherwise attend to your hygiene?

Well, you should care. Good hygiene is important not just for how people see and perceive you, but for how you see and perceive yourself. And although you might not face the results (or embarrassment) of poor hygiene on one particular day at home, those days will add up.

Fortunately, avoiding this bad habit is pretty straightforward. Just get ready for work in the morning as if you are going into the office. This means getting up, showering, dressing, and “leaving the house” at the same time each day. I like to listen to the radio for 15 – 20 minutes before “leaving” and “arriving” at work.

You’re Not Eating Well

This kind of goes along with bad hygiene. When you’re at home, you have a lot of freedom and privacy to structure your time however you like. This is a good thing when used wisely, however it can very easily become a health liability.

For instance, working from home affords you the opportunity to prepare and eat whatever you want. There are no challenges associated with packing, refrigerating or reheating your meals. You can cook up a strong smelling meal and eat at your desk without fearing the ire of your coworkers. However, this freedom may also open the door for some bad habits like:

  • Skipping Meals: While you might view this as being more productive, becoming overly focused or immersed in your work and forgetting to eat can drain you of energy. You may be working more, but the quality of your work–both the product and your experience–will be poor.
  • Bad Snacking: Failing to set aside time to eat well, and instead snacking throughout the day, can  be dangerous. A bag of tortilla chips can disappear over the course of an afternoon, and man (or woman) cannot live on tortilla chips alone. Healthy snacks between meals are fine, but they shouldn’t substitute for well-balanced meals that power you through the day.

It’s tempting to avoid structured breaks for breakfast and lunch, but by respecting and planning for mealtimes you will bring more energy and focus to your work.

You’re Not Sitting Correctly

That couch looks comfortable. Real comfortable. You could probably lay down on it, place your laptop on your stomach, and…STOP!

Your eyes will be too far from the screen, forcing you to lean forward, which will likely result in a rounded back and hunched shoulders. Or the screen will be too close, scarring your retinas, forcing you to bend your neck, arms, and wrists in a weird way. All of that nonsense is a recipe for pain and discomfort. Not to mention, your laptop will be gasping for air as it burns your stomach. Couches are meant for lounging, not working.

Office furniture has come a long way. Most chairs have several adjustment options and boast “enhanced ergonomic designs.” Although these aren’t cheap, or as comfortable as lounging on that inviting couch, investing in one will save you aches and pains in your back, neck, shoulders, eyes…basically your whole body.

Not only do armchairs, couches, and patio chairs lack the proper support for your work, they put you in the wrong mindset for work. Mixing a recreational space with a workspace introduces the temptation to relax and indulge when you should be focused on your work. So the way you choose to sit (or stand) can affect a lot more than just your comfort; it can negatively influence your entire work experience.

Working From Home | Plan Healthy Habits

Exercise, hygiene, diet, and posture are four key areas of physical health that you must maintain when working at home. Unfortunately, the comforts that are inherent in your home can make it tempting to neglect your physical health. In this sense, some of the benefits that come with working at home can actually be liabilities.

To resist the temptations that lead to bad habits and poor health, it helps to set goals for health and work, and then structure your workday accordingly. This can be done using an app such as “Balanced”–which has tons of capabilities–or simply use your current calendar program to schedule your health activities. Regardless of how you approach your planning, it’s important to document and track it as you begin. Bad habits are hard to break, and good habits take time and accountability to develop.

 

ExactHire provides paperless hiring software that makes it easier for teams to complete their work from anywhere. Our applicant tracking software and employee onboarding software provide HR teams with the tools they need to communicate and manage hiring processes effectively.

 

 

Working From Home

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Most Americans wake up, take a shower, get dressed, eat breakfast, pack lunches, drop off the kids, drive to work, work, eat lunch, work some more, drive home and pick up the kids every day. The rat-race, Groundhog Day, déjà vu…. whatever you call it — it can be a drag. And if the employee is dragging, his/her work most likely is too. In this modern day and age, telecommuting is becoming a major benefit to employees and employers. Since the vast majority of the workforce is already using technology and SaaS (software as a service) programs, it is easy to transfer the daily workflow into the home office environment.

Gone are the days of loathing traffic every day! You can even work in pajamas!

You can mow the grass, go swimming, buy groceries, clean the house, or any other number of activities on your lunch break. Some practical benefits include reduced transportation costs, elimination of travel time, and comfortable clothing. These simple pleasures are translating into employees working longer hours, enjoying that work more, reducing personal stress-levels, and increasing productivity. To the dismay of some traditional thinkers, employees will work without micro-management. They might even work better that way.

Rush-Hour Relief

It is common to lose an hour or more each day during the commute to and from work. After an hour of public transit or driving alongside a myriad of road-rage, close-calls, and stop-and-go traffic the average employee can be grumpy or worn-out by 8AM. The employee has been up for hours without producing any work yet. On the other hand, an employee that telecommutes merely rolls out of bed and opens a laptop while brewing that first cup of coffee. Emails can be read in leisure while awakening the body and brain for a great day of working from home.

Balance

Job satisfaction is much higher when the employee has some control over the environment and daily schedule.  Working from home can make the joys of juggling children, a relationship, and work a lot easier.  Doctor appointments? Kids have school/ activity obligations? Need to get dinner started early? Somehow, these tasks are a lot easier to accommodate when you are operating from your home. Telecommuting is a wonderful way to ease the responsibilities of adulthood. However, going into the office two – three days a week can really improve the general office demeanor. Most of us like some personal interaction with our co-workers, at least when we aren’t missing our child’s game just to ‘show face’ at work. Workers are happy to get into the office and see their co-workers, maybe go out to lunch or meet up after work. And the office can be fun, especially on those days when Martha brings homemade cookies or Katie brings her famous lemonade. Balance can be just as important for the workplace as it is for the home life.

Technology

Smart phones, tablets, 3-D movies, touch-screens, and a little thing called the internet have all made our personal lives better. Businesses are also benefiting from the new technologies that are available today. Companies that utilize cloud-based data centers and SaaS applications are saving money on hardware and equipment. At the same time, these types of technologies allow employees to save time and money by working from home.

ExactHire provides SaaS recruiting and employee onboarding applications. For more information, please visit our resources section or contact us today.

Image credit: MySpace by Risager (contact)

Umm…I Can’t Come to the Office Because of the #Polarvortex

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A snow day! The best words of winter to anyone under the age of 18… and often 21. Here in Indiana we’ve been impacted by the “polar vortex.” The winter witch dropped over 14 inches of snow within 24 hours. While it created incredible sights and terrific workouts (shoveling snow), we were all stuck in our homes for days.

Think of all the great things you could do! Wash all of the bed sheets, mop the floors, reorganize the home office, get a headstart on that New Year’s resolution of exercise. Sounds lovely, huh? Based off of my Facebook news feed, however, I believe most of my friends actually have messier houses, have eaten everything in sight, and several can’t stand to be trapped with their loved ones in a house for a few days.

Similar to my friends, I did not have an opportunity to tackle all of those great things (aka household chores) I mentioned earlier because I was busy having one of the most productive work weeks I’ve had in a very long time. That’s right, no snow day here; it was business as usual.

The Wonders of SaaS During Snow

Just because it’s snowy where I am, doesn’t mean it’s snowy where my clients are located. As long as we have electricity and internet, we can keep the doors open for business. We often talk about how our ExactHire technology solutions are SaaS products. Software as a Service, or SaaS, applications can be accessed anywhere you have an internet connection. Forgot your laptop at work before the snowstorm? No worries…grab your personal laptop or tablet and access the software via the internet.

Because many people are confined to their home during these snowy days, I noticed an uptick in the amount of jobs being posted. Way to go administrative applicant tracking system users! Good job on working through the “distraction” of snow, and children, and anything else staring you down during your time at home. I also noticed an increase in the number of people applying for jobs.

Clearly we cannot tell, too far in advance, when the weather will give us such a large amount of snow, but we can file this bit of information away for later this winter or next winter. If people are snowed in, it’s worth your time to share your posted jobs to social networks – LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

If you’re not currently using a SaaS product for your hiring process, I would recommend checking out our selection of applicant tracking and employee onboarding software options by visiting our resources section or contacting us for further information. If you are already on board, I hope your snow day was productive.

Keep warm everyone!