Despite the fact that we are at home more than ever, spending more time with our loved ones than ever before and have loads of free time, most of us feel exhausted every day. Know why? Because remote work has blurred the boundaries between our work life and home life. Let me explain.
Since we are working from home, it is difficult for us to decide when it’s time to stop. The body clock that told us to wrap up things and head to the exit door the moment the clock in our office stuck five in the pre-COVID times has been rebooted. It no longer knows when it’s time to say goodbye to the work for the day.
As a result, even though we are saving time which we previously spent in commute or innumerable other chores that required us to step foot outside of our home, we are still exhausted. That’s why in this article I’m going to give you two tips using which you can avoid burnout while working from home.
#1: Schedule intervals or breaks between meetings
Now that our home is our workspace and our workspace is hour home, intervals are crucial than ever. None of us have the energy or the stamina to attend another three hour meeting at 1 p.m. after the previous three hour meeting ended at 1 p.m.
Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn has acknowledged this fact by stating that when we schedule back to back meetings, we feel as if our day isn’t our own. He admitted that aside from being not fun, such a schedule is simply not sustainable.
Consequently, if you haven’t been able to use that electrostatic disinfectant sprayer that you bought two weeks ago due to back to back meetings, create buffers. Make it a priority that after attending one meeting, you won’t be attending another for at least half an hour.
You can then use the break to do things that you live. You can exploit it to catch your breath, get in touched with a loved one, use corona cleaners or get some sun. Anything that would help you get back to your best would do.
#2: Follow ‘normal’ routine
Remember those days when the word ‘corona’ was alien to your memory? How you took the first cup of coffee, put on work clothes and got into ‘work mode’? Well, as it turns out, those rituals were more important to our lives than we care to admit.
One of those rituals, where we started staring at the exit door as we approached the end of our work day, should be retained as we are working from home. That’s because it’s so easy to over-work when you are working remotely.
Aside from calling it a day at your normal time, don’t set aside the lunchtime walk which you enjoyed back when offices were still the norm. All those rituals will keep you sane in these times.