
3 Mental Health Tips for Remote Employees
When working remotely, the line between work and home can easily become blurred, which can negatively impact mental health. Workers may experience isolation, loneliness and difficulty getting away from work at the end of the day. Poor mental health can impact work performance and lead to chronic stress and lack of sleep. As such, prioritizing your mental health is essential to decreasing workplace stress and increasing your satisfaction at both work and home.
Remote work has affected how connected employees feel to their colleagues. A OnePoll study revealed:
- 7 in 10 remote workers feel more isolated than when they worked in the office.
- 63% of remote workers feel less engaged with their teams.
Also, nearly one-quarter of remote workers never leave their homes during a typical workday, based on findings from Upright Pose.
All of those points could negatively impact your mental health. To improve your overall happiness, try these three strategies to maintain your mental well-being when working remotely:
- Prioritize your physical health. Walking for at least 30 minutes daily can help boost your mood and improve your physical and mental health. For example, consider stretching, practicing yoga or using an at-home bike. Further, eating healthy and getting enough quality sleep are also key to maintaining good health. When your body is properly fueled and rested, your mental health also benefits.
- Maintain boundaries. Having a designated work space and changing into work clothes when you start the day can help to further separate your work and home lives. Create a routine for your workday and stick to it to help transition in and out of work.
- Connect with others. Intentionally interacting with friends and family is important to ensure you are receiving adequate emotional support. Make time to connect with others throughout the week, whether in person or virtually.
Although you may not work in a physical workplace, remember that you’re not alone. If you have concerns about your mental health, follow up with your manager for mental health resources and services.
How Deep Work Can Help Improve Your Productivity
“Deep work” is a trendy buzzword swirling around the productivity conversation. But what is it? Deep work is someone’s ability to work in a state of peak concentration and focus for an extended period of time without interruption. Fortunately, remote work is ideally positioned for deep work.
Cal Newport, a computer science professor at Georgetown University, coined the term and suggests that one could stop using all forms of communication for 60 to 90 minutes per day to achieve peak productivity.
Deep work differs from shallow work, which includes standard day-to-day tasks such as sending emails, planning meetings and using social media. While some shallow work is necessary, it often leads to people spending much of their day switching tasks and ultimately reduces their ability to perform as effectively as possible.
The advantages of deep work are numerous, but a major one is enhanced productivity. That’s because deep work can help decrease errors and increase your attention span and creativity—boosting your overall job performance.
Like many remote work strategies, deep work requires a conscious effort, and if you don’t create habits to reinforce it, you are unlikely to succeed. To be successful, you need to plan out deep working time, remove potential distractions from your working space and stay disciplined in adhering to your plan. Consider the following tips as you experiment with incorporating deep work into your remote routine:
- Eliminate distractions. If possible, close your email and other lines of communication to ensure you can focus on the task at hand. In order to succeed, try to find a place with minimal distractions. This may be tougher at home or in co-working spaces, but do your best to find a focus-friendly environment.
- Construct a plan. Create a prioritized list of things you need to do to help you stay on track. Rank the items you must complete from high to low priority and set aside time for each task so you are more likely to complete what you need to.
- Time block your sessions. Impose a time limit for each task you work on. Knowing you only have a set amount of time to complete a given task puts you under pressure to concentrate and you are likely to get more done. This can help you better understand how your work time is being spent.
- Measure your deep work. Explore leveraging automatic tools to track the time you spend doing deep work. This will allow you to compare your deep work to your shallow work and better track your productivity habits.
Our brains are drawn to instant gratification, so just get started. If you’re struggling to begin a challenging project or have been putting something off, just start it, and you may be surprised how much easier it is to get into your deep work flow.
Every organization and role are different, so consider how deep work could help you improve your remote productivity. You could also discuss with your manager how to best block time for deep work or incorporate other deep work practices.
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