How to Manage Stress While Working From Home?

Due to the pandemic, the working culture across the world has changed drastically. People’s working culture has now shifted from their office desk to their homes. People used to wonder that working from home is not stressful as compared to their office environment but now their fantasy of working from home has proved to be wrong as many are experiencing stress, anxiety, depression, insomnia, and hypertension. 

So now you are working from home which means you are saving your commutation time that leads to long working hours. With the work stress, we all face one more difficulty i.e. adapting to new technologies like dealing with virtual meeting apps like Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Meet, and so on, because of virtual meetings and communication an individual can suffer from depression and anxiety as the personal contact with friends, peer, and office colleagues are lacking here. Working at home with family responsibilities has worsened the situation more and increases the level of stress in a person. 

 

My Story of Stress While Working From Home

Being a fresh law graduate I did an internship with a law firm for 2 months (March-April). I really felt like terminating the internship in-between because I was not able to balance my work life and personal life, I used to work for 10-12 hours sitting in my room for the whole day. Working at home full of people that lead to disturbance and distractions. I suffered from headaches, back pain, neck pain, strained eyes, change in sleeping time, and sudden weight loss due to improper eating time. During this time I felt that the office environment is the best place to work with concentration. 

 

Tips To Manage Stress 

After completing those two stressful months I did some research on how to manage stress while working at home and I came across many tips and hacks to manage stress. You will find these tips very useful and help you to reduce stress while working from home. 

1. Make a workspace for yourself at your home: You need to find a space for yourself at home where you can work peacefully without any distractions and disturbance. Like I converted the storeroom into my workplace where I can now work peacefully without any kind of disturbances like television sound, cooker whistle, people talking on the phone loudly, and so on.
2. A good and comfortable chair and study table for your workspace: A good cushioned study/office chair that supports your back is very important and your sitting posture should be correct. 
3. Take short breaks: You should take frequent breaks after every 1-2 hours of working to relax the mind and body. You can do stretching, deep breathing, listen to music, or go for a short walk. 
4. Stay in connection: Working in a room alone you will start feeling isolated. So to overcome isolation you should stay in connection with your office colleagues, friends, and family with whom you can share your problems so that you don’t feel depressed. 
5. Sleeping patterns: You should have a strict sleeping pattern and try to avoid using a phone or tablet late at night otherwise it will be difficult for you to sleep and you will end up straining your eyes. 

So if you are experiencing stress, anxiety, or depression due to working from home and you are not able to balance your work life and personal life then these tips will work for you to reduce stress and prevent health issues.