Work from Home - Emotional Wellbeing Strategies
You know the feeling of not knowing where time went, a sense of dread about missing a Zoom Meeting, spotting your kid menacingly moving towards you during a Sales call, and the “sorry I was on mute” phase of every meeting online.
We have all seen this movie. We have been in this movie. Actually, we are the stars of this movie.
It usually opens like this.
You’re alone at home, on an important conference call. Just as it’s your turn to speak, the doorbell rings, sending your dog into a barking fit. As you fumble with your presentation and pray for the unwanted visitor to go away, your mother calls your phone, probably to check whether you’ve had dinner. The fact is, you’ve been too busyto even think about dinner. Now, your growling stomach joins the riotous orchestra all around you.
You get the drift. This is OK if it was once in a while. It’s unfortunately, ground hog day.
The only saving grace is that we all can bear this in pajamas or shorts.
Mandatory Work-From-Home rules have introduced us to all kinds of distractions and concentration sappers. From severe back pains caused by uncomfortable chairs to the constant seduction of Netflix, we’re surrounded by numerous obstacles to focused, productive output. The fact is, our homes are not naturally optimized for office work. Space constraints, chores, visitors and WiFi glitches can and do come in the way of single-minded focus. And since your colleagues also face similar issues, you may find work slowing to a sluggish pace. To counter these irritants, you work harder and longer, erasing the boundaries between your professional and personal life. But looming in the back of your mind, is the stress of the economic slowdown and a pandemic with no clear end in sight. No wonder home-bound workers are spending more time working, but still feeling less satisfied and productive overall!
Fortunately, many experienced work-from-homers from pre-covid era have found ways to circumvent a large number of these obstacles and get things done without feeling anxious or frustrated. If you’ve recently started working from home, some of their hacks could really help you in this phase and in the post-covid era.
This guide is designed to help us all – Employees, Managers and Leaders build emotional well-being strategies while we navigate the new normal work culture.
Hope you enjoy reading it.