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Start your relaxed day at home with your favorite coffee mug in hand, in sweatpants, unshaven or without make-up – sounds tempting, doesn’t it? No stressful commute to work on congested streets or in crowded lanes. Working from home can have many advantages. At the same time, however, some stress traps are lurking in your own four walls. Overtime, difficulties switching off, family conflicts, little time for themselves – these are common stressors that are observed in various studies from work research among employees in the home office.
Especially if you are not used to working in the home office for a long time. This can happen quickly. But what now, since you have no other choice? If you take a few precautions and come up with a few strategies on how you can still separate your professional and private lives, you have a good chance of a relaxed home office time. Even if you are an experienced “home worker”, there are definitely some ideas or ideas on how you can make working in your own home even more stress-free.
THE RIGHT PLANNING FOR YOUR HOME OFFICE
We now introduce you to the most important strategies. All tips have one thing in common: only if you plan these strategies in good time can they prevent you from falling into the stress trap at the crucial moment.
RITUALS FOR A SUCCESSFUL WORK-LIFE TRANSITION
Why?
The lack of spatial distance makes a clear separation of work and leisure much more difficult. The world of work mixes more with private life. Often, there are also restrictions in your free time. Not only because people usually work longer than in the office, but also because mental switching doesn’t work at the push of a button. So that the work-life balance does not get completely out of joint, a successful work-life transition is required!
Was tun?
The first recommendation, if possible, is to have one separate room or at least set up a reasonably separate area for work. You will see: this measure alone will help you to switch between the two areas of life better. Of course, you should then leave this place during breaks and for all private matters. The effect of so-called Work-life transition rituals. They serve to make the transition from work phases to leisure phases very consciously and clearly. With this you give your mental control center the signal to switch on and switch off. The more you do this ritual right after you finish work, the better it works.
Which ritual is suitable to flip the switch? Find something to suit your taste! It is only important that you try to conclude deliberately with work topics in your ritual.
Here some examples:
- Take three deep breaths when you shut down your PC
- a short shoulder-neck-yoga-session
- run around the block once
- hear a certain song
- change clothes
- ….
There are no limits to creativity.
PROTECTIVE BUBBLES AND ME TIMES
Why?
Have you noticed that it is more difficult to stop in the home office if a task has not yet been completed? According to studies, “home workers” often fail to keep their regular working hours. Breaks are also often forgotten or are much shorter. Overtime and exhaustion are inevitable. Especially when family obligations come into play, there is no time for yourself and for refueling the energy storage. Is “self-care” a priority for you too?
What to do?
We recommend that you make little adjustments to ensure healthy energy management in your home office:
1. SET YOURSELF FIXED WORKING HOURS AND PLAN BREAKS!
These tricks will help you:
- Enter the working and break times in the calendar and be reminded by a beep.
- Design the breaks consciously. For example, you can schedule a phone call with colleagues or friends during lunch. Or also for the classic coffee break in the afternoon. If you prefer to have your rest, a short one is also suitable Round of movement optimal.
- Also think of the short mini breaks! Because we now know that human performance follows a high-low rhythm, in which full performance and concentration is only possible for a maximum of 90 to 120 minutes. Then your body and mind long for relaxation. If you suppress the signals (such as yawning, hunger, inner restlessness, difficulty concentrating, urge to move), you reduce your productivity, work more slowly and make mistakes! TIP: Get the mini break planner right here. Works ideally as a reminder, for example as a desktop background or in printed form next to the PC
2. SET UP SPECIFIC “ME TIMES” AND “WE TIMES”!
How do you spend the time you normally need to get to work when you work from home? These periods are ideal free spaces if you use them accordingly.
- Plan a “me time” every day in which you are unreachable for everyone else – even if it is only 20 minutes! If your children make planning difficult, you have to react flexibly when they are busy. How will you use this “me time” for yourself? (TIP: Surfing the Internet and following news is not a particularly well-used “me time”)
- If the usual meeting with the sports group, choir colleagues or similar leisure routines fails, there is still the opportunity to spend time together – albeit in digital form.
CLEAR AGREEMENTS
Working together in a team is not exactly easier when all colleagues are in different locations and meetings are only carried out digitally. Sometimes this leads to the feeling of always being available and causes uncertainty. If you communicate your accessibility as well as your “protection bubbles” and break times transparently, you benefit in three ways:
- Prevention of misunderstandings
- No guilty conscience if you are unavailable to colleagues at certain times
- Colleagues, customers or business partners do not interfere during your break and after work.
You may also need a clear agreement with yourself, such as a “no-mobile-zone rule” for company cell phones in the dining / living room.
CHECKLIST: THE BIGGEST STRESS CASES IN THE HOME OFFICE
- Sitting on the laptop during meals
- Skip breaks (including coffee breaks)
- Music or TV in the background
- Undefined working hours
- Missing breaks
- Smooth transition from work to private life without rituals
- Constant accessibility
- The company phone is always within reach
Bibliography
- https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/publications/report/2017/working-anytime-anywhere-the-effects-on-the-world-of-work
- https://www.boeckler.de/pdf/p_wsi_report_47_2019.pdf
- Die IAS-Studie: Die Deutsche Wirtschaft und die Digitalisierung | Gesundheitsmonitor der Bertelsmann- Stiftung (2016)
- Flexibilisierung, Erreichbarkeit und Entgrenzung in der Arbeitswelt (FLEXA) | Bayerisches Landesamt für Gesundheit und Lebensmittelsicherheit (2015)
