Handling office hours stress and managing anxiety has become a new challenge. Especially, during these COVID times. Most of the employees are going through their “work from the home” phase. And this has become a concerning aspect. “Work from home” continuously can be a stressful task and it can be a tough nut to crack to handle office stress. Managing personal life as well as professional life is never easy. Hence, let’s keep this article specific to handling stress and anxiety during this “Work From Home” phase.
If you are an employee or belong to an upper mature lifestyle I am pretty sure you have heard and you are well aware of this work-from-home term. So, instead of wasting time explaining this work from home or WFH term, let’s find out the best and feasible solutions to deal with it properly.
A general office hour constitutes anywhere between 7.5 hours to 9 hours if we compare worldwide data. However, we all have realized that this time has been extended during our work-from-home phase. The reason is very simple: We have mixed our personal and professional life. And due to this extended period, stressful timeframe, more than 65 % of employees have become victims of stress, depression, anxiety, and developed hard mental issues.
So do we have any solution? Do we need to quit our jobs? The answer is absolute “NO”. To win a battle you don’t need to leave the battlefield. Instead, you try to create new and accurate strategies to defeat the opponent.
If you start implementing all the solution points mentioned in this post I am very sure most of your problems will disappear and you will start loving your job, time, and yourself once again. So let’s relive the old office days by working from home.
Table of Contents
1 . Keep a check on your diet and hydration
Diet :
This should be your prime focus. What goes inside your body, develops your mind the same way. If you will eat garbage you will feel like garbage. Your thought process will become slow, you won’t be able to work constantly, you will lose your focus and ultimately get irritated, agitated working from home.
Have a good, clean, nutritious diet every day. Cut off processed foods, canned drinks, junk foods, oily foods. Avoid alcohol and smoking strictly.
Always remember working from home is not a difficult task. You just need to develop a few strategies and routine checks to overcome the anxiety and handle the office stress during this phase.
Hydration :
Coming to hydration: Up to 60% of the human adult body is water. According to H.H. Mitchell, Journal of Biological Chemistry 158, the brain and heart are composed of 73% water, and the lungs are about 83% water. The skin contains 64% water, muscles and kidneys are 79%, and even the bones are watery: 31%. Now you have a fair guess that why hydration is excessively important.
Make a routine of having a glass of water ( 250 ml ) at end of an hour. This way you will easily consume somewhere 4 liters of water every day which is definitely a good figure. Somewhere around 3.5-4 liters of water is what you will definitely need to keep yourself recharged throughout the day.
You can easily buy a big jar with water level markings on it. This way you will have a good idea of how much water you are consuming throughout the day and how much liters are left to accomplish your goal.
2 . Practice meditation, yoga or physical exercises
Your body is a place where you should invest and worship it. If you will treat it well, it will treat you back the same way.
Try waking up early and at least devote 30 minutes to 45 minutes to go through a peaceful meditation session. This way your body, mind, and soul will be calm and you will have positive vibrations throughout the whole day.
This is the best step you can opt to manage your office hours stress and anxiety. Practicing some yoga, breathing sessions, stretching, and workout sessions will create the same impact on your mind and body.
Your mental health will become strong which will directly help you to overcome the anxiety and handle the office stress during this phase. Also, don’t forget to have a good 7-8 hours of sleep every night.
3 . Stay away from social media, avoid digital tools and distractions
To stay focused throughout the day is a tough task. You will make it even harder and tougher if you start to distract yourself by using several social media platforms, going through your smartphone every 5 minutes, get into controversial gossips, news and videos.
Every time you pick up your phone make sure it serves a purpose. Don’t simply pick up your phone and start surfing the various social media and fun platforms. Jumping and switching from one platform to another.
This will weaken your mental health, distract your focus and keep you away from your track. Remember no one posts their failures on social media. Social media has become a scam and just a fake world which the public uses to simply showcase their so-called success or glamourous life.
Don’t fall in this trap. Mind your work. Stay focused and get your shit done.
You can set reminders, alerts which will warn you once you exceed the time limit on your phone. The main motive is – use your cell phone, tablets, or digital devices only when they are needed.
4 . Take small breaks
Small should be the break, but it will create a huge impact on handling your stress. Make sure to take small breaks of 5 minutes to 10 minutes every hour. Have a walk, stretch yourself, move out to grasp some fresh air. This way your focus will be as it is throughout the day. You will feel less anxious and will be able to handle your office stress properly.
In case you feel heavily exhausted and tired during your daytime you can also prefer to have a power nap of 25 minutes to 35 minutes. Be cautious to set an alarm as exceeding this time limit will make you feel more lethargic and dull throughout the remaining day.
You can prefer to have minor deep breathing sessions of 5 minutes to 10 minutes in between your work to keep your mind calm. This will create a good mental balance and help you to manage your stress and handle your anxiety throughout.
5 . Spend quality time with your family, friends, kids, pets
This should be your prime focus. During these strenuous work-from-home days, people have completely forgotten to spend quality time with each other.
This is an extremely sad scenario as after all staying at home you are avoiding your home members. Staying at home indirectly is resulting in staying away from home. This should be completely avoided.
Make small intervals, take out small breaks to spend time with your family members, have a chat and call with your good friends, play with your kids, spend time with your pets. This way you will feel refreshed, your mood will be uplifted and you will have better attention and concentration towards your work.
Remember, at the end of the day your family members, good friends, kids, and loved ones will be the ONLY ones who will stay with you and support you. Job is temporary but they are permanent.
I agree a job will help you to pay your bills and manage your expenses. This is very vital and necessary. But always keep your job and your corporate timings secondary.
6. Create a strict routine. Be disciplined.
Remember how you used to follow a strict timetable during your real-time office days. You used to go timely, log in to your system timely, have your meals timely, and log off and return in back timely. So why are you compromising all these steps during working from home?
Create your own separate office setup. Don’t just grab your laptop and sit on your bed and start working. This will drastically reduce your productivity.
There is a logic behind creating offices and homes separate. We cannot mix them. We are in a compromising phase now hence it is our responsibility to manage everything.
Follow a strict routine. Have a separate office setup room, log in and logoff timings should be strict and maintained no matter what happens, Neither reduce your working hours nor extend your working hours, Make sure you behave and act the same way as if you are in your office. This way your ambiance and near environment will promote your productivity and self-growth.
7 . Weekends are Weekends.
Don’t mix your weekends with your office schedule. Don’t try logging in to your system just because you are free on your weekend or you felt to have a check-in in your mailbox.
Try to spend some quality time, do your hobby, love yourself, invest the free time in yourself. Working extra might give you few extra bucks but it cannot reduce your anxiety, mental health, stress. So invest wisely.
Weekends should be treated as off time. Read good books, try cooking, have hands-on gardening, learn a new skill. This way you will not get bored and anxious. Office hours are never stressful neither hard, until and unless you make them likewise.
Work is a never-ending process no matter how many hours you devote. So as I always say – invest wisely. Your time is limited here.
8 . Be Bold
Many people spend their extra hours or overtime just because they are loaded with more work. Don’t let the companies create an opportunity for them. Be transparent and bold, provide honest feedback to your managers or leaders stating to them what’s your current situation.
Don’t try to prove yourself and cross your boundaries. It will not be a wise sign. Be bold enough to speak up and explain your situation.
If the workload is more than your capacity speak it up, if you have extra time or bandwidth speak it up, if you are happy speak it up, if you are overstressed and burden speak it up. The moto should be speaking it up because until and unless you become bold and speak up nobody’s gonna give a shit here.
At last, it is we humans who create our own stress, don’t know how to handle office stress, and create our own anxious world. We all are here for a limited time so try to enjoy it at max. Don’t create a negative environment around you. The more you absorb positivity, the more you resonate with positive vibrations.
Please do comment with your thoughts, suggestions, tell us how are you managing your work from home stress/handle office stress. Don’t forget to share this article with your fellow colleagues ❤
Stay fit, Stay healthy !
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