Olivia Maier
Back in June, CBS News reported on how half of Americans were feeling burned out on working from home. Months later, and following many corporate decisions to extend work from home into the future, the number of people feeling burnt out isn’t expected to go down.
So what should you be doing? It’s not like there are a lot of alternatives to working from home for now, and for the foreseeable future.
As a team that’s been working remotely for 10+ years, we’ve had time to adjust to the WFH lifestyle and find what works for us. We even enjoy working from home, and yes before you roll your eyes this can be possible for you too!
Mastering the work-from-home lifestyle and successfully avoiding burnout can lead to you finding out the amazing reasons people chose to work from home. But, we have to start with addressing what to do if you feel yourself moving towards burnout.
Here are some of our best tips on what to do if you start feeling yourself like that.
One of our favorite tips would be to use business tools that help take time-consuming and counterproductive tasks off of your plate, which is what Yodel can do as a virtual receptionist for your team. But, we also have compiled some other great tips that you can start using today to avoid feeling burnt out.
Setting boundaries between your work life, and your home life is even more necessary in a WFH environment. This goes beyond setting working hours, having physical boundaries can help signal to you when it is time to set the work down. It can be as simple as having a separate computer for work, and as soon as it’s time to log off for the day close the laptop and keep it that way until the next day.
In an office setting, getting up to refill your water, grab something from a printer, or grab lunch all gives your mind and body a moment to reset. Working from home reduces the number of short breaks that you never had to feel guilty about in an office. While you may not be running to a printer down the hall, standing and taking a walk around your space can help you quickly reset and avoid burnout.
Let your team and boss know before things get too bad when you are starting to feel burnt out. By getting your team involved, you can brainstorm ways to stay productive without it taking a toll.
If you feel like you’re headed towards burnout, try these things to see if they help. It’s also worth checking with your insurance provider, or your employer to see what medical and counseling services are available to you. We want to give you some tools that may help, but don’t shy away from speaking to professionals! They are the real pros for a reason!
Having a hobby or other ways to relax and disconnect is crucial to a healthy work/life balance. This can help you reset at the end of the day, and lead to you feeling more energized to take on the next day. Unfortunately, scrolling through social media or binge-watching shows doesn’t have that effect. Even taking the last 10 minutes before bed to journal, meditate, or do a check-in with yourself can make a huge difference.
Sometimes bottling up your emotions just leads to you imploding later on. If there is something specific that is on your mind, don’t be afraid to let it out. Let your family or friends know what is frustrating you, so you can leave those work frustrations behind.
If you are struggling with constant zoom calls, ask to switch to phone calls instead. If you can’t stand staring at a screen, start taking notes on paper. If your home office is feeling cramped, try to redecorate it or find an outdoor space or cafe to work. Finding helpful alternatives to small parts of your day might make a huge difference. You don’t have to change everything about your WFH situation, but find one small area that is causing frustration and see if there are helpful alternatives.
We hope this can help you or your teammates with burnout. Working from home can be a huge lifestyle change, especially if it was something forced upon you. But, if you can avoid burnout, you may see the benefits that cause people all over the globe to CHOOSE remote work.
If you can relate to any of this, let us know if you were struggling with the WFH and what’s helped turn that around!
