If the body and mind are a castle, remote work can be a siege, an army advancing on us from all angles. Confined indoors and tethered to an isolated workspace, we face a full-on assault on our wellbeing. Without adequate defenses in place, the city will be sacked. We must protect our body and mind at all costs.
Thankfully, with the right plan, it is possible not only to withstand the siege, but to thrive.
No reason your home office can’t be even healthier than your work office.
In an earlier post on working remotely, we focused primarily on productivity and how to avoid some common pitfalls in the transition to work-from-home. By now, many of us have been working remotely for two or more weeks and have begun to face new challenges, as dreams of healthy cooking and home workouts are replaced by pizza for breakfast and Netflix for dinner. In this post, we will focus on the practical steps you can take to ensure that your remote work lifestyle is healthy and sustainable.
Physical Activity
It starts with movement. For all of us, regardless of fitness level, the biggest risk with remote work is inactivity throughout the day. Even if you spend an hour in the morning doing a high-intensity workout, if you spend the rest of the day sitting down hunched over a laptop, you will not be healthy. A general rule is to get up and move at least once an hour. Schedule periodic breaks to stand up, stretch your legs, and get a glass of water. (Tools like this one can help.) Where possible, take calls standing up.
Your home is your gym, your body your equipment. Your body is all the equipment you need. Start with a few sets of push-ups, squats, crunches, dips, burpees, lunges, and other bodyweight exercises. If you want to spice things up, there are tons of free resources out there, especially on YouTube. Try these videos for yoga, dance, high-energy fitness fun, all of the above, or this full-body 7-minute workout. And remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Start small and go from there.
Have yourself an “exercise snack”. Research shows that very small bouts of exercise, as short as 1-2 minutes, sprinkled throughout the day can actually be better for your health than prolonged, intense workouts. Throw in a set of squats or jumping jacks between meetings or while waiting for the kettle to boil. (Imagine the looks you’d get if you did this at the office — score one for remote work.)
Let me be your motivation. Well not me, specifically, just a person or group who can provide inspiration and accountability. At Nova Pioneer we’ve set up a very active (literally) WhatsApp group called ‘Witness the Fitness’, where we share daily fitness updates and challenges. All Novaneers are welcome to join!
Food & Nutrition
Eat proper (and tasty) meals. You don’t need to be a gourmet chef to eat well during the shutdown. The internet is filled with quarantine-friendly recipes that rely on pantry staples. See here, here, here, and here. Consider prepping your meals the night before if you’re worried you won’t have time during the day. Eating proper, whole-food meals can suppress your appetite for snacks throughout the day.
Opt for healthy snacks. If you must snack, go with high-protein snacks like nuts or nut butter, yoghurt, hummus, biltong, or cheese (in moderation) will keep you fuller longer. If you’re craving something sweet, opt for an apple, banana, a cup of raisins, or dark chocolate. You can’t go wrong with anything from this list of healthy snacks.
Monitor your caffeine intake. If you sit for too long, you will feel tired. You may think you need another cup of coffee, but sometimes you just need a short break to stand up and get the blood flowing. Skip the caffeine, which can also exacerbate anxiety.
Drink plenty of water. This is important for hydration and general health and is a good reason to get up from your chair.
Sleep
Just do it. Getting sufficient high-quality sleep is the number-one thing you can do to improve overall wellness. For those that find this challenging (new parents, for instance), it’s even more important that you do what is in your control to maximise sleep. Everyone is different, but most healthy adults should aim for 7-9 hours.
Use an evening routine to wind down. In a recent post we recommended a “fake commute” to help you transition into a work mindset at the start of the day. It’s just as important to do the reverse at the end of the day. Give yourself time and space to take your mind off of work and prepare for a restful night’s sleep. Here is way too much information on nighttime routines.
Put your phone and laptop away at least an hour before bed. The blue light emitted by our devices tells our bodies and brains that it’s still daytime, which can disrupt our sleep cycle. If you must use your device(s) before bed, turn on the “night shift” setting, which reduces the blue light they emit.
Mental Wellness
Follow the above tips. We close this post with mental wellness not because it is less important — quite the contrary — but because it is impacted by everything we’ve already discussed. If you are physically inactive or sleeping or eating poorly, your mental health could very well suffer. On the flip side, if you take care of your physical health, your mental health will likely reap the benefits.
Take a slow morning. When working from home, it’s far too easy to roll out of bed and straight into your work-desk, half asleep and already responding to emails. Try to avoid the temptation to immediately pull out your phone or laptop. Instead, take time to exercise, cook a healthy breakfast, prepare your family for the day, read, meditate — whatever you need to do to get in a healthy headspace.
Get your Vitamin D. Sunlight gives us Vitamin D, and Vitamin D deficiency contributes to depression. Movement restrictions due to COVID-19 may pose a challenge here, but when and where it is safe, get outside for direct sun exposure and/or fill your home with natural light.
Take this free course on ‘The Science of Wellbeing’.
Practice gratitude. What are the things, big or small, that you are grateful for? Try each day to write these down in a journal or share with friends, family, or teammates. Now, this isn’t a cure-all. These are difficult times, and you may have moments or days when you feel anything but grateful. But the practice of gratitude is meant to prepare you to remain positive even in those most difficult moments.
Look for help. If you are suffering from anxiety and/or struggling with your mental health, know that this is totally natural. Have a look at this helpful website created specifically to address coronavirus anxiety. You may also find helpful the resources our psychosocial support team has previously shared. If these feelings do not pass, it is important that you seek help.
Remember that your body and mind are a castle, and defending it takes work. Some days or weeks will be better than others, and that’s okay. But with patience and practice, more than just withstand the siege, you can use remote work as an opportunity to improve your health. Because when will you have another chance to do jumping jacks at the tea kettle?
