Remote work requires long hours at the computer. Often, we can be seated for several hours before we realize we forgot to take care of ourselves!
Whether you’re working remotely, teleworking, or at a coworking facility – it’s vital that you put a self care routine in place to make sure you feel better day to day and actually feel more productive too!
Here are our top 5 self care tips for remote workers.
Mini breaks are essential for our minds and bodies during the day. Looking at a screen or working hard on a project for hours at a time can make our brains fuzzy and our muscles stiff. You know the feeling! Short mini breaks can definitely help you to take better care of yourself day to day.
The first thing is scheduling them in. Choose what works for you whether that’s setting alarms, writing them on your calendar, or adding them to your daily list of tasks. If we don’t schedule our breaks, chances are we’ll pass by them and not value them enough to take them!
The second thing to remember about mini breaks is quality. By quality we mean actually switching off and allowing your mind and body to recover from the work you’ve been doing. We recommend 10 minute breaks, just enough time to disconnect but not too much time to become occupied with something else entirely! Quality mini breaks include moving away from all devices, not looking at a screen, getting some fresh air, talking to a friend, walking around the block, moving and stretching.
As we just said, getting up and moving is important! The experts recommend 30 minutes of activity three times a week. We say push this to 45-60 minutes or even try to do some kind of exercise every day! Why? Well, that is the minimum recommendation for activity and for maximum self care, it’s best to do more than the minimum.
Being seated all day can cause postural problems and tight muscles. Taking one hour out of your day to be active, stretch tight muscles and move your body is so important physically, mentally and emotionally too. Choose your preferred exercise and schedule it in! If you don’t have 60 minutes to devote to exercise one day, no problem, but try to keep a consistent routine for your own health and wellbeing.
This one sounds simple enough but can be quite challenging, especially on busier days! If you snack on healthier foods like fruit and nuts, choose the stairs instead of the elevator, or try to fit in a quick workout at lunch – day by day you’ll find yourself feeling more energized and alert thanks to these better choices.
While eating a donut or candy bar may be a nice treat, your body will actually get a sugar high but then feel just as low, due to not getting the long standing nutrients it needs for consistent energy. What’s more, hydration is key for our energy and so combining healthy practices and hydration can seriously impact your life. Of course, it will benefit your work but even more importantly, it will benefit your health in the long term.
It’s so important to draw the line between working hours and personal hours. This is an important component of taking care of yourself just as much as the other tips we’ve mentioned. The tricky part can come when responding to messages and calls, and knowing how to distinguish friends’ messages from work messages.
One tip we believe makes it easier to switch off in your personal time is using different platforms or apps for work and personal communications. This will help you regain some control of your notifications! When work and personal life crossover this can get stressful and it can be hard to set boundaries. That’s why we definitely suggest putting in your own practices and being proactive when it comes to drawing the line!
Sometimes, the busier or more mentally taxing the day, the more of a need for taking care of yourself. For example, when you read the same sentence three times in a row, maybe it’s time to take that mini break earlier. Or, if you are having some physical pains maybe it would be best to do some stretching or yoga before you hit your emails. There is no ‘one successful routine’ and everyone is different – yet it’s true that being flexible and listening to our own needs is an essential component for ultimate self care.
Maybe these self-care tips seem like they take away from productivity in the short term but in the long term they will surely increase your productivity as you feel more energized, fresh, healthy and motivated to tackle your remote work.
Last but not least, we’d say take some time every day to do something you enjoy. Something where you can fully switch off from work and enjoy life! That way, when you do get to your remote work tasks, you’ll approach them feeling revitalised and ready.
Our remote workers enjoy our coworking space because it’s relaxed and also has chill out areas for mini breaks too! More about International Coworking Valencia right here.
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