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Working from home. If you told me a few years ago I would have had the ability to roll out of bed 2 minutes before work, without having to worry about a commute, getting up early or heck even getting changes the exact words I would use would be SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY. That being said a few years into working from home life I’ve come to realise that whilst remote working is incredible… it definitely has some downsides.
A recent study by Airtasker found that remote employees work on average 16.8 days more productive per year then their office working counterparts. This is great for productivity but can definitely lead to burnout with myself going through this quite a bit.
So how do you avoid burnout when working from home? What exactly is burnout? And which of these steps above will have the strongest impact? The following 22 steps should help, keep reading to find out more
(Just a heads up a lot of people reading my blog are in the process of designing their own home office. If you want to save some of the painstaking time I did in designing my office, you can find my recommended products here)
Focus on project work
So it’s Monday morning, you open up your task list and boom 5000 tasks there for you to do, you don’t really know where to start as there is a lot of stuff in there, so you’re going to make yourself a coffee before you start… oh wait you just got a message … oh wait something really interesting on the new is on let’s watch that for 15 minutes… sound familiar?
When we work from home we are way more productive than other people, that being said nobody likes large task lists and you will definitely find yourself procrastinating ( like I did) when it comes to doing large groups of work.
So how did I get over this? Well simply put by putting your work in categories. So for example if you know you have a lot of emails together, don’t do them as the day goes on, instead block out a specific amount of time for them in your day. By giving yourself certain times to do certain tasks you will find that they will go a hell of a lot faster.
Any long time readers of this blog will know how much I like the pomodoro technique. Simply put, it’s a way in which you manage time, work for 25 minutes, take a five minute break and repeat for an hour and half.
The idea behind it is that your brain can only focus on one task for too long and by taking time to break up your projects into 25 minute tasks you will get a lot more done. Med school insiders has a great video on it you can check out below:
Now if you’re interested in reading more about being productive I’ve also written a blog post talking all about it here.
Have a set routine
So every Monday and Wednesday my workplace has meetings, day in day out 52 weeks a year. At first these were a little bit grating, I mean I was in the middle of a task and boom meeting.
Working from home for a few months however these meetings were easily the highlight of my day.
Why?
Simply put it was the routine. Human beings by nature try to find the path of least resistance. It’s the reason why we avoid exercise, and leave our most difficult tasks to last. We want an easy life now… instant gratification.
By setting yourself up a strict routine when working from home takes a lot of the decision making process out of your day. Part of the reason you lily feel burnt out is a lack of control of your day or just too many activities to get to. By setting up and following a routine daily you will negate a lot of the stress.
And It’s not just me who agrees with studies showing that people who work with routines have better adherence with things like workload and diet.
So how do we do this? Well easily the most effective thing I’ve tried is simply by using google calendar to set up blocks of time in my day and set tasks from most important to least important. If your role is more adhoc and changes day to day no worries, just spend the last 15 minutes of your day getting an idea looks like and go from there.
This will leave you feeling like you’ve accomplished something and really does work wonders.
Sleep more
Sadly most people around the world are getting much less than the recommended 8 hours sleep needed to function.
People who work remotely often work late into the night doing more than what is required of them which sadly means, you’re likely not getting the rest you need to function – this could lead to some of the symptoms we talked about earlier, it might just be that you’re not burned out – you’re just tired.
So how can you get more sleep? Well the good news is there are a number of things you can do such as:
- Put your phone on silent
- Go for an evening walk
- Limit the amount of alcohol
- Drink herbal tea
- Read a book
- Turn thee temperature down
By getting enough rest you will feel much more relaxed and recovered for the day ahead leaving your burnout in the past!
Dress for the day
I’m not going to lie, I felt like a massive doofus doing this the first time… I mean part of the reason we work from home is to stay in our pyjamas all day right?
Well one of the things that immediately helped me snap out of feeling burned out was mimicking work conditions at home which included getting dressed up in business casual (business at the top parts/jeans down below)
So why does this work? Well more than anything, getting dressed in the morning gives you a sense of purpose and makes you feel like you’re achieving something. See it almost as your first win of the day.
It gets your brain into the habit of getting stuff done and will hopefully set you up for success as the day goes on.
We need a sense of purpose and a mission to work towards, by getting dressed you’re setting up your own little mission.
Get away from your screens
So this is something that if I had to put money on it, is the biggest cause of my burnout. I’m regularly in front of a screen between 12 and 14 hours per day with all things considered and staring at that much UV light for too long can really be bad for you
Staring at a screen for that long eats into your personal life too. I mean let’s face it, if you’ve been in front of a screen all day, the last thing you’re going to want to do is watch TV or whack on a movie for the rest of the night.
So how can you best ensure you don’t get burnout when looking at screens?
The best option would be to take regular 5-10 minute breaks away from your screen every hour or so which works a lot better then taking longer 20-minute breaks every three hours or so..
One other hack I’ve picked up is to not look at your screen when typing and instead look at your keys, this will give you some much needed time away from staring at your screen and can keep you working for longere.
Finally you can adjust your screen brightness settings or even look into changing your display with a tint to make it less tougher to look at. Doing so should keep you in the game for longer and help reduce some of the eye strain that can come with burnout.
Now In terms of products would definitely check out some eye protection. Which eye protection, luckily I’ve broken this down in a few different areas here.
I’ve also written a post talking about reducing screen glare in your home office which you can check out here.
Limit your internet usage for social stuff
Social media sucks.
There I said that comparison envy is real even for the best of us and you can easily spend hours on i t getting distracted from any business at hand.
I mean let’s face it, if you’re already having a tough day, there is nothing worse than trying to live up to the best moment of other people’s lives right? So how can you limit your social media access? Well first of all if your phone is not essential to your role, I would suggest keeping it away from your work area at home.
I would also consider implementing something like the stay focused chrome extension which helps put a limit on certain sites for certain amounts of time.
Spend some digital time with your colleagues
Let’s face it, working from home can be lonely.
Sometimes it can be hard to feel like a part of a company and for those who are the only employees who work from home whilst their colleagues are at work this can be amplified.
So how can you set up some time with your colleagues?
In my opinion the best thing to do is to start with work projects, set up an online meeting using something like hangouts or Skype and then spend the first 5 minutes trying to connect with your colleagues.
Do this for a few weeks and you can start taking the initiative and set up digital quizzes during your lunch break, try and cement the deal by getting your management team in on the action and you might find that you will get significantly better uptake.
Human beings are social creatures and we need social interactions. It can be super difficult not having anyone to talk to when at home but by making a few small changes with your meetings you can really go a huge way to help improve your wellbeing.
Work set hours and don’t go over
Any frequent readers of the blog know how much I band the statistic that remote employees work 16.8 days more than their office based counterparts – for anyone keeping track that’s about 1.4 days per month more.
Now one of the major reasons why remote workers suffer burnout, and are more productive is they don’t work set hours. Let’s face it, if you’re working from home you’re going to want to do more in order to make sure the perk isn’t taken away from you.
So instead of taking time to relax you double down work overtime until everything is done.
So how do you set your hours? Well it’s simple…. Once the clock hits 5 or you have managed your complete hours for a week, set up to ask for something to do at the allocated time.
This will keep you focused. If possible I would also recommend deleting apps like Slack or your email from your work phone so in your downtime you’re not stuck dealing with work problems.
there is a secret, work will always be there and there will always be work you need to complete.
Source: buffer state of remote work
Get out and exercise
Do you really need me to tell you the benefits of exercise?
Simply put, getting out and moving around is going to work wonders for you and is better than any miracle pill you can buy on shopping channels.
Exercising will just get you out of the house, distracted on something that is good for you and help put things in perspective.
I know what you’re thinking, You want to know what some of the major benefits of working from home on your lunch break are right? Luckily for you, I’ve put together a post talking all about them and how to socialize more here.
Design a home office
So in the first few months of working from home I was really struggling, I found myself jumping from room to room trying to find anywhere to just sit down and work.
This all changed when I set up my own office space to just sit down and focus up in.
Home offices have so many benefits but you will find yourself really setting up a boundary between your home life and your personal life. This will give you peace of mind as you will have a dedicated space to get your job done in peace.
It goes back to getting dressed in the morning, you’re setting yourself up in the right mindset to get stuff done.
So what exactly do you need in a home office? Well luckily I painstakingly searched the marketplace for the best items that I use. You can find them all on my resource page here.
However some of my key pieces would have to be:
Take quality time off
So usually when we take time off we still have like a thousand other things to do. Let’s say you’re booking some leave for vacation, well you might think that’s quality time off but you still have all the stress of packing, travelling and making the most of your time abroad.
So what exactly is quality time off. Well it varies from person to person but for me, it’s the idea of taking time away from work where you can just do the thing you love whilst feeling rested and recovered for work.
It’s very rare that taking a day off here and there will help with burnout so even if it means taking a few days off, staying at home for a week and catching up on trash TV, listen to your body and take the time you need.
Don’t do more work than usual
So we talked about this a bit earlier, but it’s very important when working remotely that you don’t take on more activities than need be.
You’re most likely going to get the urge to want to do more tasks for your team when working remotely to show that you’re pulling your weight but this isn’t the way to – you will end up resting your team for making you do it and get annoyed at yourself for agreeing to do so.
So how do you know where your limit is? How much work can you do before burnout strikes.
It’s a tough question to answer but the best way to gauge your productivity is to try and do a little more every day. This will allow you to safely (and manageably) take on more tasks without taking on any huge projects. You need time to acclimatise to your workload so doing a bit at a time should help make things easier.
If you find by the end of a few weeks of doing a little more everyday that you are absolutely drained then try to dial it back a little bit.
Journal how you feel
I know what you’re thinking… what kind of new age, hippie stuff is journaling.
Truth be told I still feel a little bit iffy about doing this but trust me when I say it helps. Journalling is basically the process of recording down how you think and feel over a prolonged period of time to spot any problems.
So how can this help avoid burnout?
Well, Think about it like this. If you feel burnout all the time but have no idea why it might be worth tracking your days, you can then analyse the data and figure out where your pain points are.
For example let’s say at the end of every Wednesday you feel really burnt out from work, you start journaling and notice this happens every Wednesday and notice that Wednesday is the day you pickup new leads from your team.
Now that you have the information you can use this knowledge to spread out said task for the week instead of cramming everything together on one day.
One of the best ways to journal is with a diary, there are lots of fancy journals and journaling courses out there but in my opinion the best journal is the Lemome on Amazon, it’s cheap, quick and does the job.
In terms of journaling techniques, simplicity is key at the beginning so just write your thoughts on how you feel, what you did on that day and give the day a score out of ten, after a few weeks you can reflect back and analyse your days to spot any pattern.
Avoid intoxicants
So I know this is easier said than done, especially from someone who doesn’t drink or smoke but alcohol and smoking can massively cause you to feel much worse off in the long term.
Whilst they might get you through the day or even keep you focused for a while, in the long term they can have a massive effect on your health leading you to get burned out much quicker.
One of the biggest problems is that smoking and drinking exacerbate any problems you might have so if you’re feeling burnt out and go for a cheeky pint after work, you will find yourself doing this more often, not being able to focus when you need to.
Instead, if you need to smoke or drink, try and save it for when you already feel in a good mood and try using them as a crutch to get you through the day.
Try to spend one hour of the day outside
Easily the thing that snaps me out of it when I’m feeling burned out is just taking an hour of my day and getting out.
I get that not everyone wants to do strenuous exercise during their lunch break but going for a quick walk around a park or just taking an hour away from your house will really work wonders on your focus and keep you coming back feeling refreshed more than ever.
So what would be the best time to go for a walk during the day?
Simply put the best time to go for a walk would be just after lunch or at the end of the day. The human body usually crashed at around 2pm – 3pm or after lunch so using that time to get out will work wonders.
Maintain work and home boundaries
Lack of control is easily one of the biggest reasons for working from home burnout and one of the most surefire ways to accomplish this is by not setting up clear boundaries between work life and home life.
Now remote workers in particular have a hard time with this as their home is tere workplace but there are a few key rules you can follow to make sure you don’t fall into this trap.
To help explain I’ve put these in a table below:
|
Rule |
Why |
| Wear work clothes for work | The idea behind this is that when you are working your day job, wear certain clothes and as soon as you are done=, switch over to something more casual to get you in the mental state to relax |
| Work your set hours only | There is nothing worse to mess up your work life balance then doing overtime at home, istead only work the hours that are required of you |
| Block you day out in your calendar | Blocking your day in your calendar by work tasks and home tasks will help you split out your mind |
| Eat away from your work area | Try not to eat at your workstation when working from home, this is going to meet you in the grind of work and make you feel like you have not had a break. Instead take your time away. |
Keep the busy work till last
Not only is this a great tip to help you avoid burnout, it is a great top for productivity.
As human beings we love the path of least resistance, trying to find the easiest way to do a job. In nature this makes sense when you know your life’s on the line but this runs counter intuitive to the modern workplace.
Let’s face it, we all have pushed those tasks that are the most difficult to the end of the day/ week/month so we could just avoid them.
Every time that task pops up you likely feel a little burned out.
So how do we address this? Well simply put, do the tasks you hate first. By getting your hardest task done first you will feel a massive sense of accomplishment and energised to get on with the rest of your day.
Pareto’s law is that you want to focus on the 20% of tasks that give you 80% of your results so by leaving the easily work that isn’t really important till last ( hello checking emails and slack) you will find yourself getting a lot more done as the day goes on
Keep an hour for surprises
Things never go to plan. This is true for life as it is for work.
When working from home this is increased tenfold with the amount of things that can pop up increasing tenfold (trust me it’s only a matter of time until your pipe bursts)
One of the most effective things you can do is anticipate these problems, whether these be work tasks or home issues, is to set up 30-60 minuts at the end of your day to manage these issues.
It could even be as simple as one of your existing tasks going over but by having the spare time in place, you’re going to feel a lot less burned out anticipating life’s curveballs.
Try not to solve everything yourself
If you’re anything like me you likely have an ego like the size of mount Everest.
As such you won’t like it when I tell you you can’t do it all. If your time is spent doing tasks you may need to reach out to your colleagues to help share some of the workload on particular tasks. If you’re struggling it’s likely other people are too.
Make a priority list like the one I highlighted below which breaks down important and unimportant tasks which should help you effectively delegate tasks which don’t really affect your day to day
Ask for help
So if you are still struggling with severe burnout when working from home it might be time to ask for help.
Most organisations nowadays have an EAP in which a company’s employees can anonymously set up a call/ counselling session to help.
As bad as it is today it is not your company’s responsibility to look after your wellbeing, it’s your and so by taking the first steps and being proactive in trying to get help, you will be on the first step to reverse any damage burnout might have caused.
Keep a notepad on you at all times
One of the worst symptoms of burnout is just a lack of ideas, trying to be creative and yet you just can’t make things work.
My workaround. Keep a notepad on you at all times. If you’re anything like me your best ideas likely come just before you go to sleep and trust me when I say you’ve likely forgotten hundreds of million dollar ideas from lack of writing them down.
My suggestion would be to use your journals you can hit two birds with one stone and journal whilst getting your creativity flowing.
Practice mindfulness
Let’s Face it, life has a lot of distractions, it’s easy to get out of your groove and be in a hump for a while,
One of the best ways you can be more present focused,m and less burned out is by practising mindfulness. We touched on journaling as a way to do this but look at things like meditation or heck even yoga to get you back in tune with your body and your thoughts.
There are also a fair few books on mindfulness that are great with my four favourites being:
What is working from home burnout?
It’s important to understand exactly what burnout is.
Simply put working from home burnout, is the physical or mental exhaustion of being able to complete your tasks as you otherwise would in an office environment.
Now it’s worth noting that burnout affects everyone differently, but my story will hopefully resonate with a few of you.
What about me?
So I pride myself on being the guy in the office that gets stuff done,
the reliable guy who can smash out his call list before noon or double the amount of activity anyone else does ( humble brag I know).
This was all well and good when working in the office when I would have the chance to catch up with my colleagues or engage in a side of r rated banter, but I would struggle when working from home.
I couldn’t focus, my activity would take a lot longer to finish and I would find myself dragging my feet to get work done. At first it didn’t seem like that much of an issue but eventually I found myself wanting to lie in bed for longer when doing admin work or taking more sick days.
How burnout affects your body
Like I mentioned earlier, burnout affects everyone differently but typically there are a few symptoms everyone should look out for:
| Symptom | Type |
| Lack of focus | Mental |
| Lack of motivation | Mental |
| Lack of care for current role | Mental |
| Tiredness | Mental |
| Anxiety | Mental |
| Depression | Mental |
| Forgetfulness | Mental |
| Irritability | Mental |
| Headaches | Mental |
| Dizziness | Mental |
| Heart Palpitation | Physical |
| Shortness of breath | Physical |
| Chest pain | Physical |
| Weaken immune system | Physical |
| Loss of appetite | Physical |
What are the best items for a home office to avoid burnout
So this post has hopefully given you a lot of food for thought on how to tackle burnout especially when working from home.
As discussed, having a home office can have a huge positive impact on getting you to focu andavid any burnout. My suggestion for items for a home office can all be found on my resource page where I have personally reviewed hundreds of items when designing my own home office to save you a lot of time and effort in your search.
It’s also worth mentioning that a lot of people are interested in how I make money through this blog so if you are interested in starting your own, check out Project 24 by income school, you can read my full review here.
The content on this on this site has been written by Fehed Nicass who has over a decades worth of experience in sales and has worked remotely for the past 2 years.