Continuing to work from home

Given that there are many folks who have been working at home due to covid-19, this won’t necessarily be news that’s hot off the press, but maybe you are looking for ways to revamp your approach. Here are a few things that I might recommend.

To wear pants or not to wear pants. I know a lot of folks out there like to work in their pajamas bottoms and if it works then it works. I’m not recommending that we start wearing things that aren’t comfortable but I do think there’s benefits to changing our clothes at the start and end of the work day. Maybe that means changing out of your pajamas to a different set of pajama bottoms. It might feel like a chore but the change can help signal that we are making a switch from personal time to work time rather than having everything bleed into one another. 

Separate your work browser from your personal browser. I know. It’s an obvious one but I’d invite you to consider whether you are doing what you know might be helpful. Are you  checking your work emails or working on things when you would normally be leaving your workplace and going home ? If you are feeling busy at work or stressed about your performance or goals, it can be even harder to stop checking on how things are going. Switching your browser might help slow things down just a bit so you can catch yourself going into work mode and give yourself the opportunity to decide what you want to do. 

Yo-yoing socialization. It seems pretty common to want to spend time socializing with your colleagues and friends while simultaneously not wanting to spend time with people because it’s online. Maybe you are spending a lot of time on a video platform during work and it feels like a chore to continue doing so with loved ones. Some ways of reducing some of the zoom fatigue might include hiding your own image, figuring out if it feels better for you to use speaker view or gallery view, sitting a little further away from the screen so the intensity of the close-up eye contact is reduced, turning your camera on and off to allow yourself some breaks. On some days, this might also mean saying “no” to showing up unless it’s absolutely necessary (easier said than done, I know). 

Replace your commute time. When you were commuting to work, what did you always tell yourself you would do if your commute was non-existent or shorter? Give it a go. Personally, I make really good use of my milk frother. 

Boredom is not always the enemy. I thinkit can feel embarrassing at times to admit that we might be bored when there’s that old saying out there that “only boring people get bored”. But boredom is a natural state to be in from time to time. It doesn’t necessarily mean that something’s wrong or that we are doing something wrong.  It’s a sign that we have gotten used to something and we are no longer satisfied with what we are currently doing. We might get bored if we’ve gone on our dream vacation for long enough. Some call it the hedonic treadmill. Instead of trying to fight off boredom all the time- get familiar with what feeling boredom is like (it might not feel that boring !).

A bit about the author

Melanie Adamsons is a Registered Clinical Counsellor at Latitude Counselling, and specializes in DBT, CBT and client-centred therapy.