Working from Home the Right Way: Top Tips for Avoiding Burnout

The pandemic taught us a lot about the world we live in, but it’s had a huge, and long-lasting, effect on the workplace. During the height of COVID-19, many workplaces went fully remote, allowing employees to work from home, and a lot of businesses have kept that policy up — or at least gave employees the option to work from home if they so desire. Working from home can be a fantastic, lower-stress way to do your job without the inconvenience of long commutes and cramped office spaces, but it comes with its own dangers. Working from home can easily lead to burnout, where stress and negativity become overwhelming and impede your ability to both live life and do your job. Not to worry though, we’re here to help, with our top tips on combating burnout while working from home.

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1. Create a Dedicated Office Space

For many people, when they imagine working from home, they picture a person sitting up in bed, a laptop balanced on their knees as they type out spreadsheets in the dark. We’re here to tell you that doing that is not only unhelpful, but it’s also not sustainable and will contribute to burnout. Instead of working from bed, we encourage you to set up a designated office space, even if that’s just a table on the other side of your bedroom. By creating a separate space exclusively for work — rather than a mixed space like your bed — you condition yourself to enter work mode when you sit there. Similarly, you condition yourself to leave work mode behind when you get up so that your work doesn’t creep into every aspect of your life and consume you. This separation between work life and home life will help keep you balanced and avoid burnout.

2. Get Dressed

Another simple misconception about working from home many people have is an image of someone sitting in front of a computer half-dressed or wearing pajamas. While this may seem comfortable and convenient, we would actually argue it has a negative impact on you. Similar to setting up a dedicated workspace, getting dressed for work every day — even when ‘work’ is something you do at home — helps your brain shift into work mode. It will help you focus, and also improve your confidence and self-image. What we wear has a big impact on how we feel. If you wear your pajamas every day you’ll begin to feel slovenly and generally bad about yourself. Meanwhile, if you wake up, get ready, and dress to impress, you’ll feel better about yourself. The quality of your work will improve and so will your mental state, helping to prevent burnout and keeping you feeling good.

3. Plan Your Day

Ok, you’re sitting down to start your day at ‘work’ and you’re ready to begin. What do you do? That’s a question you should seek to answer, if possible, before you’re about to start your day, or at the very least it should be the first thing you do. Planning out your day and giving yourself a list of tasks to complete or goals to accomplish will help keep you motivated. Working from home can abstract a lot of the workday, making the successes and accomplishments feel distant and disconnected. Setting goals and planning out your time will ensure you feel like you’re making progress, which will keep you motivated. Motivation is one of the hardest things to maintain when working from home, so set yourself some goals and keep those spirits up!

4. Take Breaks

One of the greatest advantages of working from home is a simple one: you can do things at your pace. A lot of the pressure of being in the office is off when you’re home, which means you’re free to take some breaks during your workday. Studies have shown that the eight-hour workday is actually counterproductive and leads to a dip in productivity, so instead, try pacing yourself. Work for a few hours then take some time for yourself. Then, go back to work and keep making progress. Taking breaks will help your mental state and will even improve your work quality, so listen to the experts and relax.

5. Stay Connected

Being away from the office means you don’t have the same connection to your coworkers anymore, and that can be hard to deal with. Your coworkers can be great friends, and they’re definitely great resources for doing your job, so being out of touch can be hard. Luckily, most companies that offer remote work use some software (like Slack) to keep people working from home connected to the rest of the team. Use those! Talk with your coworkers, instigate conversation, and stay connected. Working from home can be isolating. The best way to combat that is to actively pursue connections, and make sure everyone is in this together.

Working from home can be both a blessing and a curse, but with this list, you should be prepared to reap as many benefits from it as you can. Good luck, and happy working!