Mental Health Tips For Working From Home

Mental health tips for working from home probably are all you need to read about when you feel down while working remotely. Generally, mental health is a high priority in any traditional office work. However, in remote work, it is the highest priority ever; you are isolated working alone you can't interact with real people around you. Maybe, you can't take a walk to the water cooler outside your office to meet some colleagues in the corridor. Also, you can't get the little chat-chat with your teammates in the bathroom. 

Working from home has many benefits, but, at the same time, there are many challenges. Therefore, you must know how to manage these challenges to enjoy the benefits of working from home. The first step to being on the right path is to boost your mental health while working from home. In this post, Kapsys will show 5 mental health tips for working from home: 

Remote Work: 5 Tips to Boost Your Mental Health

A couple of years after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies have moved to work remotely during the quarantine to ensure the employees' safety and keep social distancing. However, now, the challenges of working remotely are becoming clear, and some of these challenges have affected many employees and negatively affected them, especially their mental health. Therefore, as remote workers, you need to avoid this problem and prevent yourself from being dragged into mental health crises for working from home. Follow Kapsys’ mental health tips for working from home to help remote teams stay healthy and productive:

It's OK not to be OK

It will be difficult to notice the effects of mental health issues on staff when working remotely. Usually, your only communication is via a video call, but noticeable changes in behavior can be concerning.  You may notice some changes in your team, and these changes may vary and include:

• Someone is less reactive than usual
• Someone is constantly late for team meetings
• One of the team members missed the delivery deadlines
• Shutting down the camera while making calls with the team is known as Zoom Fatigue.
• A team member has used negative language recently.
• Show someone apathy to work and team meetings.

Suppose you suspect that a remote teammate suffers from mental health from working from home or that these situations frequently appear in the work environment. In that case, it is best to ask the person who behaved in this behavior if they are ok. If he has a problem, tell him that you are ready to provide the support he needs and that it's ok not to be ok.  Some people may avoid sharing their problems in the work environment, but telling them that you are willing to share and hear them can make a big difference and give them a safe space to speak freely.

Prioritize physical health

According to Deloitte, employee mental health initiatives are more effective when they're designed to build employee resilience. For example, getting out to fresh air regularly and exercising raises energy levels, improves cognitive function, and boosts people's overall mood. Usually, traditional employees do not realize this because they are exposed daily to the fresh air and make some effort back and forth to work. On the contrary, in working from home, the remote workers remain confined to their homes or indoors during work periods. One of the most important mental health tips for working from home is to prioritize physical health. It is good for mental health to motivate your remote team from a distance to perform some exercises or organize walking competitions among team members. It is essential to allocate time in their schedule for some activities.

Build social connections

Social interaction among employees in the work environment is essential; it positively affects employee engagement and performance. Moreover, building social relationships is much easier in the office; As for working remotely, it is a huge challenge to shape social relationships between remote teammates. Although, you can usually catch the signs if someone is nervous or stressed. If you make an effort to encourage in-person communication among your remote teammates and help prevent remote workers from feeling isolated. You will build a space where you can see the effects of mental health issues on your team. You can start with a few simple mental health tips for working from home to ensure a robust social interaction:

• Phone calls may not be the best solution for everyone, so use instant messaging to keep communication channels open.
• As a business owner, it is a good idea to motivate your team to send you a morning message at the beginning of each working day.
• Connect with co-workers who are overburdened or live alone and show them support.
• Set a time at the beginning of each call for some side conversations and sometimes jokes to break the boredom and get to know your team news.

Encourage healthy boundaries

Setting and maintaining healthy boundaries is very important in a remote work environment. Failure to respect boundaries in the work environment results in a long, complex, and unorganized work day. As a result, this will lead to fatigue, stress and even failure. A few simple mental health tips for working from home to follow:

• Establish a healthy routine for working from home.
• Set boundaries and stick to them.
• Take regular breaks throughout the work day.
• Spend time away from your inbox and laptop.

Dedicating a workplace that is free from distractions and that you can get away from at the end of the work day is vital to getting your work done and gives you an excellent opportunity to apply the above tips.

Model healthy behaviors

Be a role model for mental health in your remote team in the work environment. If you require the team to adhere to a specific work system or have particular criteria at work, you must apply these criteria to yourself first.  Being a business owner does not mean breaking labor laws at all. On the contrary, you are the one who must commit first, and the rest will follow. For example, you may have some times when it's hard to work or time zone differences issues. So you can block meeting invitations at those times.  This will be like giving Carte Blanche to the rest of your team to choose times to rest or set aside time for their families, especially if they have children who want to connect them to caregivers, schools, or emergencies. Plus, this is a good indication of the flexibility of working remotely.

Mental Health Tips for Working From Home: Conclusion

The way we live has changed, as have the requirements and laws of life. As a result, the concept of remote work has emerged. However, no change occurs without challenges, and accordingly, the challenges of working remotely have emerged. However, this does not mean you should lose sight of the many benefits of remote work for companies. You can overcome the working from home challenges following the previous mental health tips for working from home provided by Kapsys, and you will have a great remote working experience.