What Recovery Time From Work May Look Like

Pick a place for your office away from distraction.
Boundaries also apply to other people who may be sharing the same space. Children can work alongside you as if they were coming to the office.

You won't have the same cues as you do from your workplace to remind you to get up or get lunch. When you lose the pace of your day, everything can start to blend together.

Treat your exercise, meals and stretch breaks as you would any other meeting. Put it on your calendar, at least to start.

• Though employees are happy to see the demise of daily commutes and parking hassles, they are finding out that there is no work-life balance at home.
• Most workers live in apartments that aren’t suitable for 8 to 10 hours of work every day, as it was never designed to be a full-fledged office.
• Many employees would want to get back to offices as soon as possible due to social and mental issues, like the feeling of loneliness at home.

Monitoring software that checks time spent on different applications, chat response time, and keystroke recording is now in great demand.

HR departments worldwide are fueling the use of technology to have a way to control the employees that are now no longer in the office.

WFH (Work From Home) eventually means you are working from coffee shops, parking lots, from your car while driving, and almost anywhere you can log in to your laptop or communicate on your phone.

No one knows where you are and what you are doing, and that can be an advantage, but also can be misused. 

The schedule that makes you start early, and mimic the office hours works best, as you end up being free earlier too. However, night owls may find working at night to be more productive or comfortable for them.

Maintaining a schedule in a routine, while incorporating regular exercise with it, works best.

The highest levels of arousal and negative emotions. It reflects significant restlessness and aggression.

A person in a reactant boredom state has persistent thoughts about specific, “more highly valued alternative situations”, a strong motivation to escape their boring situation and those responsible for it. 

A more negative feeling reflecting a sense of unpleasant restlessness and an active search for ways out of the boredom mindset. A person might think about alternative activities, hobbies, leisure, or work.

Make a to-do list a day before and start without friction in the morning with complete clarity.

Having a structure of the day helps in your productivity, and gets you to finish your important tasks on time.

Try to block some time off your workday to have a stroll outside, or to make coffee, or a midday lunch break. This brings the day under your control.

• According to the World Health Organization, Burnout is classified as an occupational phenomenon, also known as vital exhaustion.
• It is a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress and anxiety, causing physical and mental problems.
• The symptoms include energy depletion, exhaustion, increased mental distance, a negative outlook towards one’s job and diminished productivity.

Burnout is experienced in a different shade at home, where the symptoms tend to be tiredness, confusion, forgetfulness, frustration and anger. As the mood starts to dip slowly, the mind reaches a low state, from which it is hard to climb back.

Taking a vacation is a great idea, to begin with, even if you don’t really go anywhere. The idea is to take a break from your work.

Studies on long term work-from-home workers found that lack of interaction with colleagues and the lack of an office vibe can result in a disconnection from the outer world, leading to isolation.

Pitfalls of working from home: 

• Mental health disorders like anxiety, stress, and depression
• Feeling isolated
• Less self-discipline
• Lack of exercise
• Unable to keep the boundaries between work and life.

People with high frustration tolerances are the ones that generally succeed at remote work. And you can take steps to raise your frustration tolerance and become more conscientious by working on your impulsivity.

A non-conscientious person will find another activity (a distraction most likely) the moment something challenging or uncomfortable comes up. They have to be more conscious to stay in the moment: count to five or take five deep breaths, for example.

When work and personal activities are occurring in the same space, there are no cues for you to behave the way you do at work while you are outside your physical office.

Those who work well from home create boundaries in a work-life world without them. Then, once these parameters are established, people who commit fewer ‘boundary violations’ are better off.

The key to working from home is clear communication with your boss. Your manager might not be used to managing people virtually or may not have a ready-to-go suite of tools for remote workers.

To prevent a breakdown in communication, you need to know exactly what's expected of you from day-to-day. Ask your boss for a 10-minute video call to start and end the day. Reach out to coworkers and managers regularly so that you won't get forgotten.

• Don't lounge around in your pajamas. Treat it like a real job.
• Create a space exclusively for work that is removed from distractions, just like you would at your office desk.
• Create boundaries within your home that your family members understand when you're 'at work.'
• Bookend your day. If you can't enter and leave a physical office that creates more precise boundaries, use psychological transitions like a 20-minute coffee in the morning, then exercise right after work.

The Storyteller can tap emotions and weave a persuasive narrative.

An audience may not remember every single data point or statistic, but they will remember a great story or emotional connection.

Pros: Focused on making an emotional connection with the audience.

Cons: Not suitable for audiences that just want a factual answer to a simple question.

The Closer jumps into a presentation, cuts right to the chase, delivers the bottom line and skips all the boring stuff.

It sees the end goal and goes right for it. 

Pros: reduces a presentation to its esssence.

Cons: may be perceived as too harsh or abrupt.