Are you one of the millions who have found themselves in the stressful situation of trying to work from home? Here are a few tips to keep us happier at home?
Let in the light
The benefits of daylight are huge. Sunlight, alongside fresh air and access to nature, is fundamentally good for your mental health. It triggers the brain to release the hormone serotonin, helps you feel calm and focussed, boosts your mood, reduces anxiety and regulates sleep. Dealing with Covid has been exhausting for everyone so that’s particularly important right now. The good news is that people often have more control over light than they might think. If you can, put your desk near a window and draw the curtains back fully. Clean the windows inside and out as dirt can significantly reduce the amount of sunlight passing through them. Use mirrors to bounce light around the room and paint the room a light colour as this can also reflect the light. Choose an upstairs room if you can as they almost always capture more sunlight, as do rooms with a higher ceiling.
Shut out the noise
Different parts of your brain are constantly trying to recognise different noises and changes in sounds. That can be hugely distracting from trying to work. Sharp noises are more of a problem than a low level babble and as some parts of your brain scan for changes you might only get distracted when the noise stops. Noise taps into your ‘fight or flight’ response”, your adrenal glands pump adrenaine and your blood pressure goes up. It’s partly about what the noise means to you. So, for example, your own child crying will be much harder to ignore than traffic noise of the same volume. Earplugs might be a solution or consider soft furnishings, thicker carpets and heavier curtains to absorb the sound.
Declutter
Studies have found that clutter can raise your level of cortisol, a stress hormone, as clutter over-stimulates your brain. Normal levels of cortisol with occasional spikes are perfectly healthy but chronically high levels of cortisol are associated with anxiety, headaches and sleep disruption. While a certain amount of clutter in a relaxing home, may not be a problem, if it’s now a workplace, you’re in a different need state, you need to cut down on distraction. So have a proper clear out, get organised and get some proper storage if you can.
Stand up
If your commute is now from the bedroom to the box room or the kitchen table, you’re probably missing out on physical activity that can help keep you mentally as well as physically fit. Exercise is a natural anti-anxiety treatment, relieving stress, boosting physical and mental energy. One option is to get a standing desk if you can and stand some of the day and sit some of the day but also take breaks and go for a walk. The commute was also a kind of decompression time for many people. It enabled people to put a clear boundary between their work and home life. When you’re working at home the boundaries have become blurred so take a quick walk when you finish work to clear your head.
Use plants
Many claims are made for the mental benefits of contact with the natural world: reducing blood pressure, anxiety, stress and rumination (endlessly going over the same thoughts) while improving attention, memory and sleep. Bringing plants and other natural objects and images into your homework space can have a significant impact. Looking at natural objects can give your brain a break or a series of ‘micro-breaks’ from focusing. They take up your attention in a helpful rather than a demanding or over-stimulating way. We also associate nature with recreation and relaxation, so again that can help enhance our mood.
Social contact…and not just online
People who find themselves unhappy working at home need to think hard about what it is they miss about going to the office and try to compensate for whatever they’ve lost. Top of the list, for many people, is social contact. More of us than we might expect get the majority, maybe 80 or 90%, of our social contact from being at work. Whether that’s chatting with colleagues in the office or the lunch queue, in the lift or on the stairs, it matters to a huge number of people. When the lockdown came, all of that disappeared quite suddenly. It does depend what kind of personality you are but many people need to get more real social contact in other ways. So get out at lunchtime and in the evenings and, whenever you are able to, connect with friends, family and neighbours – people you feel connected to. Meeting others is obviously much harder in lockdown but he suggests meeting another person to exercise with or to walk with.