A healthy workplace when you’re working from home is important to master because unlike a typical office job, you don’t have the luxuries that you’d usually get. So whether you’re new to working from home or you’ve been doing it for a while now, there are some great tips that can help make it healthier for you, your body, and most importantly, your mind. Here are some tips for creating a healthy workplace at home.
Keep It Separate To The Rest Of The Home
The office space or where you work from home is important to solidify from the very start, otherwise you’ll be tempted to work from your bed or from the sofa in your living room, and that’s not healthy. Not only because these places will tend to be bad for your back and body, but also it blurs the lines between what is your home and what is your work space. Try to keep the work area to one section of the home, and ideally, you need to have a separate room if possible. Make sure you’ve got some form of working desk, whether it’s a sit down or standing one and a good chair for supporting your body too. By separating your workspace, you’re certainly going to feel a lot more motivated to do work and to switch off when you need to. That balance is important to have when working from home.
Declutter Every So Often
A declutter is a good way of making sure your working space is clean and tidy but also safe and void of any tripping hazards. The same can go for office spaces in general as sometimes these can get messy and overcrowded too. However, a good declutter can help make sure your space is a place you want to work in and not somewhere that’s going to cause you injuries. Try to clean up after yourself as you go, making sure to do a quick office desk tidy up either at the end of each day or certainly at the end of the week. It just puts you in that position where you can start off a day or week in the right mindset, instead of feeling like you need to be cleaning up straight off the bat. It’s also getting some professional cleaning and checks done to your home so that you are working in a healthy environment, like stewarts drug testing, for example.
Eat Healthily At Home
It’s all about what you put in your body that counts, and when you’re trying to stay healthy at home, it can be easy to fall into the trap of eating bad food because you can get away with it. Make sure you’re ordering in some healthier options in your weekly shop so that you can continue to maintain your health and wellbeing through your diet. Talking of food, your lunch hour should still exist, even if you’re working from home. You shouldn’t be sacrificing your break time for any job, no matter where you work. Take the full hour to get away from your desk and to give your brain a break for a while. It’s important to do so!
If you’re not taking the right amount of breaks throughout the day, you’ll likely become demotivated, and that’s not what you want when you’re trying to get your work done.
Play Some Relaxing Background Music
Music can really help to focus you and keep you in that working mindset. It can sometimes be difficult to get up and get motivated, but having background music can be helpful to some people. Some prefer music that has no lyrics to avoid distracting, whilst others can work to find off any type of music. Find what helps you the most and use that to get the most out of your working day. Relaxing spa music is a popular choice for most and can be a great way to find some peace and quiet when perhaps it’s a little noisy at home.
Bring In The Light
Light can really affect your mood, and it can often change how impactful your working day is. Depending on where your office space is, you want to be thinking about ways you can help bring in more daylight. If you don’t have the best windows, then you can always purchase lighting that has the ability to mimic daylight and will likely be just as effective. Never work in the dark because not only is this unhealthy, but it’s not going to help your mind get focused. It’ll likely feel for your body as though you are meant to be asleep or that it’s the evening, and it’s time to unwind or go to bed. This is something to be aware of during the winter when the days are shorter in light.
Take Regular Breaks
Regular breaks as mentioned above already, are highly important for you to fit into your daily work life. There are so many benefits to taking regular breaks, and the main one is that it gives you time to get up and stretch. That’s important when it comes to looking after your body. Try and time your breaks, making sure to take them routinely as part of the day so that you get used to doing it more often and until it stays in your routine permanently. It’s so important that you are getting in that personal time for yourself, otherwise it can become dangerous for your health to ignore it.
Creating a healthy workplace at home will take a little time and adjustment on your part. It might not be something you nail straight away, but if you set some boundaries to begin with, it will be a lot easier. Focus on getting the the right atmosphere for your space but keeping it to the one room where possible. Take regular breaks and know when to switch off. It can be hard to do that when you’re working from home all of the time.