Often, the initial response to working from home is relief, perhaps due to the novelty of the situation and other benefits such as relief from long commute times, minimal contact with toxic co-workers, and not having a boss looking over your shoulder at all times. However, after a few weeks or months, people begin to feel the negative effects of isolation, which only tends to worsen over time. This is what most people around the world are now facing.

Increasing cases of mental health deterioration

As per a study undertaken by the Indian Psychiatry Society, the number of mental illness cases in India increased by 20% within a week of commencement of the first lockdown. A few months later, the number of mental health issues reported began to accelerate. Experts attributed this rise in a parallel mental health pandemic, in large part, to woes of working from home. This fallout of working from home is a global trend.

A report published in April 2020, by Blind, a US-based professional network group, states that 52.9% of survey participants across organisations like Facebook, Apple, Walmart, and LinkedIn among others were suffering from loneliness due to working from home and social distancing.

The challenges of working from home

Stress begins to surge once the uniqueness of working from home wears off and its challenges rear their ugly head, leaving people in disbelief. While working from home has its share of advantages, it can create its own unique set of stressors. Here are a few of the common stress-producing challenges that those working from home face.

1. Muddling up of personal and professional life

Professional interactions, adherence to rules and policies as well as structure and organisation are the norm at workplace. Home, on the other hand, is synonymous with relaxation, unwinding and personal/family time. Home is a cosy environment where you enjoy home-cooked meals, read a book or simply play with your kids. When you enter your home, you are supposed to leave the rigidity of your workplace and the woes of your work outside. But working from home tends to dissolve the clear boundary that exists between workspace and personal space. As a result, you begin to feel like you’re never off the job.

2. Too many distractions

The dynamics of a home are different than those of a workplace. There are often children at home, retired parents and sometimes even a non-working spouse. For no fault of theirs, housemates find it difficult to respect the sanctity of work hours and end up causing distractions, even if unintentionally — after all they are at home, which has suddenly turned into an office for you. Plus, there are doorbells, quick personal phone calls, pets, sounds of TV, snacking or lunch with family — you get the drift. What most people don’t realise is that even minor distractions can disturb the flow of work, from which one takes time to recover. The result is poor efficiency and lower productivity.

3. No sense of timing

When working from home, work tends to stretch beyond the stipulated work hours. Employees are often expected to finish work assignments or get on calls at odd hours, including holidays, late nights, and weekends.

4. Communication woes

Not being in physical presence of your colleagues can make it difficult to communicate regarding work related matters, causing potential mishaps and adding to the stress of working from home.

5. Lack of social connections

Being around people and colleagues you can talk to about work-related issues helps release the pent-up steam of stress — a vent that is unavailable to those working from home. It is worse for those who live alone. Isolation might feel blissful at the start, but it can soon transform into full-blown depression arising out of a feeling of being disconnected from the world.

6. Physical and mental strains

Virtual meetings, long phone calls and sitting continuously put tremendous strain on your physical and mental health. Computer vision syndrome, carpal tunnel syndrome, back pain and other issues are common for those who are constantly working in a virtual environment.

While this is not an exhaustive list of issues that those working from home face, it gives you an idea how and why it can be so stressful. Let’s now see how we can deal with these challenges and keep stress and anxiety to the minimum. Here is a list of 11 ways that will make working form home less stressful and more productive.

11 ways to beat the stress of working from home

1. Plan and schedule

A key trigger of stress at work, or home, is poor productivity, which is usually the result of lack of planning and absence of a proper schedule. So, start your day by writing a to-do list and strike each activity after its completion. The very acts of planning your work and listing your tasks are in themselves empowering. You will feel in control and be able to resist getting distracted and therefore improve your overall focus. You might want to use productivity apps to help your efforts. [Read Sack Your Workload to learn how clearing, focussing, structuring, and action can help you increase productivity at work]

2. Create work protocols at home

Just because you are at home doesn’t mean you are not doing serious work. If your folks at home tend to take you and your work lightly just because you’re at home, sit them down and help them understand the importance of respecting workspace. Set work-related ground rules and protocols that everyone, including you, will respect during work hours. For instance, personal phone calls should be off-limits—unless there is an emergency.

3. Treat your workspace as sacred

Give your workspace the respect it deserves. For instance, keep your desk neat and avoid leaving personal stuff there. If possible, resist the temptation of using your desk for anything other than work. Doing so will create a mental boundary to keep personal and work-related issues from becoming intertwined.

4. Schedule regular breaks

Working at a stretch can, in the long run, cause undue strain on your physical and mental health and the situation worsens in a virtual work environment. In a formal work setup, there are specific times allotted for a long lunch break and short tea time breaks etc. Continue to follow the same schedule and insist that your colleagues follow them too. Breaks are important to avoid problems like eye fatigue and brain fog, which can affect productivity and efficiency, besides adding to stress and anxiety. [Read The hidden and obvious dangers of sitting too long]

5. Ask for help

When working from home, there is a tendency to take on more than you can chew, which often becomes a source of tremendous stress. Whenever you feel overburdened, reach out to a colleague, or even your boss. Seeking help is not a sign of weakness. It is an acknowledgement that you are human and have limits — just like everyone else.

6. Step out of your home

Working from home doesn’t mean you stay glued to your chair or sofa all day. Stepping out of your home is necessary for your mental and physical fitness. Assuming lockdown rules in your region allow it, make it a point to get outdoors at least once a day. If possible, take a quick stroll during one of your break times to get some sunlight and outdoor vibes. Later in the evening, go for a walk or just run some errands.

7. List the tasks you complete

Being home all day might make you feel that you’re not doing enough and may therefore experience a sense of guilt, inadequacy or overwhelm. One way to deal with such feelings is to list down all the small and big tasks you have completed at the end of the day. Making an accomplishment list every night builds your motivation and confidence, besides keeping feelings of overwhelm and guilt at bay.

8. Be mindful of your posture

Your posture makes a huge difference to not just your health but also the quality of your work. Always sit upright with your back arched. Invest in an ergonomic chair; if that is not possible, at least put a firm cushion on the back of the chair to support your lower back. [Read Why good posture matters]

9. Spare time to relax

Spare time for some form of stress busting activity – meditation, family time, workout, dance, or art – the idea is to eliminate the stream of muddled thoughts that fill your mind. Regular practice of meditation and mindfulness can produce a deep state of relaxation as well as a tranquil mind.

10. Take days off for sickness and leisure

There will be times when you feel unwell. On such days, don’t hesitate to avail of sick leave like you would’ve done had you been working from an office. You might think it’s OK to work as long as you are physically rested. But when you are sick, you need to rest and recuperate both mentally and physically. So do take time off for full recovery. Also, don’t forget to go on leisure vacations from time to time, for the sake of preserving your mental and emotional health.

11. Go easy on yourself

Finally, there will be days when you’re not going to be as productive at home as you are at the workplace – at least till you become used to it. So, calibrate your expectations accordingly and don’t be too hard on yourself when you fall behind on occasion. Resolve to learn from the experience so that you become better at juggling the responsibilities. Likewise, don’t forget to pat yourself when you do well.

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Pre-vacation

Most of our vacations follow a predictable pattern and style, from the planning to the actual vacationing. The preparation phase of a vacation is exciting. It takes considerable creativity to imagine everything that might go wrong while travelling [snowfall in summer, food poisoning, sudden craving for theplas in Heidelberg] before deciding what to stuff in your suitcases. The day of departure is the most hectic: emptying the fridge, stuffing door-gaps with newspapers to keep the dust out of the house, making frantic calls to newspaper and milk delivery guys, triple checking if all the doors and windows are locked before rushing off to the airport or train station. When you are roughly halfway to your destination, you are suddenly seized with the nagging feeling that you might have forgotten to turn the gas cylinder off. You spend the remaining journey imagining a charred house that will greet you when you are back and a life thereafter spent in penury.

Nonetheless, in my experience, a vacation has four stages: when, where, I can’t believe I’m finally here, and phew! It’s good to be home.

Most of our vacations follow a predictable pattern and style, from the planning to the actual vacationing

When

Deciding when to take a break is governed by a lot of factors. If you have school and college-going kids who are still not embarrassed to be seen with their parents, you plan your getaway to coincide with their holidays. Nowadays, however, most children spend their vacations in coaching classes and other activities that are supposed to turn them into super-achieving clones. Regardless, family vacations do happen, and planning them can be a nightmarish experience.

Contrarily, if you are unattached, so to speak, planning when to take a trip is a relatively personal decision. You simply wait for the symptoms to show up. These include restlessness, driving your colleagues insane with ‘I-could-so-do-with-a-break’ whining, and extreme envy at your just-returned-from-Leh friend’s travel photos on Facebook.

Where

This is usually dictated by three things: ‘must-visit places’ listicles that you browse while pretending to work, vacation pictures shared on Facebook or Instagram by “friends” you’ve never met, and a long, hard look at your bank balance and all your outstanding bills. Gone are those days when people could throw darts on the world atlas to decide their next holiday destination. The passionately patriotic Indian these days keenly follows prime ministerial itineraries to draw inspiration for new destinations.

A vacation has four stages: when, where, I can’t believe I’m finally here, and phew! It’s good to be home.

I can’t believe I’m finally here

So you’ve finally arrived at your dream destination. You congratulate yourself on booking the ‘romantique suite’ at the so-called heritage hotel after weeks of sifting through listings on travel websites and burning midnight oil extracting the essence from conflicting reviews. And it turns out to be a matchbox in a rundown building with a sewer-side view [your room with a view]. Not the type to waste time on heartbreaks, a DSLR camera slung around your neck, you set out immediately clutching maps and lists of must-dos [usually in multiples of 10] that you downloaded from someone’s blog.

You risk being disowned by the Worldwide Association of Hyper Tourists till you record the most ‘out-of-the-world’ experiences in a day and get herded around like cattle in tour buses. When you get time from watching the sunrise from the top of a volcano and the sunset from behind shrubs filled with rare snakes, you pose and preen in front of monuments, fountains and the Armani store, hoping one of them turns out to be a superb profile picture that fetches you hundreds of likes on Facebook.

It’s not a vacation well-spent till you exclaim “Oh god! I’ve put on so much weight” every few hours. It’s not fun till you feel guilty of having too much fun. Within a few days of hectic vacationing and plying yourself with meals so exotic that you can’t even pronounce their names, you start craving ghar ka khaana and the comfort of your own bed.

It’s not a vacation well-spent till you exclaim “Oh god! I’ve put on so much weight” every few hours

Phew! It’s good to be home

Vacations may be cruel reminders of how boring our regular life is. But when you finally walk into your living room—nursing bunions, lower back pain and a tan that makes you look like a roasted aubergine—you inhale the stale air and exclaim, “It’s so good to be home!” That’s the cruel irony of our lives: we long to escape our mundane lives and when we finally do, we start missing our boring yet comforting routine.

Then you commit the biggest mistake of weighing yourself. After you’ve managed to scream the daylights out of your neighbours and the pigeons on your balcony, you Google “how to lose weight in 10 days” and put yourself on a punishing diet. Within days of washing kilos of unwashed laundry, restoring the house back to its shining glory, eating 20 grams of carrots and 6 raisins for all your meals, going through zillions of unread spam and emails, and putting extra hours at the office to finish all your pending work, your vacation euphoria becomes a distant memory.

You are completely drained. You flop on your chair and exclaim, “Damn, I am so tired, I could certainly do with a vacation!” And the cycle begins all over again.

A version of this was first published in the December 2015 issue of Complete Wellbeing.

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