Set boundaries around COVID-19 news Checking coronavirus news alerts excessively will leave you stressed and emotionally drained. Try to make a deliberate effort to detach and develop healthy news habits: toggle off news app push alerts, scan trustworthy outlets for accurate facts, and set regular times for news checking (i.e. once in the morning and evening). To address any questions you may have and to stop nervous thoughts going unchecked, watch the news with others. A further tip is to search in the midst of the pandemic for optimistic, uplifting stories and good news. Your morale and health can be improved by celebrating positive stories.
Follow an everyday routine
In the midst of chaos, coming up with a structured schedule for and day with clear limits between your working and private life can give you a sense of control. Try to break your day into small activities and make sure you build time from doing your interests or exercising to spending time with your kids or pets to do things you enjoy. In addition, set a daily work routine: take frequent breaks, leave your lunch desk, and have a specified time to sign off. Additionally, concentrate on having enough sleep and eating nutritious meals daily.
Exercise
Physical exercise, particularly if you are feeling depressed, can do wonders for your mental health. 150 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity each week are recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), or a combination of both if you are very inspired. That is as little as fifteen minutes a day! The WHO recommends these fitness tips for working out at home:
Take brief active breaks during the day: short sessions of physical activities will keep you occupied from performing domestic chores to playing with your kids.
Join an online exercise class: There is a vast range of online exercise courses thanks to the internet, many of which are free and can be found on YouTube.
Walk: this tip may be easy, but it's still successful. Rolling around will help you stay healthy even at home. For example, if you've got a call, stand or walk around instead of sitting down.
Stand up: To decrease your sedentary period, the WHO advises standing up every 30 minutes. Try setting up a standing desk if you are working from home. Monitor cognitively stimulating behaviors during leisure time: reading, board games or puzzles.
Relax: Exercises in meditation and breathing will help you deal with stress better.
Be an empathic and empathetic team worker
Be clear about your expectations during your job, particularly if you are a manager. Promote and model flexibility and consider the additional needs of workers, such as careful obligations while operating from home.
In distressing situations, experts say that supportive contact within the team is key. It is necessary to:
Discuss and agree on performance metrics and goals in advance (both at individual and team level);
Be specific about work schedules (especially for employees who might not be available for certain periods of the day to work) and let colleagues know what works for you and how to suit the schedule;
Recognize the importance and supportive nature of teams to create resilience and help people in dealing with times of uncertainty, especially in taking decisions.
To protect the mental health and well-being of workers during the pandemic, it is important to ensure frequent, responsive and two-way contact with the team to make mental health a natural part of these discussions and to note the importance of self-care.
Work-life equilibrium is critical
With the second wave of diseases, for the near future, it looks like we will have to telework. For their well-being, some individuals find working from home helpful. Yet working from home brings its own challenges for others. Longer working hours, alienation from peers, virtual connectivity difficulties and technical obstacles can all make us feel more and more depressed. Fear of illness, work security issues or continuing income add up to the causes of poor mental health. The possibility of burnout rises as the boundaries between work and home life blur.
It can have a huge effect on your mental health to let your work life take over your personal life. For you and your friends, make sure you set clear boundaries between work and private life (if you have management responsibilities). When your living room has become your office, it can be difficult to feel like you've really left work. Set defined hours for the end of the working day, put away visual reminders of the working day (e.g. laptop, work papers), switching off work-related alerts during working hours, get out for a stroll and switch off with enjoyable activities and hobbies. Disconnecting from your office physically and giving yourself the opportunity to relax and heal after a day's work would help your stress levels and assist you in the long-term to be more productive.
