5 Tips to Cope with the Stress of Working From Home
During the covid-19 lockdown, many people experienced a sudden change in their daily routines. The lines between work and personal have become blurred and hours become irregular. Many couples had to learn to work with each other in the same space and parents learnt to work and oversee their children’s work at the same time.
Although the lock down is over, work from home has become the new norm. How can we then be in control and cope with the heightened stress of working from home?
The truth is, if you could accept this, You are in charge of your mind, and therefore your results! This is one of the first things Lindley Craig, my NLP coach, and the President of the NLP Association (Singapore), has reminded us in the first week of our Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) training. Interestingly, a meditation teacher once told me something similar too – You have said YES to everything in your life. The fact you have actively participated or simply accepted the choice means you have agreed to it.
Applying this principle, how can we then be in charge of our lives and make the best decisions we can even during this unprecedented times we are in?
My Personal Tips – How to Cope with Working from Home?
Tip # 1 – See the silver lining in the current situation
This is not about being positive all the time. It is realizing that your map is not your territory, and we can all benefit in expanding our own map! When we do so, our realities will broaden and will feel more empowered with more choices. For instance, does work from home now give you time to do other things you wanted to do and have not been able to do so with the fixed working hours constraint?
Tip # 2 – Increase your choices
Now that you see more possibilities, come up with a list. What is important to you about working from home? For me, the values of working from home came up to quite a long list! It includes:
A quick workout (even if it is 15 minutes HIIT)
Having dinner with the boys
Fetching the boys from school and the meaningful conversation I can have with them during the car ride
The list goes on….
Tip #3 – Rank these choices
Rank each value against the other, until you get the top three values that are important to you about working from home.
Tip #4 – Evaluate Your Choices
For each of the top 3 values, dive into “What does each value mean to you?” and “Why are they important to you?” This will help you gain clarity to what is really important to you. Not what is important to every one else.
Tip #5 – Start Executing!
Nothing will change for you unless you make the change! Once you have your list, start putting them onto your calendar! I would block time out each day for my work out, or time needed for fetching the boys and dinner with family. These are important to me (hence in my top 3!) and I try my best as much as possible to keep to them.
Working from Home is challenging, and managing this new norm is POSSIBLE!
Elynn Teo | Creator | The Mind Studio
From a finance-leader to a coach, Elynn is passionate about empowering others through their mindset to become a better version of themselves and live a flourishing life. Elynn spent 18 years working in highly dynamic and fast-paced corporate environments and held various global leadership roles. During this time, Elynn had the privilege to lead and serve global and virtual teams. And, it is through these beautiful souls that Elynn discovered her passion of empowering others to become a better self. Elynn holds a Bachelor in Accountancy, Graduate Diploma in Applied Positive Psychology and Graduate Certificate in Counselling. She is currently pursuing her Master Practitioner in Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Masters in Counselling.
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