Quarantine and remote work have dragged on for many people and have been going on for a year now. Unfortunately, covid has made its own corrections to the reality most people were used to. Some have not had to work from home at all, for others it is still going on. This undoubtedly leaves its mark on everyone’s psyche.
In this whole flow of events it is worth remembering that remote work will end one day and we shall have to go back to the offices and start living our usual (or by now unusual) life again. So I want to give you a few recommendations on how not to lose yourself and how to be ready to go out to work beyond your flat or your house. And how to keep the feeling of stress for your body to a minimum. It is high time to make use of the following life hacks: 1. Get up in good time, not right up against the start of the working day. The body needs to wake up and tune in to the working rhythm. If during the period of remote work you have already got used to getting up late, start readjusting your body. Remember that when you have to go back to the office, it will be hard to readjust all at once.
2. Start the day with the rituals you perform on ordinary working days: breakfast, making the bed and so on. Try to recreate a standard weekday morning.
3. If space allows, work if at all possible in a room other than the one where you sleep and eat. This will help the brain to separate work from household matters. That way you will have more chance to rest and to switch over once the working day is done. Try to keep the home atmosphere and the working atmosphere apart as much as you can. If you cannot separate them by space, then create and set up a workplace for yourself. But do not work lying under the duvet, for example.
4. Do not forget about a regime of work and rest. Take breaks from work, make full use of your lunch time. Have breakfast, lunch and dinner accordingly at the hours you have set yourself. If your working day has no fixed hours, draw up a plan of activities.
5. In the evening, tidy your workplace away and “come home”. Remember that you have a family, personal affairs and a personal space that has nothing to do with work. In exactly the same way, try not to let household matters distract you during the day. 6. Go for walks in the fresh air when you can. After all, you are at home even at the time when you would normally be travelling to work. 7. Listen to yourself. What do you want? What do you feel? This will help you manage your life more effectively in a changed world. Unfortunately, there are events we can neither influence nor change in any way. What we can change is our attitude, by treating ourselves, our wishes and our needs with attention and care.
8. Try to talk to people more, share your feelings, your sensations, the events of your life. Ask for help and support if you need it.
In order to get back to a full life after quarantine and remote work as comfortably and as quickly as possible, try to build your day on the model and image of an ordinary working schedule. If you have forgotten what that is like, go back little by little to the routine you always lived in. It is better to start doing this now, while you are still at home, than to readjust with great difficulty later. Everything listed above can also be used by schoolchildren and students to adapt more quickly on their return to their places of study.
