Since the global covid-19 pandemic began, a lot of business and offices are moving their employees to work outside their office environment. Many of us chose to work from home. 

But do you know that shifting your work routine like that can caused you burnouts? Are you already having them? Here are a few tips on how to avoid having burnouts while working from home; or from anywhere, if you’re already a remote-working warrior since before the pandemic started.

There are several reasons why remote-working employees ended up with burnouts and disrupting their usual working rhythm;

The first one is about lacking supportive working environment. It can be in the form of no office utilities that can be utilized at home (e.g., stable internet connection, printers or copiers, AC, etc.) and no colleagues’ presence that can be asked for help or advice. Employees might feel isolated and alone once in a while. For some of us, it’s depressing. 

The second one is about lacking of inspiration. If your job has something to do with creative industry, this is a major issue. Surely working from home is comfortable and cost-effective perhaps, but what’s the point of being comfy and all, if you can’t get your job done at the end of the day (or at deadline), right?

The third one is the most common issue that remote-working employees have to dealt with, the flexibility. Yes, you read that right. Since those employees are working remotely, managers and colleagues wouldn’t realize how many actual workloads they are having. Online meetings and phone calls will be ringing off the hook most of the time. And there’s no escape. 

Since employees can’t be monitored visually by their managers, then answering those calls and attending long hours meetings are utilized to see whether those employees are actually working & not dozing off. Not all of them, but many managers are still running their team like that. Such flexibility and the inability to disconnect are also a nightmare for many employees.

Now here are some things that you can do to avoid getting burnouts;

Prepare a comfortable spot

If you decide to do your remote-working activities from your home, then first you should find a comfy spot. It can be in one of the corners of your living room, your bedroom, your library (if you actually have one). Basically, somewhere comfortable, with good temperature & air flow, and also quiet. You need it to be calm & quiet when you’re working, or having online meetings. 

Set schedule to do house chores

Let say you do work from home, and you’re living alone; then maybe you need to arrange schedule to juggle between work and house chores. You don’t want to actually doing your laundry, or start making a meal, or grocery run, the moment your online meeting starts, right? 

It’s always better to create a proper day-to-day schedule to prevent such conflict. Or if you have extra budget that you can spare, you can hire additional help to do your chores. Unless, doing house chores is an activity you deliberately do to escape work routine and you actually enjoy doing it. 

The point is, whether you enjoy doing house chores or not, don’t let those activities conflicting with your professional work. It’s unprofessional, and stressful. 

Pomodoro is another way to go

Now, since you will have the independence of arranging your work schedule, why don’t you go apply the Pomodoro method, to maintain productivity and your focus throughout the day? Set intervals, take a 5-10 minutes break after every 25 minutes of working; and take a 20-minutes break after several 25 minutes of working. 

You can get a cheap kitchen timer to do this, or better, use your phone built-in alarm apps. This will also help to keep burnouts at bay.

Bored at home? Try going outside

Even when you’re working in the office, boredom will always strike once in a while. If that happen, you can visit other areas of the office building to cool off. But what if you only have a whole house to roam around, of which all parts of it you already familiar with? 

Well, you can try to change the atmosphere by working let say from a coffee shop, or a public park, or even public library. The ones that aren’t crowded, of course, for safety and healthy reasons. You can bring your laptop and stuff, and just go there, pick a nice spot, and work quietly there for a good 3-4 hours.

A change of scenery is a must every now and then. 

Take a day-off, or hours-off

What to do if you already feel a little bit burning out by the workloads? Take a day-off after you have completed a work or a project. You can discuss this with your manager (hey, it’s a yes or no question; the worst you can get is a “no”). Or, if taking a day-off is not possible, at least try to take some hours off from your day. You can block out a few hours during the day to close your laptop and just sit back and relax, to replenish your energy. 

Since you’re at home, you can even take a 1-hour power nap to recharge. Don’t stretch this too far though, otherwise people will think you are just being lazy and will make an issue out of it. 

But if you think what you need is actually a leave or vacation, then take it. You get done with your work, and let everyone know that you’re taking a break for a couple of days. If your manager or your team can’t afford anyone to take breaks every once in a while, then you should really consider looking for other places to work. Remember, your time & your mental health are far more valuable than the money. 

Set limits & boundaries

All in all, as an employee and a team member, you really need to set limits and boundaries. Be assertive, and be clear when communicating things with your colleagues. Even when you’re face to face with them on the office, you can still get things misunderstood, and ended up having more workload on your desk; remote working is not going to improve this condition either. 

Remember, just because you’re always replying and you’re at home, that doesn’t mean you have to be constantly available to your colleagues. Set a firm start time, break time, and end time; and let your team knows about it. 

By working remotely and independently, you have more responsible to your work and your career. Don’t let burnouts getting in the way for your development. Do above activities if you’re sensing even a small fraction of a burnout in you. Don’t overlook it. Take preventive measures.