As of: February 12, 2024, 12:00 p.m
By: Marco Blanco Ucles
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Separating private and professional matters when working from home is not that easy.
Therefore, you should heed a few tips to avoid unnecessary stress.
The corona pandemic has given a real boost to the topic of working from home, which has some obvious advantages.
According to the
Federal Statistical Office,
24.7 percent of all employed people in Germany worked from home in 2022.
While some employees use the peace and quiet at home to be more productive, others struggle with multiple stressors that they wouldn't have in the office.
Expert recommends spatial separation in the home office
One of the main problems when working from home is the spatial separation between living space and workplace.
Dr.
Eva Elisa Schneider is an expert on mental health in the workplace and has dealt with stress factors in the home office.
She explains to
focus
: “We often make the mistake of not making any separation between work and free time when working from home.
The laptop is on the dining table, the notebook is next to the bed, the work document is on the coffee table." That's why it helps a lot if possible "to separate the room and have all work-related things in a fixed place at home."
Stress in the home office?
With simple tricks you can separate private and professional matters.
© Pond5 Images/IMAGO
But spatial separation is not only important during working hours.
After work, the laptop or other work device should be out of sight and reach.
Schneider also recommends not having access to work content on your private cell phone: "It's easy to pick up your cell phone and look at your email inbox and you're quickly confronted with work topics again - even though your brain actually wants to switch off."
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Working from home, you quickly get into the rhythm of never really being able to take your eyes off the screen.
Many employees, for example, eat their lunch in front of the computer screen - definitely not the right way.
Because breaks are important to maintain mental freshness while working.
If you want to forego the classic lunch break - at least 30 minutes - you can also use the Pomodoro technique.
“You work for 25 minutes, then take a five-minute break, then work again for 25 minutes, then take another five-minute break and so on,” explains Schneider.
If you don't have the time for this, you should at least take short breaks every now and then to open the window or get some fresh air.
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After work, it's not that easy to switch to leisure mode when working from home.
Schneider also has simple but effective advice for this: “I recommend consciously leaving the apartment after the day working from home and changing the context.” This is possible, for example, with a walk, sport or other social activity.
Schneider explains why this point is so important for mental health: “We have to give our body and mind some transition time to get out of work mode and into leisure mode.
It used to be the train or car ride home, but today we have to create these transitions ourselves.”
Fortunately, there are other tips that can help combat stress at work - both at home and at work.