Looking After Your Mental Health Whilst Working Remotely

This week is Mental Health Awareness Week and we thought this would be a great opportunity to discuss mental health whilst working remotely. As many of you may be finding that working from home brings a new range of challenges to the individual, with the effects mentally being on one them. So here are some tips try help you whilst working from home.

1. Set a routine. 
Without clear time constraints it's easy for a day to seem overwhelming and the lines between work and home life become blurred. Set yourself a routine for each day so your body gets used to the routine. You could even match this to your typical going to work timings and use the commute time to read a book or exercise.
2. Take breaks.
Taking breaks can boost your productivity! But it's also important that we just 5-10 minutes to stretch our legs, take a break from the screen and just relax our mind. Even better for go for a walk and run to really relax and disconnect.
3. Socialise.
You may feel alone but the likely hood is everyone else in your team also is so reach out to catch ups or organise work socials. There are also lots of virtual networking events, a good way to see some other human faces and who knows what opportunities you may discover.
4. Dedicated work space.
This isn't possible for everyone and we know some days just working on the sofa seems like the best option but try and have a space for working. Over time your brain will relate this area to work and being productive. Then once you are out of this space, you know it's time to relax.
5. Switch off
It is so important to make sure you do switch off at the end of the day. A work and home life balance can he hard to strike when they are both happening in the same place. The previous mentioned points of a schedule and work space can help separate the two but you need to resist the email check past your working hours. Give yourself the time to relax and recharge before the next day.

The last point and possibly most important is to be kind to yourself. We will all have bad days, just focus on things will get better and we all have days where we don't feel like we are coping. Just know you're not alone and we will all get through this.