Ways to Avoid Burnout from working from home
What does work burnout feel like?
Burnout feels like having no energy left at the end of the day to help do the things that help you unwind from the work you did, all day.
What does burnout feel like when you work from home?
For many people, working from home causes people to feel like you can’t escape from work due to working at home.
Burnout from working remotely could be too many hours spent behind a screen or doing too many tasks at once so that you’re forgetting to eat, take care of yourself, rest and enjoy life.
People who work from home can get burned out because they make their own schedules, get distracted during the day which may potentially lead to less productivity and feeling isolated.
Working from home involves all the demands of work whilst also being independent and relying on ones’ own autonomy. People tend to struggle with time management, goal setting and staying motivated when working from home, if managed poorly this can lead to burnout.
3 Ways to Avoid Burnout from home
- Make time to recharge
Make sure to take regular breaks, this could include taking a walk, cooking, or practicing a new skill. Make sure to not strain your eyes from the screen, by having screen time rests within the day. Another tip would be to plan a productive schedule for the day or week and to stick to the schedule that includes regular breaks.
- Don’t overwork yourself
Be honest about if something “can wait until tomorrow.” Working on things after dinner or right before bed can potentially lead to burnout. If you find yourself finishing tasks and projects and you’re not on deadline, ask yourself: “Will this have the same effect if I do it tomorrow at 9 am?” If the answer is yes, engage in a leisure activity you enjoy, shut off from work-related things to stop burnout before it happens.
Stop working on weekends!
Do whatever you can to finish your work during the week if that’s what is expected of you. When you work from home, the physical and mental separation between work and life, and life and work, can get really blurred.
- Make yourself a rewards system
One way to keep motivated while working from home is to create rewards for yourself. For example, you could reward yourself on a weekly basis. Did you hit all your goals for this week, or did you finish a project ahead of time? Use a constant system of rewarding yourself to avoid burnout and to introduce positivity into your schedule.
