Like many other changes, remote working became a new normal during the recent pandemic. Though this change was mandatory for the safety of workers, a recent study reported about 35% of employees feeling exhausted while working from home. Since the office commute is converted to a walk to another room, this seems counterintuitive.
However, experts believe that fatigue from remote work is a result of many other factors. Let us learn a few of them:
1. Unlimited Distractions
Many people think about remote working like it’s the easiest thing in the world; however, this new trend has many disadvantages, and an abundance of distractions is one of them! Children playing in the room, a talkative spouse, television noise in the background, pets trying to grab your attention, and your kids playing nearby are some of the many distractions that can keep you from focusing on work.
As a result, a task that used to be completed in an hour now takes more time and effort, making us tired, lethargic, and demotivated. Apart from it, a call on the phone, a door-bell, or a visit by a relative mandates’ social interactions. We can’t help it; we have to get up and engage in polite conversation, and that breaks our flow of work.
These routine distractions contribute to procrastination, which makes us work long hours, leading to fatigue.
How to Fix:
Dedicate a small portion of your house to remote working. Working on a messy bed with kids playing around can be extremely distracting. Besides this, dedicate some time to these distractions. Like you can have your lunch or tea break with the family.
2. Lack of Exercise
Isolating in a room and trying to focus on your work is a good idea. However, this practice restricts our movements. In comparison to an organization where we often need to walk around to the meeting rooms, cafeteria, and other departments, work from home makes us dull and inactive.
Sitting in front of your laptop for eight hours straight on a comfortable couch is enough to make you sleepy. Naturally, you end up feeling lazy and tired all day.
Tip:
Try to move around while working. Breaks are always helpful for taking another fresh start. Take a five minutes workout break to shake your limbs and get some energy going. However, the best tip is to start your day with some light exercise; take a walk around the block, jog, or bike in the park to get your body energized before you start your day.
Â
3. New Pressures
The pandemic has shuttered down many dining places. Therefore, many people have to cook at home. Secondly, educational institutions are giving online classes, and you need to make sure that your child is taking them. What is more, since children are at home all day with nowhere to go, it falls on the parent to come up with engaging indoor activities to keep them occupied.
All this has given additional responsibility to the people working from home. Our capacity is still the same, but the demand for work has almost doubled. This thing has greatly pressured the remote workers, making them feel exhausted all the time.
Solution:
If you try to take on everything yourself, you will be exhausted all the time, which is injurious for your health. Therefore, we suggest that you plan and delegate as much as you can.
For instance, cooking is taking up your time? Plan and get some meal prep done on the weekend. Cleaning the home is tiring you out even before you start your day? Get a professional cleaning twice a week to do it for you. Carpet Cleaning London, a professional cleaning service, found that people who hired cleaners are more relaxed and stress-free.
4. Limited Connections
The best part of doing an on-site job is socializing. When we go to the office, we interact with our colleagues and develop friendly work relationships. However, when working from home, we miss these relationships, which are very healthy for our corporate life.
Human interaction is an essential ingredient of our work life. We all know that man is a social animal, and this need for socialization is mandatory for our career growth as well as our sanity. When we meet others, we learn from the experiences of other people. This has a direct impact on your professional personality and growth.
When you stay at home, you carry your routine work, but there is no interaction. This feeling of having healthy relations and connections with others releases happy hormones. When there are no happy hormones, there is no motivation for you to work with dedication. On the other hand, many employees work better in competition. In remote work, when employees do not meet each other, there is less competition and thus less motivation to strive for the best work.
How to Fix:
Even if you are working from home, you can still maintain your connections. Try to make a WhatsApp group and have regular chats with your mates. Besides this, make use of video-conferencing to have virtual gatherings at least once a month.
5. Less Luxury
Do you miss the luxury of being in an office? The centrally air-conditioned office with comfortable seating and nice odor is enough to enhance your focus and rejoice your mood. Working at home is way different from it. The messy table with an uncomfortable chair and an old laptop can never provide you the luxurious feel while working.
Apart from it, the free lunch and munching snacks available at your table without any extra efforts are great. At home, you need to get up arrange the lunch on your own. This looks like a tedious task, especially for someone who has a habit of working from the office.
Tip:
Never work in your living room. Dedicate a good portion of your house to remote work. It can be a small portion of your garden or a side place in your study area. Make it look good and comfortable. Try to buy a good chair along with a table so that you can set a nice work station.
Conclusion
In short, working from home looks like a comfortable option. However, it has so many complications behind it. To reap the benefits of remote work, set a routine, and adjust the place to make it comfortable but productive. Remote working is not a joke, it has some serious drawbacks, but these flaws need to be addressed for the best outcomes.
