Working from home isn’t great for your stress levels. You can no longer leave the tension and drama at the office—instead, it’s right at home with you at all times, making it hard to escape. The good news is even though preventing stress when you work remotely can be tricky, there are a handful of different tips you can use to help reduce it.
To ensure your time spent working from home doesn’t leave you feeling like a ball of stress, use these tips. It won’t take long before you find your calm once again.
5 Simple Ways to Reduce Stress When Working Remotely
1. Create a Separate Workspace
When you work at the kitchen table, in bed, or on the couch, you’re going to start associating those places with work—even after you clock out for the day. Get a desk (even a small one!) and set up a workplace specifically for work. Once you’re finished, it allows you to walk away from your job and maintain a true work-life balance the best you can when working from home.
2. Do a Daily Workout
It doesn’t matter how long your workout is. As long as you move your body and get your heart rate up every day, you’ll be doing wonders in lowering your stress levels. According to Harvard Medical School, when you exercise, you reduce the levels of stress hormones in the body, as well as increasing the production of endorphins—the chemicals that make you feel happy and elevate your mood. Try one of Intuition’s live or on-demand fitness classes to banish stress, whether you’re trying a yoga flow or a heart-pounding HIIT class.
3. Take Breaks
Just because you’re working from home doesn’t mean you don’t still deserve your breaks throughout the day. Make sure to utilize that time to do something that relaxes you—and stay away from your laptop while doing so. Even if it’s just making a lemonade and sitting outside in the sun for 10 minutes, you’ll return back to work feeling less stressed.
4. Meditate on the Regular
If you’re not meditating regularly, there’s no better time to start than now. Intuition has live and on-demand meditation sessions led by instructors, making it easy to follow along—especially if you’re a newbie. According to the Mayo Clinic, it’s a simple way to help ease stress, anxiety, and tension that’s keeping you from feeling your best, and you feel the effects almost immediately.
5. Go for a Walk
One of the best ways to beat stress is simply going for a walk and spending more time out in nature. Past research has shown taking 20 minutes out of your day to go on a walk outside can lower your stress hormone levels. After you return back home, that little dose of nature will help you feel calmer, happier, and more productive.
