Working from home can be a real challenge, and it’s no surprise that stress is common for many remote employees. With more people boarding the work-from-home wagon, stress management has become extremely crucial. Loneliness and burnout are becoming real issues, especially for those new to remote work. Managing stress for remote workers has become just as important as hitting your deadlines. To help you overcome this issue, we have shared some realistic stress management strategies for remote workers that you can easily fit into your daily routine.

How to Identify Work-From-Home Stress

While many are fortunate enough to have empathetic managers, for many remote workers, WFH has added to their stressors as managers have now started micromanaging and demanding them to work overtime. Here are some of the unique challenges of remote work you might be facing in your WFH job:

Remote Work Burnout

Remote work burnout creeps in gradually and leaves you mentally drained before you even realize something is wrong. The intense pressure to perform while working from home sometimes leads employees to push themselves too hard, ultimately reducing their efficiency and also affecting their mental health. Here are 3 warning signs of remote work burnout that you can easily identify:

• Feeling exhausted after a long day
• Experiencing negative emotions about your job
• Noticing a decline in your efficiency 

Feeling Depressed

If you’re grappling with feelings of depression related to remote work, know that you’re not alone. The absence of face-to-face interactions and refreshing lunch breaks with your colleagues can amplify feelings of loneliness. It happens even more if you are not much of a social person outside of work.

If you find any of these behaviors in your team members, it might be time for stress management training by an expert corporate training provider like EducationNest.

5 Stress Management Tips for Remote Workers

If you feel even more stressed after switching to a WFH role, you are not alone! Around 75% of remote workers report burnout from their jobs, with over 37% noting that they now work longer hours than before. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, only about 5% of employed individuals indicated they faced stress from remote work. If you are in the same boat, here are the 5 best remote work stress management strategies for you:

1. Prioritize Your Mental Health

It might seem obvious, but in a busy schedule filled with meetings, tasks, deadlines, family commitments, and daily chores, focusing on your mental health often gets pushed to the back burner. It is crucial for both companies and individual employees to proactively prioritize mental health activities. Companies should actively support struggling employees before their challenges escalate.

Here’s how as an employee you can manage stress while working from home: 

• Schedule regular breaks throughout the workday 
• Use Pomodoro to focus on deep work followed by short breaks (rather than burning yourself out)
• Check in with your kids and family during break to rejuvenate 
• Practice breathing techniques and gratitude during breaks and throughout the day
• Stay active throughout your day – you could set up a treadmill in your workstation or go for quick walks, stretch, or perform short workout routines.

2. Practice Professionalism

When working remotely, many employees feel the pressure to demonstrate their value to their employers. Many managers expect you to put in more than in-office teams just because you are working at home from your comfort zone. You might even find yourself taking on more work than you can manage just to show that you’re productive.

Stress management for remote workers cannot be done without a healthy company environment. Now is the time for companies and managers to step up and show leadership, not just those in management roles. They should foster a culture of equality, support, and empathy for their employees. They should encourage open discussions during team meetings and provide the necessary help if asked for it. 

• For individual employees, this is the time to speak up about your troubles and boundaries. 
• Seek help from team members. Politely speak to your manager about dividing the workload if you feel it is too much for you. Remember, you don’t have to prove yourself by overworking.
• Practice saying ‘no’ to extra work over the weekends or after work hours if you have already met that day’s goals. 

3. Create a Routine and Stick to it

This is one of the best strategies to reduce remote work stress. When you notice you are struggling with work-life balance working from home, it means it is high time to start developing good WFH habits. Start by creating a routine and stick to it throughout the day. How do routines help?

• Routines enhance your mental health by minimizing the number of decisions you need to make each day. 
• This frees up mental space and provides you with the energy to tackle your tasks more effectively. 
• While you may not accomplish everything on your list, having a structured approach can lead to a sense of control throughout your day.

Pomodoro is a great way to start as it is easier to stick to smaller work intervals with breaks in between. You will also have fewer urges to check your phone in between tasks when you know you have a break in just 7 minutes! 

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4. Take Care of Your Body

To be productive and also manage stress in your work-from-home job, set up a dedicated workspace that includes an ergonomic chair to support your back, neck, and spine to focus better. Additionally, try to incorporate daily workouts or walks into your routine. Regular exercise is a known solution to anxiety as it boosts endorphin release. This will significantly improve your mood and overall well-being. 

5. Reduce Distractions

This is a simple yet useful tip to handle work from home stress. We all have been led to believe that humans are always distracted, cannot focus anymore, and that we need 70-hour work-weeks! None of this is true and you will start believing when you realize how much easily you can focus and do deep work when you remove all distractions around you! (No, your focus is not permanently gone!) 

Reducing distractions will do two things for remote workers:

• It will maximize your productivity so you can pick up the pace of your tasks slowly. This will help you finish off your tasks faster (no more extended working hours and feeling burnt out later!)
• Focusing on deep work can bombard you with creative ideas to finish (or automate) your tasks efficiently so that you can complete them faster and also impress your boss! 

You only need two steps – disable all non-work-related notifications and play some relaxing music in the background. You will be amazed at how quickly you can get work done with a pair of noise-canceling headphones! 

Conclusion

Managing stress while working from home does not have to be complicated. You just need to figure out your routine to start with and stick to it to hit that sweet balance between work and personal life. While companies should have employee-friendly policies too, there are things in your control that can help you manage stress. Having strict boundaries can help a lot if you cannot say ‘no’ easily. Taking regular breaks and self-care routines are some other simplest ways to manage stress. Remember, it is okay to reach out for support when you need it. 

The best way to learn the art of stress management is through effective corporate workshops that train employees on the various methods of stress management through interactive team exercises. If you are looking for such corporate training for your teams, EducationNest is the best corporate training provider in India to go for. They have expert-led courses on soft skills, leadership, cybersecurity, big data analysis, and much more that are perfect for corporate teams. You also get the option of customizing your own course depending on your requirements.