5 tips to stay productive and avoid work from home burnout

When it comes to remote working, the one thing we learned over the past 18 months is that working in the office doesn’t necessarily equate to happier employees or higher productivity levels. In fact, a two-year study at Stanford found that remote workers enjoy higher productivity levels and greater job satisfaction.

As more and more companies adopt this modern approach, it’s vital that remote workers create a routine that helps them maintain their productivity levels and enables them to remain happy and healthy for the long term.

While we all enjoy the perks of remote working, the lines between work time and personal time can sometimes feel a bit blurred. Think about how easy it is to just work through your lunch break or spend that extra ten minutes at the end of the day finishing something off. Then all of a sudden that ten minutes turns into two, maybe even three hours or more – and that cycle repeats itself every day.

If we push ourselves too hard for too long, without even really realising, we can start to experience physical and/or emotional exhaustion – otherwise known as a burnout. Telltale signs of a burnout include feeling of continuous tiredness, negative thoughts and a general lack of accomplishment or satisfaction, so it’s good to identify the signs ahead of time and implement healthy changes to your routine to prevent it from reoccurring in the future.

Since we’ve been mastering remote working for a while now, and believe flexibility along with a healthy work/life balance is the key to success for our team, here are some of our top tips to help you stay productive and avoid possible job burnout at home.

1. Create boundaries between work and life

Create clear lines between work and personal time by establishing a clear routine with indicators that you’re about to finish work. Just like packing up your bag at the end of a workday in the office, clocking off at home should also be accompanied by some action that marks the end of your work time and the transition into home time.

Whether that means shutting down your computer and setting your work apps to mute or closing the door to your home office, it’s important to set a routine that indicates the end of your workday and the start of your downtime.

2. Schedule breaks into your work schedule

As tempting as it is to just blast through that huge pile of work or deep dive into a new project, taking breaks is going to be key in maintaining productivity in the long run. Prolonged screen time can strain your eyes and your body. Instead, try blocking out time in your calendar to step away from your computer and take a walk around the block or stretch your body and give your eyes a break. Even a five minute coffee break is going to be beneficial.

3. Switch off notifications after hours

Being constantly tethered to your phone also means being aware of every buzz and ding as an email lands into your inbox or you receive a message on one platform or another. Mute notifications on all work-related apps once you finish work for the day. Whether it’s your work email, company messaging app or a task management platform, turning off notifications is crucial to being able to clock off physically and mentally.

4. Don’t skip out on social time

Book in time with friends and family. Whether it’s catching up over a coffee, taking a pilates class together or heading out for dinner, building and maintaining those social connections are vital to your wellbeing. 

5. Schedule in time for your mental and physical well being

Make time to move your body and allow mental downtime where you can unwind. Whether that means attending a hot yoga class, plugging into a podcast, reading or sweating through a killer workout, spending time doing something that makes you fulfilled and satisfied gives you something to look forward to during the day.

If you’d like to be a part of the Spenda story, head on over to our careers page to learn more about who we are, how we work and all see the perks that come along with being a part of our team.