Rest and Recovery
Last week we discussed the importance of social connection, and how to maintain it whilst working remotely from your team. Today we will be exploring rest and recovery when working from home, the barriers to this and what we can do to overcome them.
Recovery
Recovery is vital to our wellbeing, and refers to the process of reducing symptoms of strain that have been caused by job demands and stressful events at work.
Think about a racing car and driver, your resources are the fuel in the tank. You have finite amount to expend before your tank needs refuelling. During the day, you will draw upon your resources in order to use your skills and meet the job and personal demands put upon you. If we don’t stop to replenish and recover our resources, our tanks will eventually become empty and we be in danger of burning out. It doesn’t matter how skilled the driver is or how fast the car can go, if there is no fuel in the tank, it won’t start. This is why it is important to identify and understand personal and effective strategies for you to recover your resources.
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What were the most effective activities did you use to recover when we were working in the office?
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How can you bring some of those activities into your daily life now when working remotely?
For ideas on how others are recovering and replenishing their energy check out our wellbeing teams site and its many channels.
Detaching from work
Recovery can be more challenging when remote working as we lose a lot of the social cues that influence us to take breaks, eat, and even stop working. Working remotely may also lessen the physical-boundaries between your personal and work-life. Because of this, detaching from work can be harder. We will explore different ways to switch off effectively from working when living and working in the same space, to ensure our recovery time is much more replenishing.
Creating Rituals
Routine and structure might not be everyone’s cup of tea, and you may not think you have much of a routine normally. But, the transition from office working to remote working completely changes our normal routine, and by adding a little more structure can greatly help create some boundaries.
What can we do?
Create mental and physical boundaries to create your own ‘detachment’ and ‘attachment’ rituals to signify ‘leaving’ work and switching to your home self and ‘arriving’ at work after breaks. It is up to you to decide if a physical or mental ritual would work better. Experiment and see which allows you to fully psychologically detach from work and feel like you can focus on leisure and recovery activities.
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Putting away your work things out of sight.
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Getting changed into and out of your “work outfit”
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Changing locations for breaks during the day.
What rituals do you do naturally to help you switch into and out of work mode whilst working at home?
Emily
Emily.Pepin@City.ac.uk
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