On the surface, working from home sounds like a dream ⁠— you get to have flexible work hours, eliminate your petrol and commute expenses, and work in a comfortable and familiar atmosphere. However, this isn’t always the case.

Working from home has its own unique challenges, too, which may just stress you out more. Case in point, Forbes reports that a survey among 1000 respondents revealed that a whopping 54% found working from home stressful. This is because not everyone thrives in a remote working situation ⁠— some prefer the social and work-only atmosphere of the office.

So, how can you deal with the stress you get from a remote working set-up? Here, we’ve listed down two crucial steps that you should take to minimise your work-from-home stress.

Listen to your body

When working at home, you must be aware of how your body feels. Work itself is a source of stress, and being unable to deal with it can be detrimental to your emotional well-being. In fact, our previous post ‘The One Skill You Need to Ensure Success’ points out that we should accept that we can’t always perform exceptionally every time. So, try to be kinder to yourself and take a break from working when you need it.

To add, stress can also take a physical toll on your body ⁠— and if the stress is both physically and mentally unbearable, your body will have no choice but to break. When you feel like you’re stressed, it would do you well to also watch out for physical signs, like neck and shoulder pain. To ease the tightness in your neck and shoulder muscles, Pain-Free Working highlights a few simple stretches you can do right at your desk. To start, sit up straight and keep your neck and shoulders relaxed. Tilt your head from the side to side until you feel relief. To make this stretch more effective, gently pull on your head and hold it in position for about 10 seconds. Repeat this in the opposite direction until you’ve successfully released the tension that’s built up in your neck.
 

Get rid of distractions ⁠— fast

While working in an office can certainly be stressful at times, at least the managers are usually proactive in eliminating potential distractions. For those working from home, however, you’re the one in charge of keeping your workspace distraction-free. Getting distracted while working spells disaster for your productivity rate ⁠— something that could stress both you and your team.

Other than the people you live with, distractions also come in the form of noise, social media, and even chores. While most people think that they can juggle multiple tasks at once, this can produce adverse results, as research from the University of Southern California have found that multitasking decreases one’s productivity. To avoid getting distracted by chores and other activities unrelated to work, try making a schedule and stick to it. This way, you could allot the necessary time to do your tasks and mitigate the stress from unfinished or unsatisfactory work.

Working from home isn’t full of rainbows and butterflies ⁠— there are certainly a few drawbacks that could cause you more stress than you anticipated. But, stress is often manageable as long as you are vigilant and address the issue well. So, heed our tips and make working from home, work for you.

Article was specially written for Chartall Business College by Audrey Cobb