Covid-19 – Work from home tips in 2020
If you are one of the privileged 40 percent of workers who can do their jobs remotely, you’ve spent the last few months working from home. Maybe you’re struggling. Or maybe you’ve achieved triple Diamond Medallion WFH status — which includes but is not limited to sending an email from the toilet using the phrase “let’s circle back.” Whether it’s going well or miserably, you are doing your job from where you live.
But you are not working from home. You are laboring in confinement, under duress.
To be very clear: Work from home troubles are mostly gilded problems — not in the same universe as the exploitation of workers happening in meat-processing plants or the stresses faced by front-line and other essential workers. But workers still struggle. You’re stealing a few minutes to send emails between homeschooling sessions. You’re fighting a cold war with your kids. You’re not thriving, you’re surviving.
A shift to remote work may allow employees to leave the expensive, crowded coastal cities where so many companies have clustered. It may usher in better lives for those with the privilege. But I simply don’t trust corporations to preside over the switch without forcing employees to sacrifice, in the name of productivity, what little work-life balance they have left. Facebook and Twitter employees may fantasize about the chance to move to a smaller city and add flexibility to their lives. For many, it might even happen.
This “New Normal” might be temporary or the typical workday for some that can. Some of these tips or solutions might be fitting to navigate 2020 and beyond.
The Best Self Care apps of 2020
During times of stress and upheaval, self-care is more important than ever. So, take time to develop healthier habits to stay productive and motivated while working from home. These apps will help you to de-stress, stay fit and healthy, and reduce anxiety as you go about your day-today.
Let’s see what each of them has to offer…
Headspace
The Headspace app guides you through relaxing meditations. Whether you’re after a basic meditation or a specific practice to help you sleep or enjoy healthier relationships, Headspace offers both. With hundreds of meditations to choose from, this app works wonders for helping you to relax and set yourself up for the day.
If stress and anxiety are getting in the way of work, then Headspace is undoubtedly worth a try.
It’s a free app, but you can pay $12.99 a month to gain access to more meditations. A lifetime subscription is also available at a one-off fee of $399.
Shine
Looking for a surge of motivation? Shine sends you daily motivational texts, self-improvement audio, and self-care challenges. Topics often include productivity, mindfulness, and sleep. You can also track your gratitude and save your favorite messages to remind you of things that make you feel good.
These daily messages are free, but you can subscribe to receive more ‘mindful moments’ for $9.99 a month, or $53.99 a year.
Breathing Zone
If you suffer from anxiety, breathing sometimes feels difficult. If you can relate, Breathing Zone might be the self-care app for you. It focuses on defusing stress by encouraging you to breathe rhythmically.
You can customize the breathing exercises to whatever you find most relaxing. These guides are accompanied by calming graphics on the screen. Just set a target number of breaths you’d like to achieve per minute, and you’re good to go.
Breathing Zone can be downloaded from iTunes or GooglePlay.
5 Minute Yoga
Get in the habit of stretching regularly by learning yoga moves with this app. These five-minute workouts are super easy to fit around your schedule. The exercises are practical but simple, so rest assured, it’s very beginner-friendly.
The app is free, but you can upgrade to a monthly or annual subscription ($1.99 a month or $5.99 a year), making it a genuinely affordable self-care app!
Yoga Studio
If you’re more advanced at yoga, Yoga Studio might be your app of choice. You can choose from 65 premade classes or select your own set of exercises. These sessions range from 15 to 60 minutes, and span three experience levels- beginner, intermediate, or advanced. Just pick whatever best suits your ability.
The app teaches nearly 280 poses! You’re bound to learn a thing or two with Yoga Studio. Available at the modest price of $4.99, this is another excellent yet affordable self-care app.
The Best Apps for Mental Health in 2020
If you find yourself suddenly working remotely, several of your habits and routines might be disturbed. So, it’s no wonder lockdown presents a challenging time for our mental health. Checking in with ourselves and observing our emotional needs has never been so vital as we self-isolate.
The mental health apps listed below might offer some much-needed relief as you combat stress and anxiety while working from home.
Moodfit
Moodfit is free to download from GooglePlay. It provides the tools you need to help improve your mood and exercise your mental well-being. Moodfit analyzes the severity of your mental health symptoms with a questionnaire and then furnishes articles and audio files to help you understand your experience better.
You can use Moodfit to track your mood to better understand what affects your well-being. For instance, you’ll see the impact medication, exercise, diet, etc., all have on your state of mind, which puts you in a better position to adopt healthier habits.
You can design your personal experiments if you suspect a particular element in your life is causing you distress. For example, you can track whether a specific food influences your mood.
Moodfit also provides daily mindfulness and gratitude challenges to help increase positivity and teach you better-coping skills.
Talkspace
Talkspace is a therapy app that allows you to speak to a licensed mental health professional. If you’re self-isolating, this might be an essential way of seeking the treatment you need. Therapists on Talkspace all boast over 3,000 hours of clinical experience and have been carefully trained to provide online therapy.
For $65 per week, you get access to unlimited messaging therapy, i.e., you can send as many texts, video, and audio messages to your therapist as you need. You’ll receive one to two responses a day, five days a week.
Whereas for $79 a week, you’ll get unlimited messaging as well as one live session with your therapist each month, and for £99 a week, you gain four live sessions each month.
Day One
Journaling is a fantastic way to check-in with yourself every day. It’s a simple technique for observing your habits, identifying what makes you happy, and reminding yourself of your achievements.
Writing daily journal entries can help you stay grounded and deal with your day-to-day in a meaningful and productive way. Whether you’re journaling for the mental health benefits, as a hobby, or to set reminders and keep productive, a journaling app is a great way to kickstart this new habit.
Day One is available for Mac, Android, and IOS devices. This app offers a wide array of features. You can use templates that automatically add info like your location, weather, step count, the music you played, etc. You can tag your entries, insert photos and videos, and password-protect your journal.
The free app offers all of Day One’s core features. But you can upgrade for $2.99 a month to access handwritten and audio entries, multiple journals, unlimited photos, and sync across all your devices.
