Working from Home Wellness
HINTS AND TIPS
The life of a Jameson Brand Ambassador can be somewhat hard to describe. The reason being, no two days are ever the same. As Brand Ambassadors, we typify living life ‘on the go’, shaping our working week around fast evolving relationships and opportunities that may present themselves at the very last minute. Quite often, we find ourselves out and about in our respective cities, meeting customers, networking with lifestyle influencers and in general, keeping our finger on the pulse.
For many of us, working from home has always played some part in the regular working week. That said, in today’s climate we now find ourselves restricted to working from home full time. With all of us accustomed to operating on a routine that fits with the fast-paced nature of modern life we are now having to quickly adapt to a new normal. Taking this into account, here are some things I have been keeping in mind to help improve my work from home wellness.
Wellness Our Main Priority
As a Brand Ambassador we wear many hats, juggling brand team priorities, our own calendars and external stakeholders. The days and weeks can move very quickly. Sometimes it’s easy to forget about our own welfare when work capacity is high, and our primary objective is creating convivial moments with our consumers.
Work capacity aside, it’s extremely important that we’re all making time available each day to prioritise both our mental and physical well-being. Something as simple as taking 5-10 minutes away from the screen every couple of hours to get some sunlight and fresh air has really helped me keep a clear head. With more time than ever before spent online and in front of screens, taking regular time out to digitally detox I find helps provide a sense of clarity. During a time where there are many external pressures regarding productivity and the need to exercise, it is important we recognise that not every day is going to be perfection. We can afford to let ourselves off the hook sometimes to take some well-deserved time out and not beat ourselves up for it. After all, the most important conversations are the ones we have with ourselves. The narratives in our own heads.
While a busy schedule is most often the norm for Brand Ambassadors, this is not always the case at the minute, and we can sometimes find ourselves with a bit more time to play with. The easy thing to do here is to fill time and create work for yourself, monitoring emails and working on admin. In the past few weeks, I have been starting to use these periods as an opportunity to prioritise my own self development and learning which has certainly fed into my overall wellness. Making use of platforms like LinkedIn Learning as well as our own resources such as books and podcasts not only takes our minds away from the day to day aspects of our role but importantly allows us to learn and grow in our areas of interest.
Habits & Routine
The second area I have been spending time on is attempting to build some more positive habits into my work from home routine. There is no better time than now for us to begin building positive habits that will no doubt benefit us when the pace of life picks up again.
Charles Duhigg mentions in ‘The Power of Habit’ that over 40% of the actions we take each day are in fact habits rather than decisions. Having considered this I have started writing a daily habits target list at the beginning of each week which I look for a 100% strike rate on each day. Of course, this doesn’t always happen but having a habits checklist to be accountable to is a considerable step in the right direction. My advice for anyone wanting to give this a go would be to start small and build slowly. The list could begin with 3 basic habits to achieve: Get out of bed on the alarm and make your bed (win the morning, win the day), Stay off your phone in the first hour out of bed and the last hour before bed, Spend at least 30 minutes outside, moving each day.
The sense of achievement I have gained from simply taking note of this has allowed me to slowly build out my habits list, challenging myself to add something new each week. It may not seem like a lot, but small tweaks can quickly lead to bigger change.
Switch on vs Switch off
As we are all aware, the boundaries between work time and personal life have become increasingly blurred these days. I would say even more so for us as Brand Ambassadors as we maintain close relationships through social media, essentially using Instagram as our business cards. Recent circumstances have not done much to help this with the surge in popularity of apps such as Zoom, and Microsoft TEAMS. Ironically enough, I’ve felt as connected as ever to colleagues and friends.
While virtual connectivity is great for many reasons, this new way of working paired with having our workspace at home can make it increasingly difficult to find meaningful chill out time. Since I first found myself struggling with this I have been using the following to help me switch off: Keeping a strict working window from 8.45am – 5pm (working smarter v’s harder), turning off all app notifications on my phone, enjoying Spotify and Netflix, and reading fiction before bed. Finally, and most important for me has been taking time out each day to be alone with my thoughts. Just 15-20 minutes to declutter the mind at the end of a working day has really helped me in creating some space and minimising work-related thoughts rolling into relaxation time.
Getting Future Ready
Finally, there has never been a better time for us to get ourselves ready for the future. There are some that would say it is difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel but there is no doubt in my mind that there is a new tomorrow just around the corner. As well as this, current signs point to some drastic changes in how we work as well as the trade we work with. Just two examples being the rise of home entertainment and the growing popularity of eCommerce.
We are all resilient, self-motivated individuals who add a positive influence to any situation. This is all part of our ‘Serious Character’. Undoubtedly, this working from home period is a time for doing what we can, it is a time for calling upon that Serious Character. For me I will be looking to stay in touch with people, nurturing relationships as well as using this time to learn as much as possible from the team around me and upskill in new areas. Finally, I’ll be taking the time to plan some short and long-term goals as well as setting out a path of actions towards achieving these. A quote I recently read sticks out in my mind to conclude:
“There are many ways of moving forward but only one way of standing still.”
How are you going to use this time to move forward?