Being able to work outside the office means having the opportunity to deal with stress in a healthier way. With this form of flexible staffing, when you’re particularly frustrated by your job you can step outside and take a stroll around the block without having to worry about what your co-workers or managers think. Additionally, you can schedule your professional tasks around your personal schedule. However, running into stressful situations is unavoidable. Chances are, you deal with a large number of company and client communications as well as a number of projects, all of which can run into problems at any given time.
Tend to your mental health
Though working remotely has many benefits, sometimes it can be easy to get caught up in professional tasks. You may think that you’re on a roll, which is usually good, but if an issue arises, you might find your streak interrupted and, ultimately, lessened. There are daily practices that you can undertake to avoid these situations, including these three.
- Take frequent breaks: Having flexibility means being able to transition seamlessly between your professional and personal lives. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t take advantage of this fact. This way, if a problem occurs, you won’t feel that the past several hours have suddenly gone to waste. Your mind won’t be solely focused on work, giving you a better perspective of the situation.
- Change your instant messenger status: There will be times when you need to hunker down and really focus on a project. Decrease the chances of having people come to you for problems that can be handled by others by changing your instant messenger status to busy. You may even want to let everybody know that you’re working on an important task and want to avoid interruptions. Don’t think of this as impolite. Instead, it shows responsibility and an aptitude for knowing when to delegate managerial tasks to others.
- Know what’s most important: When you’re handling several projects at once, a particularly alarming email from a client or co-worker may throw your workflow into a jam. Put all the work into perspective and know what takes precedence. You can kindly ask co-workers to wait if you’re working on a project that has a tighter deadline. If it’s a client issue, you can speak to your managers or other co-workers about dealing with it to ensure that you don’t become overstressed and complete your work on time.
