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“ (EfctRmWrk 2022)

“When we think about health, we could partition it into two dimensions that are worth considering separately:” (EfctRmWrk 2022)

Physical health. This is the state of well-being of the body, which allows an individual to perform their daily tasks and live comfortably.

Mental health. This is the state of psychological well-being that includes our ability to cope with stress and enjoy daily life.

Remote working means that we’ll be spending more time away from our colleagues, who—no matter how much they may have annoyed you in the past by not refilling the coffee pot—do look out for us, ask after us, and notice how we’re changing from day to day.

Some of us have families and friends who help us stay connected, but some remote workers may spend a majority of their time alone. Thus, we all have a responsibility to look after our own health and also look out for the health of those we work with. Even if all of our colleagues are at the end of email or video calls, they’re still human beings, just like us.

Although we partition them in this chapter so we can look at them more closely, the two dimensions of health are interlinked.[94] For example, poor mental health is a risk factor for chronic physical conditions, and people with chronic physical conditions are at risk of developing poor mental health.

So as we work through some different facets of both physical and mental health, remember that a holistic, unified, good state of well-being is what we’re all after. You need a little bit of everything to remain healthy and happy. Research in isolation; apply broadly.

Physical Health Let’s begin by looking at some different facets of physical health. We spend most of our days sitting at desks, so we need to look after our bodies.

Diet What you’re putting into your body makes a significant difference in your energy levels and your mood. In theory, working from home offers many more opportunities to eat well for less money than if you were going into the office. You’ve got access to your kitchen and—in theory, of course—you could be cooking yourself a nutritious breakfast, lunch, and dinner every single day.

You could even be preparing food in batches that you can easily store and access throughout the week without needing to carry food on the journey to and from the office. To those who have never worked from home before, having access to the kitchen is a dream, one filled with breakfast bagels, healthy cooked noodle lunches, and early nutritious dinners.

However, in the same manner as when you spend a week of vacation at home and get ever lazier with showering, bad habits can begin to slip in. That dream of breakfast bagels can turn into one of sugary cereal, and instant ramen for lunch and a microwave dinner.

Similarly, easy access to your cupboards full of coffee and whatever sugary or caffeinated drinks you want can seem liberating, but it might just have you crashing hard in the afternoons or unable to sleep properly at night. You may end up eating because you’re bored, stressed, or just snacking at the computer all day rather than eating balanced meals.

Before you know it, the professional has turned into the teenager. And if these habits continue for too long, a poor diet will lead to poor health.

When working remotely, you should do the following:

Have a plan for what you’re going to eat during in the week. Spending some time during the weekend to plan what you’re going to have for breakfast, lunch, and dinner each day is beneficial for a number of reasons. Not only does it ensure that you’ll have all of the groceries that you need ahead of time so that you’re properly fueled, it completely removes the continual dilemma of “OK, so what am I going to eat later?”

Ensure that you’ve filled your kitchen with good snacks. In addition to getting the groceries for the week, make sure that you also have healthy snacks such as fruit, cottage cheese, or yogurt with no added sugar that you can eat throughout the day with no guilt.

Reduce temptation by keeping bad foods outside of your home. The easiest way to avoid eating a lot of chocolate is to not buy it in the first place. Although it’s nice to stockpile treats for yourself as a reward, if you’re anything like the author, you’ll probably eat them all within two hours.

Track what you’re eating, if it helps. There are plenty of free applications that you can use to track the calories and macronutrient breakdowns of the foods that you’re eating so that you can get a better picture of whether you’re eating well. Just the act of tracking what you eat can make you more accountable for not straying from eating healthily.

Eat when you’re hungry, not bored or stressed. When that project deadline is looming, it can be easy to turn to sugar, caffeine, and carbohydrates for support. But this isn’t going to do your health any good in the long term. Be mindful of your eating habits, and stick to a plan for what you’re eating.

Your diet is the fuel that gets you through the day. The better the fuel, the better that every other aspect of your health is going to be. Ensure that you’re eating a balanced diet and that you’re getting the right amount of calories for your activity level. In addition to helping you maintain a healthy body weight, there’s evidence that shows that good dietary choices can reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke, and some cancers.[95] However, this is easier said than done. There’s a reason that dieting is a multibillion-dollar industry. But incremental changes, however small, compound over time.

The occasional bit of chocolate doesn’t hurt, though. You’ve gotta live a little.

Repetitive Strain Injury While not unique to remote working, repetitive strain injury (RSI) is a term used to describe pain in muscles, nerves, and tendons caused by repetitive movement and overuse.[96] For those of us who spend most of our time on computers, it typically affects the forearms, elbows, wrists, and hands and neck and shoulders.

Although it’s easy to pass off aching, tenderness, stiffness, tingling, or numbness as normal when using the computer, it’s important that you pay attention to the signals that your body is giving you. RSI can develop slowly over time, and mild issues can turn into severe ones that’ll prevent you from using a keyboard or mouse at all.

The risk of RSI increases when you are

Doing repetitive activities such as typing and using the mouse

Performing these activities with high intensity for long periods of time without rest

In a poor physical posture that does not adhere to good workplace ergonomics[97]

If that sounds like you, a change might be in order.

Given that you’re likely to be unable to get away from using a mouse and keyboard, you should make sure that you’re taking appropriate breaks from the computer throughout the day. Most importantly, however, is having good ergonomics. This is covered in more detail in Chapter 2, ​Getting Set Up​.

The key is that you should use your tools in the same way that a construction worker uses theirs. A circular saw is dangerous when used incorrectly, so workers use specific safety equipment and techniques to protect themselves. Additionally, the tool is regularly maintained so that it introduces less risk to the workers from it malfunctioning. Care is taken.

In the same way that you wouldn’t expect a construction worker to use a circular saw one-handed while eating a sandwich and wearing no safety equipment, you shouldn’t spend large portions of your day working on your laptop while lying down with your neck, arms, and hands at the wrong angles. It’ll hurt you in the long run. Don’t do it.

In addition to ensuring you have an ergonomically correct setup and you’re taking regular breaks, you need to take action if you think that you’re experiencing any of the symptoms of RSI mentioned previously. If you think that you are, speak to your employer to see if they can help you by improving your work space. If the symptoms continue in spite of that, see a doctor. It’s better to work with more breaks now than to be unable to work at all.

Exercise As wonderful as technology and computers are, they’re making us do less physical activity as part of our work. Exercise is therefore essential for your physical health. It increases strength, develops your muscles and your cardiovascular system, and releases endorphins that make you feel better and reduce stress.[98]

Many people are put off from physical exercise because of bad past experiences. Feeling embarrassed at the gym, not knowing how to use weights or bizarre equipment, or being out of shape can create significant physical and mental barriers to feeling happy and confident in your own body. But the reality is that there are many ways to get the exercise that you need without needing to wear Lycra bodysuits or risk falling over in the middle of an exercise class.

Adults should aim to do the following:

Do strengthening exercises that work the major muscle groups at least two times a week.

Do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity a week or seventy-five minutes of vigorous-intensity activity a week.

Reduce the amount of time that you spend not moving at all (e.g., sitting and lying down).

The good news is that moderate-intensity activity can include

Brisk walking Riding a bike Hiking Cleaning your house Jumping rope These are all things that you can do privately, away from thumping dance music and neon clothing. The same is true for more vigorous activities:

Running Swimming Lifting weights Riding a bike fast or uphill Walking up stairs There are plenty of options for activities, both alone and with others. The kinds of activities that count toward strengthening your muscles don’t have to involve bench pressing a horse while somebody screams at you either. They can be

Yoga Pilates Tai chi Resistance-band exercises Body-weight exercises such as push-ups and sit-ups With a bit of thought, it’s straightforward to be able to perform all of the exercise that you need with minimal equipment. You could get your vigorous exercise from running around your local park and doing a couple of sessions of body-weight exercises on the floor each week. None of these cost money, other than the initial purchase of some suitable clothing.

If you’re after some inspiration for your fitness routine, you can find it for free online. For example, YouTube has yoga classes and body-weight routines that you can work out to, and it also has nutrition- and exercise-planning advice and pretty much anything else you can think of. We’ve come a long way from purchasing workout VHS tapes.

As you become more comfortable with exercising, you can work out what sort of exercises you enjoy doing most. Perhaps you could give high-intensity interval training (HIIT) a try if you’re trying to optimize by using the least time possible for the biggest gains,[99] or maybe you could gradually explore your local area on a bicycle. Whatever you do, just make sure that you’re enjoying it. That’s what makes it become a habit.

Integrating daily exercise is important when working remotely because you may take for granted how much you were moving when you were going to the office. Those walks to the train, to the subway, and through the city at fast pace and all of those flights of stairs really add up.

Though you gain time from not commuting, finding the time to exercise can be difficult. We all lead busy lives, and when there are three high-priority things to do at home, exercise rarely trumps them at the top of the list. Experiment with times of the day and week that let you divide up that 150 minutes of moderate exercise among other activities that you’re doing. Perhaps you could walk or cycle instead of taking the car. Maybe you could run for fifteen minutes at lunch while the rice cooker is preparing your food. Perhaps you could bookend your days with walks with the baby. Often there’s a way even if there doesn’t appear to be. It just requires some creativity.

Rest and Sleep In addition to what you actively do for your health, there’s one equally important activity that involves doing nothing. That’s rest. It’s crucial.

Although you may feel like the noble choice is to squeeze every ounce of productivity out of every single hour, regardless of how tired you actually are, the results are fundamentally counterproductive. We’re not built for continuous functioning. Our bodies and minds need sufficient rest and recovery every day to perform at our best.

The term rest covers the times of the day in which we’re not working and are partaking in relaxing leisure activities. There are no prescriptions here about what rest means for you. Some people enjoy reading books to switch off. Some like watching movies. Some find that cooking or playing with their children is the best way to disconnect from the stressors of the everyday. All physical and mental effort requires recovery.

In the same way that software projects have scope creep, what we commit to every single day beyond the baseline of necessity can balloon out of proportion. Doing a full-time job is a significant undertaking. When you add errands and exercise into the mix, and family commitments, you can end up chasing a completeness and perfection in your life that’s never achievable. This is a surefire way to burn out. As well as serving others, you need to serve yourself.

Active forms of rest include relaxation techniques such as yoga, meditation, and breathing exercises. Passive forms of rest include lying down and napping. You’ll know what works for you, but you need rest. Try to ensure each day that you have periods of rest that act as bookends around activities. For example, eating a proper breakfast, lunch, and dinner allows you to break up the day and get away from the computer. At the end of the day, once you have some quiet, ensure that you dedicate some time to actively choosing to rest, perhaps by reading or watching television.

In addition to rest, you need sleep. It’s essential for the health of your brain.[100] A lack of quality sleep impairs your attention span, concentration, reaction times, and emotions. Sleep is also crucial for keeping your heart healthy, your immune system strong, and your appetite under control.[101]

Additionally, as you sleep, short-term memories convert into long-term memories, helping you learn and see things more clearly. I’m sure we’ve all immediately solved a programming problem in the morning that seemed impossible at 5 p.m. the previous day.

Rest and sleep are intertwined. To set yourself up for good sleep, you need to create the conditions that you need through rest. To enjoy periods of rest, you need to have good sleep; otherwise, you’ll be too tired to do any leisure activities.

You should try your best to sleep at regular times. By working toward a predictable bedtime and wake-up time, you program your brain with this routine. Once you know what time you’re aiming to go to bed each night, you need to ensure that you wind down toward it.[102] There’s growing evidence that poor sleep is linked to serious illness, so you should never push through tiredness, even if you feel that work demands it.[103]

To help with this, you could do the following:

Try your best to leave all of your work communication behind at the end of the day. If you have work email or notifications on your personal phone, mute them in the evening or put your phone somewhere else in your home, away from you.

Write down everything that you need to do the next day. This allows you to not worry about forgetting something that you need to pick up later, for example. Once it’s committed to paper, move on and begin relaxing.

Avoid using electronic devices for an hour or so before bed. In addition to evidence that suggests that the light from device screens can have a negative impact on sleep, many applications are designed to be addictive and can provide too much stimulation when you should be relaxing.

Try some active relaxation. You could try meditation or some breathing exercises or some light yoga stretches. In addition to the activities themselves relaxing you, doing them as part of your winding-down routine can help signal to your subconscious that it’s time to relax.

Have a warm bath to relax your muscles and change your body temperature to one that is ideal for resting.

If you have difficulty with a restless mind once you’re in bed, you could try listening to a guided relaxation audio. There are plenty of free guided breathing exercises and body-scan meditations online that are designed to help you fall asleep naturally at the end.

Like exercise, this advice is simple but not straightforward to implement. Remote working may make you feel like you’re unable to switch off because the area where you work, and all of the unopened email contained within, is visible in the corner of the room. Spending the majority of your day in front of screens for business and pleasure may delay the release of melatonin and delay sleepiness. A little self-discipline around rest and sleep can go a long way toward making you feel better when you wake each morning, which also positively impacts your mental health.

Your Turn: Audit Your Physical Health Routine Take some time to reflect on the different aspects of physical health that we’ve covered and whether you currently feel that you’re taking enough action toward them:

Consider your diet. Are you eating nutritious food regularly, and are you ensuring that you stay hydrated? If it helps, keep a food journal for a week and write down everything that you eat and drink. What habits does it reveal about yourself? Would you like to change any of them?

Spend a day being mindful of the feeling of your body while you’re working. Do you feel any numbness, tingling, aches, or pains? Could these be caused by poor ergonomics? How could you improve this?

Do you feel like you’re currently getting enough vigorous exercise? If not, consider if there are simple ways that you can begin to incorporate it, such as bookending your day with fifteen minutes of brisk walking.

What are your rest and sleep habits? If you aren’t getting enough sleep, try to set a sleeping routine for yourself that includes a wind-down phase before bed.

Mental Health Now that we’ve examined the elements of physical health, let’s proceed to consider mental health. The topic of mental health is broad, so we’ll limit our focus to some of the most commonly experienced mental-health issues in the workplace.

Mental-health problems are real and they’re serious. They should be considered and treated with the same care and attention that physical health problems are. If you believe that you’re suffering from a mental-health problem, it’s critical that you seek help. Your general health practitioner is a good place to start.

Another essential part of getting help is talking about how you feel. This can be with a friend, family member, or health professional. Depending on how you feel about it, you could seek help through your workplace by talking to your manager or HR department. They may have access to additional resources that you can use.

Just remember that whatever you may go through, you’re not alone. According to the National Alliance on Mental Health, 20.6 percent of U.S. adults experienced mental illness in 2019.[104] The more we accept that mental illness is part of what it means to be human, and the more comfortable we become sharing our stories and feelings with each other, the better we can all become at coping with what’s a natural part of the human condition.

Stress All of us feel stress from time to time. If you work a busy job or have a hectic family schedule, stress is what you feel as you’re trying to hit that deadline or call the dentist while trying to get screaming children ready for school.

In fact, sometimes stress can be beneficial. We can partition the feeling of stress into two categories:

Eustress. From the Greek prefix eu-, meaning good, this literally means good stress. This occurs when the gap between what one has and what one wants is slightly stretched but not to the breaking point.[105] It’s typically associated with desirable events, such as wanting to achieve a project milestone or get the family to the airport on time.

Distress. This is persistent stress that’s not resolved through coping or adaptation and may lead to anxiety, withdrawal, and depressive behavior. Often this occurs when uncontrollable events are happening and a person is unable to cope. It’s typically associated with undesirable events.

Stressors on the body are taxing and require recovery. Physical symptoms of too much stress involve, but are not limited to, headaches and dizziness, muscle tension and pain, stomach problems, chest pains, and accelerated heartbeat. Mental symptoms include difficulty concentrating, inability to make clear decisions, feelings of overwhelm, constant worry, and forgetfulness.[106]

These symptoms may culminate in a person being irritable and snappy, sleeping and eating too much or too little, avoiding places and people, and drinking and smoking more. It’s believed that the body can’t tell whether a stressor has originated from distress or eustress, and to an extent, an individual’s perception of a situation is what determines that categorization.

But regardless of the origin, too much stress can inhibit performance and make you ill. We need to try to keep stress at an optimal level. When checking in on your own stress, it’s worth keeping in mind a model called the Yerkes-Dodson curve,[107] shown in the image, and where you’ve been on it over the preceding few days.

images/TheHardParts/yerkesdodson.png What the curve shows is that stress can increase performance to a point, but beyond that, higher levels of arousal lead to strong anxiety, which inhibits us. And given that periods of stress require periods of rest to recover from them, continual overarousal can begin to contribute to the other mental health problems that we describe in this chapter.

Being remote means that you have fewer opportunities to defuse stress within spontaneous interactions. Often an ad hoc chat in the corridor about how much of a pain that production issue has been can be cathartic. Often when we’re stressed, we can turn inward rather than actively reaching out for help. And given that we have to actively reach out when remote, it can be easy to suffer in silence.

To manage your stress, you should try to do the following:

Regularly talk about how you feel with a friend, family member, or colleague.

Exercise regularly because it releases endorphins and disconnects you from the stressful situation.

Try calming techniques, such as mindful breathing, meditation, or yoga. You should also ensure that you’re sleeping properly and performing an evening wind-down routine.

Make a small step toward addressing the problem. Even if it’s overwhelming, taking action in a stressful situation, even if you feel like you can’t and want to walk away, can build confidence that can see you through it. If writing that document is too overwhelming, try to get one paragraph done. If the presentation preparation is too much to handle, try to get one slide written.

Manage your time. If you feel like everything is spinning out of control, you could use a method like the Pomodoro Technique,[108] which helps you focus your work into twenty-five-minute blocks with five-minute breaks in-between.

It goes without saying, but get help from a health professional if you’re unable to cope with your stress.

Low Mood, Sadness, and Depression We’ve all had periods in our lives where our mood has been low, motivation has suffered, and it’s hard to see the positive side of things. Experiencing a spectrum of emotions is normal. You may have experienced feeling sad, anxious, panicky, tired or unable to sleep, anger or frustration, or low confidence or self-esteem.[109]

Typically, these feelings pass after a few days, sometimes by changing something small in your life such as getting more sleep, being more active, or resolving an issue that’s been bothering you. You could try any of the suggestions in the preceding section about managing stress to see if you can improve the situation yourself.

Where you need to be mindful is when a low mood begins to last for several weeks or more because it could be a sign of depression. Other symptoms of depression include not getting any enjoyment out of life, feeling hopeless, not being able to concentrate on everyday things, having suicidal thoughts or thoughts about harming yourself.

If you begin to identify with the symptoms of depression, it’s important that you seek some assistance. If you’re unsure of how you feel, you could try a self-assessment quiz to better understand it.[110]

The most critical thing to do if you feel that you’re struggling is to talk to someone. If you categorize yourself as having a temporary low mood, ensure that you talk to friends, family, or your manager to get their support and advice.

However, if you can’t cope with your low mood, or you identify more with the symptoms of depression, it’s important you see a health professional. There are many ways they can offer support, such as by checking up on your general health, referring you to therapy, or suggesting medications that could help.

In the context of remote working, there are some important things to know:

It’s entirely normal to feel low or depressed, and there is help available. Just ensure that you take some action, even if it’s just talking to a friend. Do not suffer in silence.

Pretty much everyone goes through low moods and depression, so connecting with others regularly about how they feel can be beneficial to see that you’re not alone or abnormal.

You’re likely spending more time physically distant from others, so it’s important that you’re more proactive in understanding how you’re feeling on a day-to-day basis. A daily mood journal can be helpful.[111]

Your colleagues may be going through similar situations too. Make sure you check in on them. A simple “How are you feeling?” goes a long way.

Anxiety, Fear, and Panic Like a low mood, it’s completely normal to feel anxious and scared sometimes. However, when it’s a feeling that persists and begins to affect you physically and mentally and how you behave, you may need some additional support.

Anxiety can manifest physically in faster heartbeats, lightheaded and dizzy feelings, headaches, chest pains, loss of appetite, sweating, breathlessness, and feeling hot and shaky.[112] Mentally, you may feel tense and unable to relax, continually worry about the past or future, or feel upset or unable to sleep or concentrate.

In addition to affecting your performance at work, it can mean that you’re unable to enjoy your leisure time, you may not take good care of yourself or others around you, you’re subject to compulsive behavior such as continually checking your phone or email, or you imagine that the worst is always going to happen.

When working remotely, there may be fewer people who are interacting with you from day to day, especially if you live alone. Without others noticing your mood, occasional behaviors may worsen if you aren’t regularly taking time to reflect on how you’re feeling.

When anxiety and fear happen intensely and suddenly, they may be the symptoms of a panic attack. This can be five to thirty minutes of feeling like you’re losing control, overwhelmed with dread, and potentially nauseous. Although these feelings are scary, they’re not dangerous. Like all animals, we evolved with the fight, flight, or freeze response to protect us from danger.[113] Heightened anxiety and panic can make your brain feel like you’re being chased by a bear when you’re actually sitting in a quiet room looking at a screen.

If anxious symptoms persist and start to continually affect your life, you should seek help from a health professional. Again, similar to depression, anxiety may make you feel like you want to withdraw from interactions, which can be especially isolating when working remotely. Even though you may not feel like talking about it, it’s critical that you do.

Anxiety is a different condition than depression, but they commonly occur together and have similar treatments.[114] Both usually improve with therapy, medication, or both. Improving all facets of your physical health, such as exercise, sleep, and diet, may help improve the situation.

Burnout Closely linked with your job is burnout, a special kind of stress. Burnout is a state of physical or emotional exhaustion that includes a sense of reduced accomplishment and loss of personal identity.[115] It can affect your physical and mental health.

The Mayo Clinic offers some questions that you can ask yourself to see if you may be experiencing burnout:

Have you become cynical or critical at work? Do you drag yourself to work and have trouble getting started? Have you become irritable or impatient with coworkers, customers, or clients? Do you lack the energy to be consistently productive? Do you find it hard to concentrate? Do you lack satisfaction from your achievements? Do you feel disillusioned about your job? Are you using food, drugs, or alcohol to feel better or to simply not feel? Have your sleep habits changed? Are you troubled by unexplained headaches, stomach problems, or other physical complaints? If you answered yes to some of these questions, you may be suffering from burnout. Typically, you’re at risk if you have a heavy workload and long hours, are struggling with your work-life balance, or feel like you have little or no control over the work that you’re doing. It could be seen as having no autonomy, mastery, or purpose.

Remote workers can suffer in silence with burnout, especially if companies aren’t trying their hardest to ensure that employees are maintaining a healthy work-life balance. If you believe that it’s affecting you, addressing burnout has two facets. The first is addressing your own physical and mental health and assess whether you need to make changes, seek help, or both.

The second facet is your work itself, which is causing you these problems. You should talk to your manager or HR partner to discuss how you’re feeling and how it’s affecting you. It may be that you could work on a different team or project or put a plan in place with your manager to track your work so you can confidently stop working at the end of each day with no guilt or worry.

If after working on it with your manager, the situation doesn’t improve, you should consider your options. No job is worth undermining your health for. And remember, take all of your vacation days, even if you don’t think you need them. You do.

Your Turn: Keep Track of Your Mental Health When you’re working remotely, the increased isolation can mean that you’re less in tune with how you’re feeling from day to day. Keeping a journal can be a simple way to stay in check with how you feel:

Spend five minutes writing in a journal each day. It doesn’t need to be a leather-bound notebook; it can be a text file on your computer.

Take note of your thoughts, what you’re feeling positive and negative about, and anything else that might be on your mind at the time.

At the end of each week, look back over the journal. Did you have any concerns that didn’t end up manifesting? Do you feel better mentally for having spent some time writing each day?

“If you haven’t already, take the self-assessment quiz that we referenced earlier in this section on how you’ve been feeling recently. If you have any concerns about the results, seek some advice.” (EfctRmWrk 2022)

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