Revving up Remote Work: Tips to Remain Positive and Thrive Through the Pandemic

(BPT) – Many people continue to work and study from home as they navigate the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. While remote life has its benefits, it can also be challenging. There are a few smart steps you can take to avoid unnecessary stress and help you thrive in both your personal and professional life.

“No matter what your personal circumstances, quarantine, social distancing and remote work have been challenging,” says author, speaker and workplace happiness expert Jennifer Moss. “Now is a good time to reassess and take steps to revive your routine. By being proactive, you can help fuel positivity and productivity in all aspects of life.”

To help inspire, Moss speaks to her top five ways to stay positive and better manage a remote lifestyle:

1. Block time for self-care.

The chronic stress of pushing through the pandemic can cause brain fog. Examples of brain fog include difficulty getting motivated, losing your focus easily, searching for your words when trying to communicate and having difficulty making up your mind. At times, small tasks can feel overwhelming.

To prevent brain fog, take a break from work, school or other must-do’s and schedule time to do something you enjoy for 10 to 15 minutes. Without these breaks you’ll end up less productive and less engaged at work overall. This inevitably forces you to expend more mental energy to reach the same goals. A quick break will help you refresh and refocus.

Here is the fifth of five pieces of advice Jennifer shared in this article. To read them all click on the link below.

5. Unique times require flexibility.

Always remember, people are not working at the same productivity and engagement levels as they did before the pandemic started. In addition to chronic stress and anxiety, people are juggling competing demands, like homeschooling and not having access to daycare.

It’s important to have realistic expectations of what demands can be met for yourself and your colleagues. Create daily and weekly goals and have regular, honest conversations with your managers about work-life balance. If you are a manager at an organization, keep this in mind for employees as well as yourself and embrace a responsive approach to these conversations. What’s more, keep this in mind with your family also, as your kids and partner may also require some flexibility at home, too.

Jennifer is highly engaged on LinkedIn and eager to connect and dive deeper into the latest trends. Let’s chat about this topic and others by Connecting with Jen. This article serves as the premise underlying her new keynote offering (re)Discovering Happiness at Work, where Jen takes a deeper dive into these three leader leadership directives: Flexibility at work, Employee sense of belonging, and our need to find purpose in our work. Jen has two additional vital takeaways: how to rethink the future of work and how to connect your workforce as it becomes more diverse than ever.