Mindset & Emotion
Stay Healthy,
Wealthy & Wise
Working from Home
Work from home expert, Leslie Truex, gives
Business Fit readers seven top tips to ensure
a healthy and successful work-at-home
environment.
Working at home can reduce stress and
bring improved balance to a busy life, both of
which offer health benefits. However, there
are aspects to working at home that can also
create health issues if not addressed. Easy
access to snacks, decreased activity, and
low social interaction can lead to a variety of
problems related to weight, energy, and mood.
Here are 7 tips to ensure your
work-at-home environment doesn’t
sabotage your health:
1. Set Physical and Time
Boundaries:
Working at home allows flexibility in your life,
but if you don’t have boundaries, your work will
bleed into your life and your life will bleed into
your work. Creating boundaries is particularly
challenging to work-at-home parents, but
necessary to avoid feeling guilty about working
or about taking the kids to the park when you
think you should be working.
The physical boundary is a separate office with
a door that allows you to close out the rest of
the world to focus on work. When you’re done
working, closing the door when you leave
keeps your work away from your home life.
Along with an office, you need to have a
set schedule and routine that creates time
boundaries. It’s not uncommon for home-
based workers to work more hours than they
would at a traditional office because the work
is accessible 24/7. Off-time is crucial to success
at work, so it’s important to set a schedule and
stick to it.
2. Work in a Safe Environment:
A common image often depicted of home-base
workers is a person sitting on the couch or in
bed with their laptop. While working in comfort
is a perk, poor posture can lead to all sorts of
problems including back pain, headaches,
stomach issues, and more. Certainly, the
occasional work session on a chaise chair or in
bed won’t harm you, but most of the time you
want to have ergonomic office furniture that
56
offers good support and is set at a height that
doesn’t cause neck or eye strain when looking
at your computer.
Your office should be well lit, with natural light
included, if possible. Consider having office
plants that offer a host of benefits including
keeping your office air clean.
3. Stand Up Regularly
Research indicates that too much sitting is bad
for your health. It can contribute to a host of
problems including increase in belly fat and
blood pressure, and greater risk of heart
disease, cancer and other ailments related
to low activity and weight gain. Add the fact
that working at home already has less activity
because you don’t have to get out of the house,
commute to work, walk across the parking lot,
and other activities that go with a traditional
job.
To counteract the health risk of a sedentary
work life, consider getting a standing desk, or
at the very least, taking standing breaks every
thirty minutes to an hour.
Set a time to exercise every day. With a flexible
schedule and no commute, comes more time
to take care of yourself. Take a walk or bike
ride, stretch or do yoga, play outside with the
kids, go to the gym, or sign up for an activity
through your recreation centre such as dance
or adult soccer.
Have a set
schedule and
routine that
creates time
boundaries
57