RWL215 How to work from home and reduce physical affects

In today's tip of the day , I want to talk about exploring ways to improve your work from home setup for long-term well-being , and this comes from a place of , I guess , thought and a place of contemplation and , yeah , really thinking back to my own days when I started out working remotely , because I started by working from from home and you may have heard from

previous episodes of the remote podcast , remote work life podcast , especially the episodes the tips of the day episodes that I've been doing quite recently , I started off on my kitchen table using my kitchen chair to do my work .

I didn't necessarily think about it and then from time to time I might shift , I might move to a desk that I had and use the kitchen chair to , yeah , to make sure that I could reach the computer . It wasn't actually the right height for the desk and it meant that I had to stretch up to actually reach the laptop on my computer desk .

So I didn't necessarily think at that time or really understand that you needed furniture that was aligned with your needs . I didn't really think about comfort at that point . Believe it or not , I can't actually believe it . I didn't think about comfort at that point .

I just thought about starting the day and finishing the day and getting my work done in the day , and if it was a little bit painful , so be it , I would just grin and bear it . But soon , you know , I experienced and got , I suppose , a message from my body to say , actually , everything's not right here .

And I say that quite lightly , because it was quite painful in the sense that the message I got from my body sort of emanated from my lower back . So it was obvious to me then that in fact was . It was obvious to me then that . But in fact , yeah , it was obvious to me then that , um , something was not quite right and that I had to improve something .

But it still didn't occur to me that it was necessarily the , the actual kitchen table and the kitchen chair that was the cause of the problem . I didn't really think about it . Um , I mean , I knew posture was , was something , so I just went along with it and I corrected my posture as as much as I thought I could .

I sat up straight , like you know my mom has already always told me to do . Still , that didn't necessarily have an effect or the desired effect that I I wanted .

So , again , it was through learning , through conversations with my colleagues , other people who work from home , people who I didn't know , people who I had reached out to because of my curiosity about remote work , I began to understand how they organized themselves and how they had ways to improve and optimize their own work from home setup for their long-term

well-being . And then sort of the light bulb went off in my own head and I thought , okay , let me try some of these things , let me actually see if some of the things that they're doing are going to help me . And here's just a list of five things that I incorporated into my own setup , or at least actually I say five things .

There are five things on the list , but haven't necessarily incorporated every single thing on this list , most of the things . So let's start out with number one . Number one is ergonomic furniture .

So I my first investment , my first big investment , I thought at the time , was a relatively inexpensive chair with a lumber support that you could inflate and deflate according to your tolerance level . So that was my idea of ergonomic furniture .

You know , since then advancements have been made in office chairs and they're probably a lot more expensive than they used to be . But in many cases it's going to be worth the investment if you can have comfort when you're sitting at the desk . And of course sitting is not the preferred mode of working , but at some point you may have to sit .

So you might as well invest in a chair if it's going to mean in a decent chair , if it's going to mean a long , a decent chair , if it's going to mean sort of like a long term chronic pain in the future . So ergonomic furniture was one thing . Another thing , another item of ergonomic furniture which I used was the sit stand desk .

So a sit stand desk is something , again , that was necessary for me because I had the type of role which required that I sat down for quite long hours of the day and I didn't want to do that . So I kind of broke that up with that sit-stand desk .

So invest in comfortable and ergonomic furniture to support good posture and reduce physical strain during long work hours . That's one thing . Number two is natural light . So , again , natural light . You want to position yourself in position your workspace near a window to maximize natural light which can improve mood and reduce eye strain .

And again , I live in a country , the uk , that especially in winter , um the nights or the evenings get dark very quickly .

So I want to make the most of the natural light coming through and , you know , see the , the sun in the sky , see clouds in the sky , see , you know , just see daylight , because it's it's it's a a rare commodity in the in the winter time especially .

So I cherish the natural natural light and always seek out places where I can benefit from the natural light and position myself in the optimum position where I can have light but at the same time , have a clear video call with my you know , my colleagues or with people I'm meeting with . So natural light is number two .

Number three it's probably the one thing that I need to do more that I don't , which is plants and greenery . So incorporating plants and greenery into your workspace to bring nature indoors and improve air quality . And there's been research which says that plants and greenery can actually improve productivity levels .

I think it was carl if university of the school of psychology , um has done research on this , and I'm sure there are other institutions that have done research as well .

But just having green , having plants around , having flowers around , having color , vibrant colours around and the smell sometimes can stimulate my senses at least , anyway , hopefully you don't have any allergies that can have the opposite effect to that , but you know what I mean .

So having those visual , those aesthetics in your office can make it all the better , and that's the beauty of the home office . You can set it up in any way that you want . So that's number three . So number four is mood boosting elements , which I've spoken about before . So it could be artwork . I've got a picture of . It could be artwork .

It could be photographs . I've got a picture of I like cricket photographs . I've got a picture of , uh , I like cricket .

So I've got a picture of one of the former cricket captains , a signed picture of one of the former cricket captains in my office , um , I've got a picture of my , my , my wedding day , um , in my office , and that every time I look at that , that gives me a good feeling , a good sense .

Whenever I feel as though I'm sort of under pressure , I just take a look at that , take a look at the picture of my kids and just things that I like , things like that , and it creates a positive and inspiring workplace for me at least anyway . So that's mood boosting elements .

And number five is again I probably repeat this , one more than anything else but wellness . And if you don't have your wellness , if you don't have , if you're not well , if you're not , you know , as fit as you can be , then that can impact upon your , your work . Health is wealth , as they say .

Health is just the , it is just the root of everything , essentially because it makes things more difficult if you don't have your health . So doing things like morning stretches , going for a walk , recharging your batteries outside , can all help to improve your work-from-home setup and your long-term well-being .

So by exploring ways to improve your work home setup and your long-term well-being , so by exploring ways to improve your work from home setup and long-term well-being , remote workers can experience increased inspiration , I believe , increased mood and enhanced overall well-being . So you know , treat your work from home environment with care .

You know , be intentional about your work from home environment with care . You know , be intentional about your work from home environment , improve it where you can learn from others , see what they're doing , ask questions and make sure that you're working in the optimum environment for you . I just want to say thank you for listening today .

If you find this , found this episode useful . Please do consider sharing among your colleagues and friends If you have any suggestions . I'm sure that I mean the list I gave you was not exhaustive by any means . Any other suggestions ? I welcome feedback . You can link with me on LinkedIn .

You can leave a review below on your podcast app and please leave a rating as well , and I wish you all the best for the future .