21.10.12

https://ideas.ted.com/tips-to-manage-your-day-and-anxiety-when-working-from-home/

6 tips to help you manage your day AND your anxiety when working from home

6 tips to help you manage your day AND your anxiety when working from home

But my elation wore away when I realized I wasn’t quite alone at home: My anxiety was there, too.

Some days my anxiety drives me to perform at an Olympic level, with no task undone and no email unanswered even if I have to work until midnight. That is overwork — a common way that many of us anxious people deal with our feelings — and I’ll return to it later.

Some days my anxiety drives me to perform at an Olympic level, with no task undone and no email unanswered even if I have to work until midnight. That is overwork — a common way that many of us anxious people deal with our feelings — and I’ll return to it later.

Other days, anxiety creates a background buzz in the form of intrusive thoughts and fears about the future. It can also make us distracted and unable to focus, so another common way of dealing with anxiety is avoidance (more later on this one too). For example, while I was writing this piece, I baked banana bread, made a half-hearted attempt at the exercise bike, fed the cats their pre-lunch snack and wandered around my house looking for things that needed my attention.

Working from home can be wonderful, but when you’re anxious, it can be difficult to concentrate and stay on task. How do you stay accountable to yourself and get work done without driving yourself to exhaustion?

Here are some tips based on what I have learned from 15 years of managing my anxiety while also working from home:

1. Call off the mental fire drill that occurs whenever you get a Slack or email notification

I know I’m not the only one whose heart rate accelerates when I see a new email in my inbox (or a Slack message). 

2. Stop waiting to get permission to log off

Psychologist Alice Boyes changed my life when she suggested setting concrete limits around the amount of time I spend on the tasks that make me anxious and tend to overdo

 

3. When you get stuck in a worry spiral, ask: “What’s making me anxious right now?”

4. Follow it up by finding a super-achievable work task and doing it

5. If that seems impossible, pick a non-work task

6. Keep adding to your anxiety-taming bag of tricks

----

elation : a state of extreme happiness or excitement 

buzz : to make a continuous, low sond such as the one a bee makes / to be busy and full of energy 

intrusive : affecting someone in a way that annoys them and makes them feel uncomfortable 

call sth off : to decide that something has already been planned will not happen 

suss : to realize, undertand or discover something 

leap : to provide help, protection etc. very quickly 

permission : If someone is given permission to do something, they are allowed to do it 

tame : to make a wild animal tame /  to control something dangerous or powerful