Your mental and physical health go hand in hand, so it is important to take equal care of both. As a remote worker, you are in a unique condition to look after yourself better, as opposed to if you were working in a traditional office. Here is how:

Cultivate healthier eating habits.

Constant snacking is a slippery slope, especially if your fridge and pantry are stocked with high-sodium and high-sugar eats like potato chips and chocolate bars.

The next time you go grocery-shopping, be conscious about what goes into your cart (and thus, into your fridge). Go for high-fiber snacks like wheat crackers with peanut butter or snack on fruit instead of processed food.

It also helps to know your triggers. Do you find yourself noshing on food when you are bored? Do you stress eat? Identify these impulses and develop alternative coping mechanisms instead, such as taking a few minutes to meditate or carrying out some deep-breathing exercises.

Make time to exercise.

Self-care is not just about scented candles and bubble baths. It also involves keeping your body healthy, and that includes physical activity.

It is all too easy to remain sedentary when you work at home all day, and this is not good for your physical fitness. You do not have to join a marathon (unless you really want to), but you do have to keep moving somehow. Taking a fifteen minute walk around the block after lunch is a great exercise, as is doing stretches throughout the day.

If you are up to it, you can even participate in some yoga or boxing classes in the middle of the week, thanks to the flexibility that most remote working arrangements offer. As a bonus, you could meet new friends in these classes.

Get more sleep.

There is nothing wrong with watching a bit of Netflix to unwind after a long day. It does become harmful if you end up binge-watching into the next day.

Our bodies and minds need quality sleep to recover and depriving them of such can have a disastrous effect on your productivity, health, and sanity. Make sure you get your 7-8 hours every night.

Take vitamins and supplements.

If you already have a healthy diet and get your recommended dietary dose of nutrients from it each day, good for you.

Otherwise, vitamins and supplements can fill in those deficiencies to keep your body in tip-top shape.

Establish healthy social connections.

As mentioned earlier, a life outside work is necessary for your well-being. While you can be friendly with colleagues, never neglect your relationships with friends outside work and touch base with your family often enough to maintain strong ties.

Work will always be there, but never lose sight of what or who is truly important to you.

Build a support group.

In line with the previous item, it always helps to share and process your experiences, be they positive or negative, with friends or peers. This can help you figure out the way forward or simply provide you with the reassurance that you are not experiencing it alone.

Never stop learning.

Idle minds are breeding grounds for loneliness, so keep yours as active as you can. Continue to seek out opportunities for growth, be it in improving your remote work skills or branching out into other industries or topics, or in developing other qualities, such as mindfulness or self-discipline.

Not only will this expand your opportunities as a remote worker, but it will also help you live a much richer and more fulfilling life.

Be an active participant in your community.

Chances are, you belong to more than one community, so make an effort to stay active in all of them. Chat up your colleagues during your downtime, see your friends and family after work, and volunteer for the causes that move you the most. This will keep you from feeling isolated and you just might enjoy yourself in the process.

If you can, pick out an inspirational quote for the day.

Preferably one that matches your mood and will propel you for the day. Pinterest and Instagram are both good sources, as is any good search engine. If you’re so inclined, you may also draft your own.

Create a vision board.

Think about where you’d like to be in the future. Would you like your own house, a car? Is there someone you’d like to start a family with? Do you want to travel and see the world?

Cut out photos that represent your cherished dreams and tack them up onto a bulletin board to inspire and motivate you on days when things might seem especially bleak.

Module Summary

Well done! You have completed this module.

You have learned to:

• differentiate the types of isolation and how to deal with them
• understand the causes of remote work isolation and/or loneliness
• prevent feelings isolated and/or lonely when working from home
• manage other’s thoughts about remote work
• improve work life quality

Explore the other topics to learn how to become a remote working pro! For the meantime, please take time to complete a quick evaluation to help us improve our design and content.