Welcome to the WFH world, whether this has always been your normal of the new normal. Here are some tips to make your transition as healthful as possible for that 1 minute commute from your bedroom to home office.

1. Separate Your Space: If your WFH space is in a bedroom or living room, try to create visual separation with either a piece of furniture that closes the office components from view after work, a furniture layout that doesn’t have your bed or couch looking at the office area, or using a screen or room divider that lets you “leave work” when you’re done for the day.

2. Add Natural Elements: If you can, orient your desk to capture tree views from a nearby window. Also look at adding houseplants in decorative pots to your workspace. These will offer an added benefit of purifying the air.

3. Light Your Space: Make sure you have good task lighting on your work surface. For short term setups, look for an adjustable lamp you can later use elsewhere in your home. If you’re going to be telecommuting long term, consider energy-efficient LEDs that mount under a wall shelf or cabinet above your desk and shine down on your papers and projects.

4. Seating is crucial: You may want to invest in a new adjustable, ergonomic desk chair. You can find refurbished models online at significant savings, or you can add ergonomic cushions to a chair you already own that fits your height and reach.

5. Filter the Light from Your Screen: If you work long hours into the night, consider a blue light filter for your computer screen to minimize interruptions to your circadian rhythms; this is particularly important if your office electronics are set up in your bedroom.

6. Correct Laptop Ergonomics: Laptops are great for working on the go, but not terribly ergonomic for long work hours at home. Consider adding a separate screen and possibly keyboard and/or mouse to reduce hand, eye and neck strain.

7. Don’t Sit All Day: Desk risers are invaluable for letting you work standing up part-time, rather than sitting all day.

While some employees miss the watercooler chitchat or the daily interactions with work friends, the tremendous time savings involved in not going to the office is like a wellness vacation, and a financial savings if you include hair, makeup and wardrobe. “A half-time telecommuter saves the equivalent of 11 workdays per year in time they would have otherwise spent commuting,” according to Global Workplace Analytics.

School from Home (Distance Learning or Hybrid-Approach)

1. Just as with working from home, your student’s ideal is an ergonomic, adjustable seat. This is particularly helpful if two different-sized people will be rotating use of one desk.

2. Task lighting is also important for school work – maybe even more so with books being such a large part of learning.

3. We’re moving into cold and flu season and those germs are often spread on contact. Reducing shared touchpoints is ideal. Give each student his or her own supplies and organizer baskets so they’re spreading fewer germs among themselves, and especially if your school has taken a hybrid approach to learning. If sharing a computer is required, have electronics-approved cleaners on hand for sanitizing keyboard and mouse between uses. And, of course, make sure regular handwashing is happening, even at home.

School from Home: A Silver Lining Here’s a slim silver lining to 1.2 billion children out of classrooms around the world because of COVID-19: “Research suggests that online learning has been shown to increase retention of information, and take less time, meaning the changes coronavirus have caused might be here to stay,” says World Economic Forum.

The Missing Link to Overall Well-Being: Don’t miss the link between your homes and your health, the pandemic is helping to shift that thinking. With our living spaces doing double, triple even quadruple-duty as shelter, workplace, classroom, and even gym, what’s getting lost is the concept of home as a sanctuary. This is one of its most important roles for our overall well-being. The best way to achieve a home sanctuary is to provide a space that supports: healthful meal preparation and facilitates connection with family; nurtures downshifting with quiet spaces for meditation, napping, de-stressing, and maybe that glass of wine at 5; a connection to nature, and puts your family and friends first with a peaceful setting.

Bonnie

Working from home