Lewis Health Management Consulting

#WFH is a lot of what we are talking about these days! For those who are fortunate to be employed through the pandemic that’s good. And if you have the additional luxury of working from home your COVID-19 risk as decreased significantly. But your risk of bodily pain from poor ergonomics is increased. You may also find increased mental health symptoms because usual supports and structure are lacking.

Pay attention to body posture:

This isn’t sexy #WFH advice. This is basic and essential:

1. Work in a supported posture.
2. Despite good posture, get up and move as often as you can — at least 2 or 3 times per hour as this resets and refreshes your body.
3. Maintain work – life balance.

Tips for good posture:

1. Sit in a good chair that has you reasonably upright and not slouched or reclined. Use a pillow behind your back if needed. If your feet don’t touch the floor, put a book or something sturdy underneath.
2. Have your computer keyboard at elbow height — if it’s higher you will be reaching and increasing strain on your neck and upper back. Too low and you will be hunched over. Your neck and shoulders should be relaxed. If not, check your posture. If you need to be up higher, sit on a pillow.
3. Have your monitor at eye level (lower if you know you use your reading glasses to view the monitor). For most laptop users this is challenge — here are your options:

• Pain from looking down to your monitor or pain from placing your monitor higher and reaching up for the keyboard. OR
• Best choice: get an external keyboard & mouse and place your monitor higher. You can place it higher by putting some books under it, placing it in a cookbook stand and opening the monitor much wider, or hooking an external monitor to it.

You can contact me at CBI Health Centre – Park Street for an individual assessment by me or one of our great staff or see here for more #WFH tips and a Government of Alberta publication.

Re-create work routines:

Work by its very nature is structured, organized, and usually involves lots of good contact with people. Sometimes you might be happy to leave the office social sphere behind but in most cases the social nature of work actually feeds us. Some quick tips for re-creating healthy work structure are:

1. Create a “workspace”. Even if you set up/take down daily.
2. Maintain a regular work routine: get up & made up for public interaction. Keep regular office hours.
3. Open and close your workday. What helped you be productive and on track at work? Replicate those habits at home. Close the door on work after work hours and re-engage with healthy routines.
4. Connect with others: replicate your office chatter, re-create social connections, and make efforts to connect with others. Lots of our satisfaction at work comes from our connections with others.
5. What has worked for you before that helps manage your workload, mood, stress and anxiety? Many of those strategies you can still rely on with some tweaking to the current context. 
6. Focus on good sleep. Use the sleep habits that have served you well in the past. Stay active all day, avoid alcohol before bedtime, and stay in bed only as long as needed and get up at your pre-planned wake time. Here are more tips.
7. Unplug and do something active! Treat it like an experiment: take note of your mood before the activity and then after. Do anything where you are up and moving such as go for a walk, do some yard work, do a craft, do some baking, or whatever has brought you pleasure!
8. Reach out to friends and family and make connection.

Do a a self-check on mental health:

Obtain great tips on mental health tips here or credible self assessment from HeretoHelpBC.