With almost everyone still living the work-from-home life, it’s absolutely crucial to be able to balance both your personal and professional lives since they have now merged into one. One of the key things is your health, both physical and mental, as well as your at-home comfort so that you can stay productive and energized throughout the day.
If you don’t know already, CryoDragon has been a home-based business since our inception and we are quite familiar to the struggles that may come from an improper work-life balance. During the first few years of our business, we worked many late hours and powered through our projects without care for the things we’ve mentioned above. And after a time, they do take their toll. But, we’ve since improved on our bad habits!
One of the things that we find the most helpful in maintaining a proper schedule and balance is to have natural white light (sunlight) in your home office and to make it as comfortable as possible for long hours of sitting. Getting an adjustable table or an adjustable, ergonomic chair helps with your posture, and getting natural sunlight into your office will help your body adapt a better sleep schedule. In fact, there have been numerous studies that have shown that those who work in offices with windows and are exposed to natural sunlight get better sleep, health and quality of life. Why? Because exposure to light-dark patterns is one of the main environmental cues for circadian rhythms, which play a critical role in different patterns such as sleep and activity. This means that have a disrupted pattern could potentially lead to effects on physical and mental health.
From one of the studies performed in 2014, Boubekri et al. tested 27 workers in a windowless environment vs. 22 comparable workers in workspaces with significantly more daylight. They discovered that the group of office workers with more light exposure tended to sleep longer and more deeply, were capable of more physical activity, and had improved physical and mental well-being (were generally happier) than those with less light exposure in the workplace. And it is clear from other studies and from personal experience that the less sleep you get, the poorer you perform.
It does take some time to adjust to working from home if you’re new to it, but our recommendation is to make sure your home office and workspace are adjusted to be comfortable to you, and to make sure you have enough lighting in the room to potentially help regulate your body’s circadian rhythms. Everyone of us is different, so find the best way that works for you! We do not know how long this pandemic will last, but it is better to prepare for the long-term than to get into a poor habit for too long.
