It is very easy when you are working from home to just keep working endlessly. However, if you don’t take breaks – periodically during your work time and for normal days off you may start to feel unhealthy and even burned out.
When you feel burned out, you will be less motivated to conduct your business as you may have started out to. You may start spinning your wheels – that is you are not really accomplishing anything for all the time you are spending.
You may be determined and dedicated to your business and these are good things, but you need to be realistic. You are ‘only human’. Humans need a balance in their life – work, rest, play. If you do any of those to the exclusion of the others you are creating an imbalance.
You may scoff at this until you start noticing problems with your eye site, or you are having stiffness and pain. You may begin to dislike what you are doing – who likes a rut, after all? It is no joke though and it is only a toss up as to which system will fail first – mental or physical.
So work hard to build your business but remember to take breaks. Every hour or so focus your eyes on something as far away as you can. Then close them for a few minutes. Get up out of your chair and stretch about the same time. Even go and walk around your building to really get a good stretch.
Make sure that you take a day completely away from your computer – ideally you can do something out of doors for some healthy fresh air and sunshine. Take a drive, or go to the gym for a good workout. Go somewhere and have lunch or visit with friends.
If you are in the middle of some big project and you really can’t be away for a whole day, then make sure you take frequent breaks. You may have to force yourself – but if you make it part of your day’s plan and do it regularly you will get used to it.
It has long been known about the health issues like eye strain and discomfort from sitting or doing repetitive movements with your hands. Now they are saying you can even develop Type II Diabetes from chronic overwork. How much more serious can you get than that?
There must be something about working from home that is so much more enjoyable than working in an office, that causes people to become workaholics from home! Really, though the biggest reason is just that you do not come and go in the same way as when you travel to and from a job. It’s just too easy to stay glued to your monitor!
