Nata Schepy

Our working situations have changed dramatically since early 2020.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused many people to lose their jobs, and companies around the world made the move to remote work. For example, by June 2020, 42 percent of the US labor force were working from home, and 46 percent of employees in London reported working from home at some point in 2020. Over the past year, we’ve nailed the bed-to-Zoom commute: We can be up, presentably dressed (our top half at least), hydrated, caffeinated and in front of the screen in minutes.

Despite the challenges of making our living space into our working space, we’ve gotten used to the comforts of working from home, and surveys show that employees are feeling anxious about returning to the office. As vaccination rates rise and COVID cases drop, more of us are being asked to go back to in-person workplaces. So how can we make this transition easier?

Here are 6 tips for returning:

1. Be compassionate with yourself, and others

The shift to home working was sudden, and that kind of change was psychologically jarring and therefore negative for most people, according to Meag-gan O’Reilly PhD, a psychologist at Stanford, cofounder of Inherent Value Psychology Inc. What’s more, this shift was combined with uncertainty about the future; the loss of autonomy, freedom and connection that came with lockdown; and a level of loss and grief that was unprecedented for many of us.

Being at home all the time and losing familiar structures and routines led some of us to overwork — which might have included taking up new hobbies with overly high expectations — while others struggled to focus. “If you pride yourself on having a good work ethic, that may have hit your sense of self and self-esteem,” O’Reilly says. “I think people were unfairly blaming themselves for struggling. When you’re going through something unprecedented, there’s no bar for this.”

The pandemic also highlighted existing inequalities. O’Reilly asks: “Who was getting the virus more? Black and brown communities, because they’re more likely to be essential workers that deal with people. So for people who are Black and brown, we had to sit and hold and deal with this history and this very present racism, sexism and classism.” At the same time, the murder of George Floyd and continued episodes of police brutality brought grief and trauma to the fore for so many and contributed to feelings of discomfort or othering at work, based upon how employers responded to the movement for Black lives.

Consider the things that have changed for you this year and decide what elements you want to keep.

Besides these huge societal issues were the minutiae — the cancelled holidays, birthdays over Zoom instead of in person, not being able to hug loved ones or even stop by a coworker’s desk to say “hello” in the morning.  We lost or had to adjust the little daily routines that make up our lives, and as many of us are exiting crisis mode, it’s time to take stock of both what your life is like now and what it used to be like.

O’Reilly says it’s important to acknowledge the journey you’ve been on in the past 20 months and give yourself compassion and empathy. Consider the things that have changed for you this year, and decide what elements you want to keep.

“One of the elements I hope all of us keep as we return to work is this idea of shared humanity,” she says. “When we were all Zooming in, we had kids running in the background, our pets jumping up on our laps. People got to see us as more fully human, and that allowed everyone else to give more grace.”

2. Be intentional with your time and energy, and set realistic expectations

If a commute is part of your return to the office, your time is likely to be squeezed during this transition. “We need to accept that we can’t show up everywhere,” O’Reilly says. “Stretching and hustling and trying to be everywhere is not only futile, but it’s exhausting. And it’s trying to solve the wrong problem.”

Instead, she encourages people to think about what projects, teams, activities and individuals they want to be more connected with. How can you show up where you want to be? How are you going to distribute your finite energy and time intentionally? Are there certain things you’ve invested time or energy in that you want to continue? Or leave behind?

If you’re preparing to return to in-person work, you need to understand what it will look like. Companies are taking different approaches, but one thing’s certain, says US-based Rebecca Henderson, CEO of Randstad Global Businesses, which provides HR services. “We’re not going back to what it was pre-pandemic. There are going to be limitations on how people will be getting together.” This could mean that lunch break spaces, meeting rooms and even restrooms may look very different than before.

Another important consideration is vaccination. Not everyone will choose to be vaccinated, and companies will need to decide how to approach this. Get to know the reality you’re heading back into. What are the rules where you work? Are you comfortable with the safety measures your employer has established? Ask questions, and read the information provided by your workplace. Then imagine the situation and give yourself time to adjust to it mentally.

3. Establish a new routine (and wake up early enough to do it!)

Working from home, you’ve probably mastered the art of hopping on Zoom at the last minute. The thought of a morning routine might seem like a distant memory.

Think about how you can bridge your current routine with the one you need. Figure out what time you need to wake up and what support you might need at home. “Start thinking about building in small pieces of the routine into your current schedule, so you can scaffold up to what you’re going to need to do,” explains O’Reilly.

Reawaken old habits. Give yourself time to prepare meals if you need to bring lunch to work, or to pick out and iron the work clothes that haven’t left your closet in so long.

This shift back to the office gives you the chance to set your boundaries in terms of availability, communication, and when and where you work.

There could also be new layers of routine during your working day. Perhaps you have to book a particular time slot or day to work in the office, take an extra few minutes to sign in to your building in the morning or undertake a health screening.

And if your workplace is taking a staggered approach to staffing, you might need to plan ahead to make sure you get the benefits of socializing again. Try to coordinate with someone you usually work with, Henderson says. “I really encourage folks to have a routine – a well-defined schedule that you potentially match up with your colleagues. Otherwise, you run the risk of going back to the office but still feeling alone.”

4. Set your boundaries

Working from home blurred a lot of boundaries. When you’re sitting at a makeshift desk in your bedroom or kitchen, it can be almost impossible to separate work from home. “You could be having dinner with your family, yet you’re still working,” says O’Reilly. “You’re more accessible – people can email you anytime, so the boundary gets lost.”

This shift back to the office gives you the chance to set your boundaries in terms of availability, communication and when and where you work. Do you want to turn off your emails at certain times? Do you prefer to communicate by Slack or video call? Are weekly check-in meetings most effective? Think about what works best for your productivity and your mental health, and share these findings with your employer and colleagues.

Suddenly being around a lot of people again could come as a shock to the system.

You may feel that you work better from home. Employers are open to different approaches, and this can make it easier for you to establish new boundaries. According to a report by the Welsh Government, working from home is a trend that has been increasing since 1981 in the UK, reaching a maximum of 43.1 percent of employees in April 2020. The Work After Lockdown research project suggests it won’t be entirely reversed.

“For sure, employers have changed their attitude about productivity at home,” Henderson says. “For many years, a lot of employers didn’t like the work from home scenario because they didn’t feel like they could get their hands on productivity metrics. I don’t believe there are any employers who believe that any longer.”

You might also want to think about your sensory boundaries as you return to a crowded office. Suddenly being around a lot of people again could come as a shock to the system. If it’s not possible to return to work in phases, O’Reilly recommends getting away from the screen regularly. “Inject some ‘admin time’ into the day, and instead of catching up on paperwork, have a sensory break,” says O’Reilly. “Step outside, and close your eyes. Do some breathing or stretching, or engage in some meditation.”

5. When you reconnect with people, remember they’ve also been through a lot

Socializing is an important aspect of work, but it’s a big source of anxiety for many. After more than a year conversing with colleagues through screens, you may be worried about being socially awkward. Practice can help here: Go out, talk to people at the store or in the street, and start brushing up on your small talk. Treat yourself with kindness, and take it slowly.

Your colleagues may have lost someone, or seen a family member become disabled because of long COVID.

Then there’s the physical aspect: We need to think about hugs versus elbow bumps, and consider people’s differing levels of comfort with contact. “There need to be conversations around how people want to reconnect, how much or how little, and all that can be daunting for people,” O’Reilly says.

Everyone has experienced the pandemic differently, and some are excited to return to work. So how can you handle this when you’re anxious? In O’Reilly’s opinion, someone who is already struggling shouldn’t have to constantly advocate for themselves, and this is why a compassionate workplace is essential. But sometimes it may be necessary to make yourself heard and speak up for what you require. Those who are excited should be mindful, ask questions and make space for people who are anxious.

No matter where you are on the excitement spectrum, keep in mind what people have been through. Your colleagues may have lost someone or seen a family member become disabled because of long COVID, or they themselves may be struggling with recovery in ways that are invisible. “Take some time to check in and calibrate with people, because that’s going to show up in their work life in some way,” O’Reilly says. “Some people aren’t going to be happy, some people are still grieving, and some people are still losing people. Let’s not forget that.”

Plus: Be mindful of wider issues that have come to the fore during the pandemic. Many of O’Reilly’s private practice clients are Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC), and some of them experienced a reprieve by not being in the office. “They dealt with fewer microaggressions and less toxic culture, especially as police violence, Black Lives Matter and the loss of Black lives was in the news. They didn’t have to go to work and answer questions in person. They had that digital distance that gave them a little privacy.”

There are things you can do to be more aware and compassionate about the experience of your BIPOC colleagues, O’Reilly says. “First, remember Black Lives Still Matter. Second, check in but do not demand or expect to be let into someone’s process. Just leave them an open invitation. And third, continue doing your work as an ally. Be on the lookout for microaggressions, emotional labor and when your BIPOC peers are being dismissed or treated inequitably.”

When we ask our peers and coworkers how the pandemic was, we should include racial trauma.

She also urges people to remember that during the COVID-19 pandemic, there was also many incidences of police violence that traumatized people in the Black community. “When we ask our peers and coworkers how the pandemic was, we should include racial trauma. You could say something like ‘COVID is hard. When you’re ready or want to share, I also want to know how all the loss and racial trauma is for you.’”

6. Prepare to take care of your mental health

It’s totally normal to plan for anxiety — after all, we do this all the time for big, anxiety-provoking events like weddings and births. O’Reilly recommends following three steps: Pin down a date to return to the office, have an internal conversation about how you’re feeling, and talk to people about it. “Free-floating anxiety is worse than specific worries,” O’Reilly says. “Having an anchor date is grounding, so it’s not sudden or unknown. Asking yourself questions helps you attend to your feelings and adapt to the stressors.”

For example, if you identify that you’re anxious about attending a meeting, this might mean planning to sit at the back of the room. Talking to others — gathering a community — will give you support for managing your anxiety. But O’Reilly says it can go much further. “I think mental health got a big spotlight during this pandemic, finally, in a way that wasn’t as stigmatized, because we were all going through it,” she says. “I want people to know they’re not the only ones. We always do better when we don’t feel alone.”

Watch Dr. Meag-gan O’Reilly’s TEDxSJSU Talk here: 

Renaud Vigourt

Iceland has made recent headlines by declaring the world’s largest ever trial of a shorter working week in the public sector a resounding success.

After more than 2,500 workers moved to a 35- or 36-hour workweek and declared themselves happier, healthier and less stressed, the country is now moving to make this an option for the majority of its workforce.

This, of course, goes against today’s always-on, 24/7 global economy, where long hours can seem inevitable, inescapable and natural. Years of “rise and grind,” laser-like focus and unrelenting labor, we are told, are behind the success of tech billionaires, professional athletes, “unicorn” companies and even entire economies.

Yet the four-day workweek isn’t just for the public sector — many private companies are discovering that by switching to a four days, they can protect time for undistracted work and give people more time for leisure. The results: Increased productivity and creativity; improved recruitment and retention; less burnout for founders and leaders; and more balanced and sustainable lives for workers — all without cutting salaries or sacrificing customer service.

My book about the move towards four-day workweek, Shorter, was published in the US in early March 2020. The next day, my home state of California reported its first coronavirus death, and a week later, schools, businesses and public spaces across America began closing.

At first, I worried that it was exactly the wrong time to publish a book on the four-day week. But it soon became clear — once the initial confusion over shutdowns and remote work settled — that the global movement to shorten the workweek wasn’t slowing down. In fact, the pandemic was making it possible for more companies to shorten their working hours, highlighting the urgent need to redesign how we work, and teaching me some new things about the four-day week as well as the future of work.

The four-day week before the pandemic

Before the pandemic, hundreds of companies around the world, including in Korea and Japan, two countries whose languages have invented words for “death by overwork,” had moved to four-day weeks, six-hour days or other shorter workweeks. Most were small companies with fewer than 100 people, and they included creative and professional service firms but also software startups, restaurants, factories and nursing homes — industries where overwork is common and deadlines can be inflexible.

Almost all these companies were led by seasoned founders who were now facing burnout or some existential threat to their company. They had concluded that ever-longer hours were unsustainable.

Why did they do it? For many, it was a question of change-or-die. Almost all these companies were led by seasoned founders who found themselves facing burnout or some existential threat to their company. They had concluded that ever-longer hours were unsustainable and thought they could invent a better way of working. For everyone, the benefits of a three-day weekend were obvious: Better work-life balance; more time for “life admin” and family; and more energy for professional and personal development, restorative hobbies and exercise.

No company just lopped a day off their calendar. Instead, they had to meaningfully redesign how they worked. The key to unlocking a shorter workweek without reducing productivity lies in three areas: 1) tightening meetings; 2) introducing “focus time” when everyone can concentrate on their key tasks; and 3) using technology more mindfully.

For example, Flocc London digital consultancy ELSE holds their internal meetings on hard chairs to encourage people to be brief, while at Copenhagen-based IIH Nordic, they use countdown timers to keep meetings short. Studies show that while technology has made knowledge work much more productive, office workers are wasting two to four hours a day thanks to outmoded processes, multitasking, overly-long meetings and interruptions. Deal with those, and you go a long way towards making a four-day week possible.

Having more focused time also gives companies space for dedicated social time during the day. Flocc alternates heads-down “red time” with Swedish fika (a coffee break), while Glasgow call center Pursuit Marketing offers workers free breakfast before they hit the phones.

Companies aren’t losing out on their bottom line, and they have happier, healthier and better workers.

Many companies found they could be just as productive in four days as in five, and a few even saw employee productivity go up dramatically. What’s more, revenues and profits rose because four-day weeks were cheap to implement and actually attracted new customers.

As a result, companies didn’t cut salaries when they reduced hours. This, in turn, boosted retention rates and attracted more experienced workers, and plucky startups and small-town firms could now compete with established companies in London or Silicon Valley for senior talent. Rich Leigh, whose Gloucester firm Radioactive PR moved to a four-day week in 2019, told me, “I can’t move for great resumes from great people” who were wanting to escape London but remain  in the industry. A few years ago, Korean e-commerce company Woowa Brothers used a shorter workweek to lure people from Samsung and LG; it’s currently  valued at more than US $4 billion. Companies aren’t losing out on their bottom line, and they have happier, healthier and better workers.

Synergy Vision, a London-based medical and health care communications company, introduced a four-day week in late 2018. After six months, in a company-wide survey, 51 percent of employees said they were “very happy” at work (up from 12 percent) and 88 percent said they had enough time for personal tasks (up from 54 percent). Incredibly, 79 percent said they had enough time to get all their work done — even though they were working one day less.

“[M]y life is better off, thanks to the 4-day work week,” one employee wrote. “I spend extra time doing things for myself, like walking in Hampstead Health, getting through the pile of unread books and planning my wedding.” Another observed, “Everyone spends their time differently — some people have taken up a new hobby, some people do bugger-all and use it to recharge, and a lot of people use it to ensure their weekends are free to be properly enjoyed with friends and family.”

Working hours, innovation and the pandemic

Companies that moved to four-day weeks before the pandemic were able to respond quickly to the challenges of lockdowns. At Copenhagen-based software and design agency Abtion, employees had learned how to redesign working hours, meeting schedules and adopt new technologies when they chose to adopt a 4-day week. When the pandemic hit Danish businesses, “we did not dictate solutions” to employees, chief production officer Bo Konskov told journalist Pernille Garde Abildgaard — the leadership knew that workers already had the skills to adapt. And once they were working from home, nobody had to “constantly document that one is at work,” Konskov said. “It would be a waste of time, because we know that all our employees are on and working.”

The impact on morale of switching to a four-day week was immediate. “Instantly, you see happier people,” says Paul McNulty, whose online publishing company adopted this schedule in mid-2020.

Companies that made the shift to a shorter week during the pandemic often did so because they found that efficiencies of remote work and better use of technology created more free time, which they could in turn give back to employees who were feeling stressed or overworked because of pandemic life. If a company in early 2020 wasn’t already using tools like Google Suite, Asana, Trello and Slack to let workers collaborate and communicate  online and serve customers remotely, they quickly learned how to use them when they went remote.

After a few months, this meant that workflows became better-documented and -routinized, pushing hourly productivity upward. At the same time, the challenges of managing life under lockdown were growing, as workers juggled home-schooling, the disappearance of work-life boundaries and longer working hours. The solution: Share those productivity gains with workers, in the form of a shorter workweek.

After months of adapting to work from home and the uncertainty of living in the shadow of a pandemic, the impact on morale was immediate. “Instantly, you see happier people,” says Paul McNulty, whose online publishing company 3D Issue moved to a four-day week in mid-2020. “That’s really great to see.”  Before making the change, he gave staff the option of a pay rise or shortened working hours, and they voted in favor of the latter.

Employees with children “see this a day to themselves,” and everyone feels more loyal to the company. Shortening the workweek also encouraged people to be more thoughtful about how they worked. At Uncharted, a Denver nonprofit, “Giving people the space to figure out their working style has been an important optimization,” Banks Benitez tells me.

The four-day week and the future of work

An economic and public health crisis might not seem like a good time for businesses to try a 4-day week. So far, however, every company has survived a crisis unprecedented in recent history. Soon they’ll need to become more flexible, more agile with their time and less beholden to convention, as they redesign workplaces and routines for a workers newly accustomed to flexible work, reopen offices and stores, figure out what work must happen face-to-face and what can be done remotely, and prepare for the next pandemic or economic downturn.

Many companies have already made the kinds of technology investments necessary to implement a shorter workweek, so the 4-day week is more accessible than ever.

This will demand resilience, reflection and problem-solving among employees and in organizations. The four-day week provides an incentive for companies to develop those abilities, and it can play a role in helping companies deal with the practical problems of reopening and reforming work. And because many have already made the kinds of tech investments necessary to implement a shorter workweek without cutting salaries or sacrificing service, the four-day week is more accessible than ever.

A recent survey by Be The Business, a London-based nonprofit, found that 18 percent of companies in the UK were open to moving to a four-day work week after the pandemic ends, and 5 percent already offer a four-day week to workers.

Growing interest among politicians and governments is also raising the prominence of the four-day week in the post-pandemic workplace. In recent months, Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon, New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern and Japanese politician Kuniko Inoguchi have all expressed support for a four-day week. Mayoral candidates in Seoul, South Korea, promised to launch programs to encourage companies to experiment with four-and-a-half-day weeks. In the US, I am currently working on a campaign to encourage companies to adopt a four-day week; it launched in late June 2021.

Job losses in 2020 erased decades of gains made by women in the workplace, and the 4-day workweek could help them recover.

Some local governments have implemented a four-day week, or they’re contemplating it. The Danish kommune (or province) of Odsherred began a three-year trial of a four-day week in 2019; in the US, Morgantown, West Virginia, and Colorado‘s Jefferson County adopted it in 2020; and in 2021, Valencia, Spain, announced plans to trial it.

The four-day week can also help us address structural inequalities that the pandemic threw into sharp relief. Job losses in 2020 erased decades of gains made by women in the workplace, and the four-day week could help them recover. In my interviews with companies who’ve adopted this model, I found they often prefer working mothers whom they value for their experience, organizational skills, collaborative ability, time management and ruthless ability to prioritize.

Labor markets that reward staying late and not having a life end up charging a penalty for motherhood; in contrast, companies that work shorter weeks pay a premium for it. Working mothers “are actually the kinds of people that we want to attract,” Anna Ross, CEO of Australian beauty products company Kester Black, tells me.

A report published by UK’s 4 Day Week Campaign shows that shifting to this work pattern could reduce the entire country’s carbon footprint by 21.3% per year — the equivalent of taking nearly every car off the road.

Shorter working hours also translate into lower energy consumption, less carbon emissions and less commuting time. A report published by the 4 Day Week Campaign in the UK shows that shifting to this work pattern could reduce the entire country’s carbon footprint by 21.3 percent per year — the equivalent of taking nearly every car off the road. As has been the case during the pandemic, the report also found evidence that people are more likely to spend their non-work time engaged in less carbon-intensive activities, like preparing their own meals and walking or cycling instead of driving.

A shorter workweek could also benefit regions and countries trying to become magnets for global talent or attract young people to move back home. An economy in which workers have a bigger voice in how work is automated and get a bigger share of the benefits of increased productivity is one which is less likely to suffer huge disruptions from automation and AI.

Finally, the four-day week can help us develop a healthier vision of work and time. In recent decades, globalization, outsourcing, automation, digitization and, most recently, the rise of the gig economy have created an economy in which we are encouraged, or required, to work ever-longer hours in the name of “doing what you love,” bringing your whole self to work or avoiding redundancy.

But one of the most important lessons companies that adopt four-day weeks can teach us is that — with the right incentives and culture — workplaces can replace the worship of destructive creativity with a vision of sustainable creativity, in which work and life are better balanced, rest fuels creativity, and companies tap into employees’ passions. The four-day week is within our grasp. We just need to see it, and be bold enough to seize it.

Watch Alex Soojung-Kim Pang’s TEDxYouth@Monterey Talk here: 

Watch this TEDxAuckland Talk on the four-day workweek now: 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang is the author of “Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less,” and “Shorter: Work Better, Smarter and Less.” His consultancy Strategy + Rest helps companies move to 4-day weeks. You can follow him at @askpang or visit his website www.strategy.rest

This piece was adapted for TED-Ed from this Ideas article.

Krystal Quiles

When I first began working at home, I couldn’t believe I was getting away with such a racket.

No one told me what to do or where to be! I could work in my bed, go to the grocery store in the middle of the day, and my clients were none the wiser. Even though I was a freelancer, I was constantly looking over my shoulder and expecting to be reprimanded by someone.

But my elation wore away when I realized I wasn’t quite alone at home: my anxiety was there, too.

Now, I’m an anxious person, even in the best of times. But these days, it seems like we’re all anxious. And anxiety is another ingredient — like Zoom calls, overloaded wifi or howling children or pets — that needs to be factored into your days, your productivity and your time management.

Some days my anxiety drives me to perform at an Olympic level, with no task undone and no email unanswered even if I have to work until midnight. That is overwork — a common way that many of us anxious people deal with our feelings — and I’ll return to it later.

Other days, anxiety creates a background buzz in the form of intrusive thoughts and fears about the future. It can also make us distracted and unable to focus, so another common way of dealing with anxiety is avoidance (more later on this one too). For example, while I was writing this piece, I baked banana bread, made a half-hearted attempt at the exercise bike, fed the cats their pre-lunch snack, and wandered around my house looking for things that needed my attention.

Working from home can be wonderful, but when you’re anxious, it can be difficult to concentrate and stay on task. How do you stay accountable to yourself and get work done without driving yourself to exhaustion?

Here are some tips based on what I have learned from 15 years of managing my anxiety while also working from home:

1. Call off the mental fire drill that occurs whenever you get a Slack or email notification

I know I’m not the only one whose heart rate accelerates when I see a new email in my inbox (or a Slack message). It could be a client, a staffer, my accountant or my mother. My anxiety drives me to want to quickly fix what they’re writing me about so I’ll feel better. But before I do, I often spend time worrying and trying to suss out the “true” meaning of their message (a fool’s errand, since emotional nuance is lost in almost any digital communication). Then I’ll force myself to respond no matter what — even if I’m finally eating lunch at 3PM or doing time-sensitive work.

Don’t blame yourself for leaping to reply to every message — much of modern knowledge work is built on this Pavlovian system of instant feedback and urgent response. With so many of us working from home and without the normal in-person interaction, this past year we’ve gotten trained to crave the feedback of a “ping” or a visual notification.

To start to de-program ourselves from the need to always be on, we need to practice being disconnected for small amounts of time. Begin with a time limit. Pick an after-hours moment when you don’t need to be online, and then turn off or hide your devices for an hour. Gradually work towards doing this during a workday. For that, select an hour when you can purposefully avoid checking updates (set up an “away” or “in a meeting” notification so people won’t wonder why you’re not getting back to them).

See how you feel when you can take a break from checking. When I avoid my phone for an hour, I notice that my neck is looser and so are my shoulders! Immediate benefit.

2. Stop waiting to get permission to log off

When work isn’t a place you leave at the end of the day, it can be incredibly difficult to stop. And let’s face it, when the option is to keep working and feel in control or spend more time on the sofa doom-scrolling or with whining kids, overworking might seem even more attractive. But learning to stop work is a discipline that creates good habits and a necessary step to keeping your energy tank filled.

I am an accomplished professional, but unconsciously I still want someone to tell me, “You did a good job today — you’re done.” Well, you need to learn to give yourself that permission.

Psychologist Alice Boyes changed my life when she suggested setting concrete limits around the amount of time I spend on the tasks that make me anxious and tend to overdo. Such shortcuts and hacks that help calm anxiety are called heuristics.

Here’s how you could come up with a heuristic to set boundaries on your work hours. At the beginning of your day (or the day before), create a reasonable to-do list. The key word is reasonable — no writing up a list based upon an imaginary 240-hour day — and based on experience, you’ll probably know how long most of your tasks will take. And if you have to guess time for any, guess upwards. Structure your day based around this list, and when you’re finished, close your computer. You did good.

3. When you get stuck in a worry spiral, ask: “What’s making me anxious right now?”

The flip side of overwork is avoidance — avoiding deadlines and tasks because you’re anxious. Everyone has their greatest hits of coping mechanisms, from trying to worry the fear away to working it away to diving into a bag of cheese doodles. Our brain does this because it’s trying to help us avoid our bad feelings. To understand the motivations and causes behind your anxiety, it helps to take a pause to feel your feelings and monitor how you react to those feelings.

Start by looking at what’s making you anxious right now and how the anxiety is making you react. Here’s an example from my life. Thinking about money makes me anxious. When the economic news is frightening, I might act out when I’m faced with a work task that has anything to do with money. So if I need to prepare a financial report for my small business, I assume it’s going to reveal negative results, which sends me into a spiral of fear. Cognitive behavioral therapists call this kind of reaction an anxious automatic thought. Consequently, instead of facing the spreadsheet and doing my work, I might avoid it entirely. I might eat that bag of cheese doodles or buy something online that makes me feel good. I’m reacting to my anxiety.

It’s better if I can learn to move from reacting on auto-pilot to knowing what sets me off and then managing how I will respond. I can say to myself: “Looking at my company’s finances is going to set me off right now. Maybe I should ask my business partner to do it. Or maybe I should build in a reward if I face the challenge head on? I could let myself have an extra hour of Netflix if I complete the spreadsheet.” I find that most of the time, doing the work doesn’t feel nearly as bad as what my anxiety anticipates.

4. Follow it up by finding a super-achievable work task and doing it

As you can see from my example above, when you feel anxious, it’s easy to turn a relatively straightforward task into an overwhelming thought exercise that sends your brain into catastrophe mode. When you are mired in anxiety and avoiding your work, the important thing is to do something. Jonathan Baxter, a family therapist, gave me this advice:

“The experience of stress has to do with your body wanting to take action. If there are actions you can take — whether getting some exercise or cleaning the bathroom or teaching your kids something — go ahead and take them. When you take action, give yourself a moment to let yourself feel good about taking a step. Use your mind to give your body the signal that you have agency and are doing what you can. (“There, I did it!”) The goal is to feel active and effective rather than scrambling from one thing to the next.”

I like to take a page from positive psychology and choose a small, meaningful action that will build my motivation for work and to tackle bigger tasks ahead. Have you ever organized a messy spreadsheet and just felt so good? Pick an activity that connects you to your larger purpose and allows you to see yourself as an effective and competent individual, which will ultimately help you move towards doing the thing you’re avoiding.

5. If that seems impossible, pick a non-work task

If tackling work just feels like too much when you’re toiling from home and staring at a messy house or out-of-control kids, pick a non-work action that’s physical and helpful. Since I hunch and clench in my desk chair when I’m stuck, I like to pick a task that gets my body moving and my shoulders open. I might pick a household chore (I like to scrub the bathtub because it’s quick but physically demanding), cook, do some yard work or even run up my stairs a few times. I find that it helps me to get off my screen and into motion.

Notice how you feel after you do your tiny non-work task and whether you’re able to begin the thing you have been avoiding. Then notice: How long can you continue until anxiety hits again? Is there a specific activity that almost always gets you in the mood to tackle a task?

6. Keep adding to your anxiety-taming bag of tricks

Anxiety feels different for everyone. We all have different triggers, and we all react differently. Money, as I mentioned before, is a big anxiety trap for me. When I get unwelcome financial news, my brain immediately goes to a gloomy place: My business will fail, we will go broke, we will lose everything.

As you continue in your career, it’s crucial that you understand specifically what sets you off and how it affects your workday. Once you understand that, you can try to avoid these triggers and — when you can’t avoid them — use specific strategies or tools that can help you move out of anxiety.

Many people I talk to for my podcast “The Anxious Achiever” tell me that they find making to-do lists and detailed schedules helpful, because they help them cut down on ruminating and overwork. Others know that they need to sweat, get outside or run around with their dog to dissolve that knot of anxiety. I like to cook. When I’m anxious and unfocused, I make giant stockpots of broth or chili. Hey … it works for me.

It’s possible for you to create a remote workday that minimizes your anxiety, creates real connection and engagement with your coworkers, allows you to get your work done, and lets you feel OK about unplugging at night. But like all skills, learning how to manage your workday anxiety takes practice, time, and above all compassion for yourself. We all succumb to the cheese doodles at times, and that’s OK too.

Watch her The Way We Work video here: 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Morra Aarons-Mele is a (mostly) happy, successful person. She also identifies as an extremely anxious overachiever. To normalize anxiety and help others manage theirs, Aarons-Mele launched and hosts The Anxious Achiever podcast for HBR Presents, which was a 2020 Webby Awards Honoree and is a top 10 management podcast. She’s passionate about helping people rethink the relationship between their mental health and their leadership. Aarons-Mele is also the founder of the award-winning social impact agency Women Online, which created a database of female influencers, the Mission List. She was named 2020 Entrepreneur of the Year at the Iris Awards, recognizing excellence in digital parenting media. Aarons-Mele is also a prolific writer. Since 2004 she has covered the campaign trail, the White House, the lactation room and the office cubicle. Her book, Hiding in the Bathroom: How To Get Out There (When You’d Rather Stay Home), was published in 2017, and she has written for the New York Times, Entrepreneur, Fast Company, Slate, InStyle, O, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and the Guardian.

This piece was adapted for TED-Ed from this Ideas article.