9 Pandemic-Approved Self-Care Tips For Working From Home

[Image description: An avid computer worker during the pandemic sits at home on one of those awesome pouf cushion thingies. A blindfold and a pair of headphones pop into mind and this person remembers to take a self-care break.]

Work from home has become one of this year’s most-used buzzwords. It even has its own nifty acronym: WFH. In a time when your dining room table doubles as your office desk, the line between work and rest can be blurry. These self-care tips will help you enforce the personal boundaries you deserve so your work can take a backseat when you are off the clock.

Table of contents

1. Take a 20 minute nap

2. Take a bath

3. Blindfold yourself for 10 minutes

4. Spend 10 minutes doing nothing

5. Crawl under the covers

6. Spend 1 minute making weird noises

7. Clean your room until it feels amazing

8. Treat yourself to a delight

9. Walk around the block

Now get ready, get set, drop everything and…

1. Take a 20 minute nap

There's a reason we sleep 1/3 of the day. Actually there's about a billion reasons like increasing energy, decreasing stress, aiding digestion, improving memory, reducing inflammation...the list goes back about 7 million years to the first humans.

But I can bla bla bla at you all day about benefits, which are just ways of trying to convince your mind of something your body already knows to be true. The point is, if you're reading this far down you REALLY need to go take a nap right now. I even made a totally free playlist just to help you drop into nap-town.

If you're feeling hesitant, it's ok! No one's going to judge you, you're not wasting time, and you're not going to get in trouble with work (and if you do, it's time to quit and find a healthy job). Napping has been widely shown to be a phenomenally healthy tool of rest and recovery. Don't squander that resource!

2. Take a bath

I see you there, busy as ever, rubbing your eyes from too much screen time and pushing through nonetheless. You deserve a break! It doesn't matter if it's 1:22pm, it's time for your body to recharge. And more than that, it's time to give your body some sweet unwinding love.

My invitation? Follow these steps:

1. Walk over to your bath.

2. Turn on the water.

3. Pull out those epsom salts.

4. Pour 2-8 cups into your bath.

5. Grab a candle for mood lighting.

6. Shut the door.

7. Throw your phone in the toilet.

If you're thinking, "But Noé, aren't baths just a frivolous waste of time?" here's what I have to say to you: No way, compadre. I used to think that myself, until I realized I thought everything outside of work was a waste of time (hint: you're a workaholic). Baths are for bosses. Epsom salt baths are a serious physical recovery tool for athletes and top level entrepreneurs like Tim Ferriss and Suzy Batiz.

3. Blindfold yourself for 10 minutes

If your eyes don't rest, your brain doesn't rest. A great way to see how your brain is doing is blink slowly for about 30-60 seconds. It's a nervous system reset tool I learned for anytime I go into a fear response.

I've found it especially useful to interrupt those subtle stress responses where I hold my breath slightly because I'm rushing to finish a task, or am feeling fidgety and can't seem to relax. Try it! If that works for your nervous system, it's time to up the self-care ante and get a blindfold on.

Taking 10mins of visual rest time can profoundly change your day. Think about how much time during the day your eyes are open. If you look closely you'll see it's ALL of the day. All you need to take a break is a blindfold or scarf and a space to either rest in or somatically explore. It may sound strange at first, but if you try it you'll be thanking me for changing your life with such a simple, yet refreshing self-care practice.

4. Spend 10 minutes doing nothing

I'm going to be honest. This is an advanced practice, and it ain't for the feint of heart. It's also possibly the most rewarding practice I've ever done because it suddenly reveals everything I couldn't see about myself. There's nothing as magical as doing nothing. But the caveat is that you'll be left with nothing but yourself and the physical world.

Are you willing to be brave for 10mins?

Great, I was hoping you'd say yes! Here's your challenge:

Set a 10min timer. Don't work. Don't watch TV. Don't mediate. Don't force yourself to be still. For the next 10mins your job is to just follow the next authentic impulse, and the next, and the next. No pretending. No bullshitting yourself. Just see what happens, see where you get pulled to.

What you'll notice is that from an energetic standpoint you will have exerted 0% energy or effort. You will in fact have gained energy by the end. You may also have cried, laughed, fallen asleep, ran as far as you could, followed a bee, or any number of results of following your authentic impulses.

5. Crawl under the covers

Maybe this is your rainy-day self-care technique, but if I'm honest I have it ready in my back pocket every day along with "drop everything and take a bath." It's not about hiding, it's about getting your eyes into a dark space to rest and your body out of the hunched over can't-breathe computer posture you're probably in right now. If you've been following me for a little while you'll have noticed that each of my self-care invitations is a nervous system supporting activity.

I take my nervous system and daily energy level very seriously as an entrepreneur. I know you can relate to the high levels of stress and fear that can go along with running one or more businesses and taking risks that involve your livelihood. You'd be a fool to not take utterly exquisite care of your body and mind as an entrepreneur. You'll simply never make it in the long term without doing so. Allow yourself to take time and rest! Your body will thank you 1000 times.

6. Spend 1 minute making weird noises

I'm going to attempt to convince you to make some weird noises for the next minute. Bonus points if you just jumped right in without needing to be convinced!

When we work long hours without taking a break, our nervous system transitions into sympathetic mode, which is good for powering through and staying active. However, as you may know, it's not good to be stuck in for long periods of time.

So how do we get out of it and into the restful parasympathetic nervous system? There are a bunch of ways: blinking slowly, breathing deeply, urinating (I know, that one was funny to me too when I first read it), and sounding.

Sounding is a practice that includes letting sighs, hums, and tones out that match your internal state. Doing this for one or more minutes will begin to transition you out of your sympathetic nervous system.

How to practice it?

1. Put on a 60 second timer (or more! I like at least 3 minutes).

2. Put down your computer and phone.

3. Take a deep breath in.

4. As you exhale let out whatever sound wants to come.

5. Repeat.

7. Clean your room until it feels amazing

I’m a big believer in having a clear, organized space, because I notice when it’s super messy my mind gets stressed and has a hard time relaxing. Why? Because everywhere I look there’s something to do! After all that’s the whole point of getting organized right? To remove the feeling of immediacy and urgency stressing us out. And it makes sense.

David Allen who wrote Getting Things Done @gtdtimes describes how this works. Our minds always exist in the present, and can focus on one thing in any given moment. So when a task occurs to us, our brain wants to do it. Right now. Because now is the only time! That’s of course why we need todo lists and task management systems. But it’s also why we learn to batch similar tasks.

If you pick up one sock every day, you’re always going to experience a messy room all the time. If you spend 10mins cleaning up the entirety of your room, but once a day or once a week, you’ll spend most of the time with the experience of completeness, space from tasks, and therefore less stress. So go clean that room, and make your brain feel better.

8. Treat yourself to a delight

Nothing increases our stress levels like doubling down on being serious. I know I’m preaching to myself here because I inherited a super serious eye-brow furrow that often makes an appearance while I’m focusing on work.

Because I can be so serious I know how vital it is to take a break and enjoy something. In fact that’s secretly the whole reason for these self-care posts: to do them myself! Whether it’s a snack you’d love right now, to play guitar and sing sweet melodies to yourself, to just lie down for 10mins, or something else, take some time right now just for you.

9. Walk around the block

Every morning the first thing I do is go for a 20 minute walk around a little park near my house. After having done this for two years, and then done EMDR (a therapy modality worth looking up), I believe the act of walking stimulates both sides of our brains in a soothing back and forth motion that helps the nervous system relax and allows us to "walk through" our thoughts, memories, troubles, and dreams. And it just feels good to get outside, breathe in fresh air, and stretch your legs. What are you waiting for? You're the boss, go take those old peglegs for a spin!

That’s all for now (and plenty to do)! In the next part of this series, we’ll share 9 ways to get back in your body.