Interesting question timing, at least for me, give the last 24 hours....
I've worked mostly at home for most of the last 20 years (albeit with some BIC periods, depending on customer work) and I have found the last year terribly difficult, far more than any other period (even when I first started working mostly from home after about 15 years of full-time BIC).
Sometime yesterday I just stopped. I couldn't work anymore. I had plenty to do, but I felt drained, far more fatigued than simple lack of sleep would explain.
Long story short, playing cards with my GF for an hour before supper then vegging for the evening and getting a solid night's sleep reset things for me.
I had burnt myself out, again. There's been a lot of that this past year.
My prescription? Little things.
1) Take breaks.
Even if you have a lot to do. Even if breaks are essentially somewhere else in the house right now. Get away from your screens, do something that allows as much of your work self as possible to disengage. For me, this means not reading, not even wrenching (unless the project on the go is well in hand, or something I can do without thinking, like changing the brakes or oil).
2) Exercise.
This the toughest one for me. I am not a gym rat and have no love of exercise, but I love how I feel afterwards. Force yourself to get a walk, do squats, pushups, anything. It really does help.
3) Keep a schedule, more or less. Keep separate work and non-work places.
Working from homes gives you 7/24 access to work, and sometimes work is a break from the real world and its covidiots and its selfish twits. For me, engaging in work gives me a break from that selfish, twitty, covidioty world.
But work fatigues your work self, and too much work self fatigue exhausts it to the point you can no longer work.
4) Forgive yourself. Be graceful with yourself.
We are our own worst critics, we see our "flaws" thousands of times larger than they are - if they "are" at all (cf "spotlight effect"). Some days, the schedule will be hard to maintain, exercise won't fit in to that schedule, the non-work-self distractions will pale, or any of a thousand other things will cause you to ignore the advice you have given yourself, the routine you have tried to keep, and you will skip the breaks or the workout or you will overwork.
And you will be tempted to chastise yourself, to be angry with yourself. Don't, don't be.
Forgive yourself as you would forgive someone else, give yourself permission to backslide today and try again tomorrow.
5) Reach out to others. That helps too. Just like you did here.
We're not "all in this together", necessarily, but we are in this more or less the same way. We can learn from each other, support each other, and that helps us too. Selfish altruism, as it were.
I've worked mostly at home for most of the last 20 years (albeit with some BIC periods, depending on customer work) and I have found the last year terribly difficult, far more than any other period (even when I first started working mostly from home after about 15 years of full-time BIC).
Sometime yesterday I just stopped. I couldn't work anymore. I had plenty to do, but I felt drained, far more fatigued than simple lack of sleep would explain.
Long story short, playing cards with my GF for an hour before supper then vegging for the evening and getting a solid night's sleep reset things for me.
I had burnt myself out, again. There's been a lot of that this past year.
My prescription? Little things.
1) Take breaks.
Even if you have a lot to do. Even if breaks are essentially somewhere else in the house right now. Get away from your screens, do something that allows as much of your work self as possible to disengage. For me, this means not reading, not even wrenching (unless the project on the go is well in hand, or something I can do without thinking, like changing the brakes or oil).
2) Exercise.
This the toughest one for me. I am not a gym rat and have no love of exercise, but I love how I feel afterwards. Force yourself to get a walk, do squats, pushups, anything. It really does help.
3) Keep a schedule, more or less. Keep separate work and non-work places.
Working from homes gives you 7/24 access to work, and sometimes work is a break from the real world and its covidiots and its selfish twits. For me, engaging in work gives me a break from that selfish, twitty, covidioty world.
But work fatigues your work self, and too much work self fatigue exhausts it to the point you can no longer work.
4) Forgive yourself. Be graceful with yourself.
We are our own worst critics, we see our "flaws" thousands of times larger than they are - if they "are" at all (cf "spotlight effect"). Some days, the schedule will be hard to maintain, exercise won't fit in to that schedule, the non-work-self distractions will pale, or any of a thousand other things will cause you to ignore the advice you have given yourself, the routine you have tried to keep, and you will skip the breaks or the workout or you will overwork.
And you will be tempted to chastise yourself, to be angry with yourself. Don't, don't be.
Forgive yourself as you would forgive someone else, give yourself permission to backslide today and try again tomorrow.
5) Reach out to others. That helps too. Just like you did here.
We're not "all in this together", necessarily, but we are in this more or less the same way. We can learn from each other, support each other, and that helps us too. Selfish altruism, as it were.