5 Lifestyle Changes to Adopt for an Eventual Return to the Office

It might be that ‘work-from-home’ is working for you or it might be that you are utterly done with experiencing what feels like an “endless cycle of working from home”. Whatever the case, getting back to workplaces now seems an inevitable, somewhat exciting reality. This means that finally we will get back to our chairs, and tables, and systems and will be finally able to clearly separate working hours from our lives! Ah!

But the change is not going to be so seamless. For a smooth transition, the process needs to be rather gradual with a little bit of mental preparation and a few lifestyle changes. We share a list of exercises that will make this crossover smoother. This will not only make sure that we get back to our offices fully prepared, but will also prepare ourselves one step further by being resilient to such dynamic changes in the future.

  1. 1. Start rehearsing your return

As you continue working from home, take out some contemplation time out to imagine the day you will get back to your office and try to visualize yourself having a good time with your colleagues, conversing with them while simultaneously working and try to develop a positive feeling about all of this. You will slowly start gaining confidence about yourself to the point that you will want to hasten the day you go to work and replay all those thoughts you had played out in the heart of your mind.

  1. 2. Mimic your workplace habits

Mere visualizations are of no avail unless followed up with actions. Actions are really important to set a firm tone to your desired outcomes. If all this time you have been getting right out of your bed straight to your laptop, you will have to get rid of this habit. This means you will have to freshen up, have breakfast and also dress up like the professional you are before you log in to your office workstation. Also, if you have developed a new found habit such as a post lunch nap, get rid of this at the earliest - in your actual office, there won’t be a pillow to your rescue!

  1. 3. Do not stretch your working hours

Working from home has blurred the line between professional and personal life. Since we have the entire day to our disposal, we tend to stretch our work to fill in much more hours than the typical 9 hours. This practice will certainly not work when you get back to your actual office environment (which is so good btw!). Instead, finish up your work before time and make time for other essential activities like exercise, reading books, cooking, catching up with your family, etc.

  1. 4. Avoid unmonitored eating

Working home alone plunged quickly from being comfortable, more productive and time efficient to being just the exact opposite. Limited and healthy eating habits (that were partially due to the fear of running out of food during the lockdown) quickly went south once the shops started functioning normally. Blame it on the frustration, fear or boredom but right now our eating habits have probably turned worse if they were already bad. As such, start replacing your habits with better ones such as not eating anything at anytime. Instead, drink more water and eat only during fixed intervals such as lunch and snacks. This way, you would train your brain into not craving food during actual office hours.

  1. 5. Take timely breaks in between

Breaks should neither be underestimated, nor overestimated - but they should be an essential part of your work routine. Breaks enable you to switch out of redundancy, relax your mind and body and refresh your brain to start over anew. Your muscles need to be flexed every so often and one of the best ways to do it even while working is to use a height adjustable table such as the Avail HAD by HNI India. They allow you to transition your postures from sitting to standing without having to leave your work-desk.

While you are preparing returning back to your offices, you cannot deny the possibility of working from home becoming mainstream. The COVID-19 adversity has opened up the possibilities of making the offices of the future geographically distributed, connected virtually. This implies you should be prepared to work from home if need be. One of the important aspects of working from home is that you need to equip yourself with the right set of home office furniture. HNI India is a brand that works towards creating happy workplaces by using ergonomic furniture engineered for a healthy working lifestyle. At HNI India, we believe that the best work- from-home places are those that have the best work from home furniture. At the HNI India e-store, we have a range of work from home furniture you can even order online. Here are 3 of the best ergonomically compliant chairs that you can order right away for your office or home!

Verta - Verta is an internationally designed chair, now manufactured in India with the Asian body type in mind. Its V shaped design give it a minimalistic look yet by the virtue of its design it has all functionalities that you would find in chair that is truly ergonomic. You can check it out here: https://hni-india.com/product/verta-executive-conference

Fluence - an ideal solution that’s elegant, cost effective and can be accessorized and personalized beautifully; a must for workplace health and happiness. You can order here https://estore.hni-india.com/index.php/hikashop-menu-for-products-listing/product/157-5fluence

Ativo - If your need is a supremely comfortable, exceptionally stylish office chair, you should opt for Ativo. Order at https://estore.hni-india.com/index.php/hikashop-menu-for-products-listing/product/154-5ativo