Identify the Risks of Remote Working
Perhaps you’ve already experienced having to work late to finish a project, or have at times felt stressed or snowed under at work? If so, you’ve been exposed to psychosocial risks.
These risk factors don’t completely disappear with remote working (it’s not a miracle solution, you know! 
). They will manifest themselves in different ways: feeling overworked or burnt out, feeling isolated or excluded from the team, or boredom as a result of repetitive tasks.
There is also a risk of suffering from musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) or sight problems. In this case, you’ll feel physical pain, possibly in your back, wrists, or eyes.
Prevent Visual and Postural Problems
In the last chapter, we looked at the different criteria to consider when setting up your workspace. Your working setup is the first step for avoiding visual or postural problems. The more ergonomic your work setup, the easier it is to have good physical posture.
Sounds good, but what actually is good posture?
It’s a combination of lots of things:
Keeping a straight back
Putting your feet flat on the floor
Sitting comfortably in your chair
Being able to rest your forearms on the desk at a 90° angle
Placing your screen at eye level
Having your keyboard at elbow height
I also recommend adopting a few new habits to get you moving and prevent eye strain:
Blink regularly, and occasionally blink around 20 times in a row.
Every half hour, stare at a far-away object for 10 seconds.
Every hour, get up out of your chair and stretch for three minutes.
Try to make time for these exercises—they’ll help you to avoid any painful problems later down the line!
Prevent Psychosocial Risks
Here are some best practices for mitigating psychosocial risks:
Stick to a Normal Work Routine
Your normal routine in the workplace might not seem that important, but it will help provide structure to your day when working remotely. Plan your working day with a start and end time, and build breaks into your schedule. Also, avoid getting up at the very last minute, and dress appropriately for your day. When on video calls, make sure your top half is smart—but don’t forget your bottom half! Imagine getting up to answer the door in fluffy pajama bottoms when on a video call—not a good look!
Encourage Interaction
When working remotely, your relationship with your colleagues and the other people in your life changes. Take steps to maintain these relationships and prevent any feelings of isolation. Take the time to catch up with your colleagues face-to-face (either when you both visit the office, or over video call). Also, use your break times to do things like have lunch with friends or plan an informal team video call. If you’re struggling, reach out to your manager.
Stay Motivated at Work
To avoid monotony at work, vary the tasks that you plan to do remotely. For example, you could plan for at least half of the tasks you do to be ones you find interesting. Involve yourself in interdepartmental projects and communicate your progress. This will help keep you motivated.
Keep Active and Take Care of Yourself
Have you ever thought about the number of stairs you go up or down, or the distances you walk as part of your job? All of these micro-journeys disappear when working remotely, and you can fall into a habit of being overly sedentary. To get around this, be sure to keep active. Use this as an opportunity to (re)discover different hobbies—it’ll really boost your mood!
Let’s Recap!
To maintain a healthy balance when working remotely, it’s important to avoid psychosocial and physical risk factors.
Psychosocial risks include anxiety, a feeling of isolation, being overworked, and burnout.
Physical problems you might suffer could be visual or musculoskeletal: eye, back, or wrist pain.
To avoid psychosocial risks, adopt healthy habits: stick to your working routine, maintain relationships with your colleagues, and use the opportunity presented by remote working to discover new activities.
To avoid physical problems, ensure you have an ergonomic working setup, check to ensure you have good posture, and do regular exercise.
Adopting these habits will help with stress-free remote working. They're good first steps to adapt to this mode of work.
After the quiz, we’ll look at how you should structure your working time.
