Self-Care and Transcription Work
Working from home is not all it’s cracked up to be. There’s this notion that when you work from home, you can easily achieve the elusive work-life balance. But what many people don’t realize is that it’s a lot more difficult to separate work life and home life when both operate in the same space.
Work from home transcriptionists, just like many freelancers, are finding it the hard way and ending up overexerting themselves, mentally and physically.
Transcription work is quite a demanding job that requires speed and accuracy. It’s not overly difficult, but the deadlines can be extremely stressful. In your desire to meet the deadlines, you end up working long hours non-stop, only taking a break when nature calls or when hunger strikes.
With a daily 24-hour deadline, you’re racking up working hours that’s way beyond what your body can endure. You may be good for the first few weeks or months, logging in at least 12-hour work-days, but at some point, the long hours will take their toll on your body.
With fewer hours allotted for sleep, your mental and physical health will start to deteriorate. Your body will start telling you to slow down, take a break, and recharge. You need to catch your breath.
With little to no recreation or physical interaction with friends and extended family, you’ll start to feel isolated and alone. And when these feelings are combined with stress and burnout, you’re much more susceptible to mental and emotional breakdown. This has physical manifestations in that you succumb to fatigue and get sick. The physical manifestations can be in the form of headaches, digestive issues, body pain, and other maladies that you’ve never experienced before.
This happens because you ignore self-care. You put most of your efforts into meeting deadlines and making clients happy that self-care is just an after-thought.
Self-care should be a priority if you want to achieve a work-life balance. You must invest in self-care the way you would invest in your business or career. If you put more effort into self-care, you’ll be more prepared to face life’s challenges.
Here are ways to get into the self-care mindset, no matter how busy you are.
Establish a morning routine that will start your day right.
You should follow a morning routine that will instill discipline in you so that you can better manage your time and workflow. Oftentimes, work-from-home transcribers (or freelancers, in general), tend to procrastinate because they don’t have a “structured” work schedule. It’s easy to put off work when you have no daily routine to stick to. Without discipline, you wake up late and work until the wee hours of the morning.
If you have a morning routine, you are setting yourself to develop a good habit. It takes between 18 to 254 days to form a new habit. If you stick to a routine for at least 2 months, your new behaviour becomes automatic. So, if you have a morning routine, you’re likely not to stray from that path.
But keep in mind that the routine should be a set of activities that encourage self-care and boost motivation and productivity.
Here are some examples:
Eat a healthy breakfast.
Meditate or do yoga.
Go for a walk.
Exercise.
Do what works for you. If you feel like the morning routine is becoming a burden, change it up until you find activities that make you happy.
Take short breaks in between tasks.
In your desire to complete all your tasks for the day, you’re likely to work for hours on end, sometimes forgetting to take a much-needed break. Taking short breaks will allow you to stretch your muscles and find relief from sustained postures that may be causing you body aches and pain.
Taking breaks gives your mind and body time to relax and recharge. They also prevent fatigue and exhaustion. When you’re tired, you become less attentive and the quality of work can suffer. Short breaks will help you refresh your mind so you don’t get brain fog.
How long should your break last? A 15 to 20-minute break should be enough to re-energize but take as long as you need (without affecting your work).
Maximize your short breaks by engaging in activities that rejuvenate your mind and body. You can take a power nap, do exercises, eat healthy food, drink water to rehydrate, go outside for a walk, or meditate.
Go on a vacation.
You should also schedule a time off work. If you find yourself just going through the motions and not enjoying the work as much as you used to, then it’s time for a change of scenery. Go on a weekend getaway somewhere where you can take your mind off work. You can go on a beach, go hiking, or be one with nature. Do anything that will break your routine so you don’t get bored, demotivated, or exhausted.
Going on a long break will allow your body and mind to relax. Do activities that will melt away the stress, worry, and pressure of work life. You’ll be rejuvenated and motivated to work after the break.
Get enough quality sleep.
The importance of sleep cannot be underestimated. It not only helps you recharge, but it also protects your mental and physical health. It just makes the overall quality of life better. When you get the right amount of sleep, you are giving the body the time to repair itself naturally.
When you have sleep deficiency you are more prone to physical and mental health problems. It also affects your productivity and decreases the quality of work. Being sleep-deprived consistently for long periods of time puts you at a greater risk of getting ill or even shortening your life span. Studies show that sleep deficiency is linked to several chronic diseases like heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, and depression.
Part of self-care is getting enough sleep. Make sure to get 7 to 8 hours of sleep. If you’re sleeping less than 8 hours each day, then you are accumulating sleep debt. Get rid of bad sleep habits like eating so close to bedtime and exposing yourself to blue light from phones and gadgets, which affect your sleep time by suppressing the release of melatonin, a hormone that makes you feel sleepy.
Learn to say NO.
In your desire to please clients and people you work with, you have the tendency to say yes to everything. This becomes problematic because you may be accepting a workload that is more than your capacity to complete. Additional tasks and requests will add to your things to do, which means, you’d be working more than you intend to. It’s important to establish boundaries and say no to tasks that will only give you more stress. If you already have a lot on your plate, you don’t need the extra pressure of additional work. Learn to say no to tasks that were not part of the agreement, no matter how simple it is. This will make your life less stressful.
