Creating a State-of-the-Art Home Office which Enhances Wellbeing

Home offices have become an essential feature of every suburban, white-picket-fenced home in 2020. To keep up with the proverbial Joneses, it's now important to have a stylish, home office, with a custom interior. From a more serious and practical point of view, it's also important for the area to be conducive to productivity and to maintain or enhance the inhabitant's wellbeing. With the fear of COVID-19 itself, the uncertainty about the future and the isolation that comes from working from home, mental and physical wellbeing should be a key consideration when planning and designing a home office.

High Tech Self Care

To get started, let's define - what exactly is "self-care"?

We can break it down into fundamental elements - each one aimed at maintaining or improving our mental and/or physical health. The factors that contribute to obtaining optimal wellbeing include:

- High-quality sleep

- Optimal levels of stress hormones
- Optimal levels of vagus nerve stimulation

- Healthy Diet

- Exercise

- Mindfulness

In theory, any tech that can improve, optimise or enhance any of these factors, should also help us to feel good and improve levels of general health, whilst remaining productive.

Meditation Tech

There are lots of apps, software and hardware that can help with self-care. For example, using the Calm app on your mobile phone can be a great asset when it comes to starting and maintaining a meditation-routine.

Hardware for meditation and mindfulness has taken a big leap in recent years. The emergence of wearable mindful technology includes Muse headbands and Fitbit's relax feature.

Muse is a brain-sensing headband, that you can wear when you are meditating. The headband picks up on your brainwaves and the corresponding app gives you feedback and cues to help keep you on track. It also gives you motivational rewards with goal setting. You can learn more about the Muse headband on their website.

TENs Machines & Vagus Nerve Stimulation

The vagus nerve travels from the brain stem to the colon and has a range of roles and functions. It is the main 'parasympathetic' of the body, meaning that it slows down the heart and activation of the nerve makes us feel calm and relaxed.

With social engagement missing from most people's everyday lives, the vagus nerve is often lacking stimulation leading to heightened feelings of stress and anxiety. A TENs machine with an ear clip can also stimulate the vagus nerve which is great for winding down at the end of a busy and hopefully productive day. Along with a blue light filter on your computer and phone, stimulating the vagus nerve should also help you to get to relax and sleep without any problems.

If you don't have a TENs machine, then you can see a range of effective methods for stimulating your vagus nerve. This video outlines a range of techniques for stimulating the vagus nerve, including splashing cold water on your face.

Healthy Snacks

Most nutritionists will tell you that a healthy diet should primarily comprise of wholefoods. However, many busy workers from developers to sales directors will tell you that that's not often very practical advice. If you do have to snack and grab food on the go, a good choice could be a bag of nuts or a ready-made salad bowl. Meal replacement powders have become more popular in recent years, since the launch of Soylent and more recently Huel, you can now grab a tasty drink, packed full of vitamins and minerals.

Quick & Effective Exercise

We all know that exercise is vital for the optimal functioning of the body and mind. However, most of us struggle to find time to exercise as well. Research over the last decade has concluded that doing just 4 minutes of exercise, 3 or 4 times per week can reap significant health benefits.

These 4-minute workouts are often referred to as "Tabata Intervals" after the name of the original researcher - Dr Izumi Tabata who in 1996 noted how subjects increased their anaerobic power significantly when following a protocol of high intensity sprinting exercise, broken down into 8, 20-second bouts of maximal intensity exercise, interspersed with 10 seconds rest.

The original research was carried out on an exercise bike by athletes, however, further research has shown that several short bursts of intense exercise, amounting to just a 5-10 minutes per week, can deliver many health benefits that are comparable to hours of longer, lower intensity exercise. You can read more about Tabata intervals for health on the BBC website. In terms of the home office design, a Tabata timer or app, plus an exercise bike would be ideal to encourage Adhoc sprints whenever the resident has a spare 20 seconds.

Virtual Employees to Reduce Work Load

Another form of technology that can save time, reduce stress and therefore help with wellbeing, is the use of virtual assistants and receptionists. If you are self-employed for example, it can be time-consuming, booking appointments, researching online and answering unwanted phone calls.

By taking note of all the tasks that you do in a given week, you can see how much of your time is taken up by phone calls and administrative work. Phone calls can be particularly annoying as the fact that you may have to answer your phone at any given moment can impact your concentration and your ability to focus on the work at hand.

Using a phone answering service or phone answering app such as Moneypenny, can reduce interruptions and free up more time. This will in turn give you more time to relax and switch off from work. With a 24/7 service, you can spend your spare time socialising or engaging in activities without with the peace of mind that comes with knowing that any calls will be answered by a highly professional receptionist.

Virtual assistants can also take on the work that seems to take up lots of time, but is either not highly technical and/or do not contribute directly to the profits and income of your business. Using a site such as Upwork can be a great way to find assistants and freelancers who you can hire for a relatively low hourly fee. For example, it is not uncommon to find virtual assistants in the Philippines, offering their services for $5 per hour or less.

Whatever technology you are using, try and stay relaxed but focussed and remember that the pandemic will not last forever.

Some of the services, apps and hardware we have covered include:

- Muse Headband for meditation

- Calm app for meditation

- Huel Meal Replacement Drinks for healthy(or healthier) snacks

- A Tabata Interval App or Timer for exercise

- An exercise bike

- A phone answering app

- A virtual assistant