5 Tips for Work From Home Dads

I have a full-time remote working since mid-year 2019. I know that many dads became work from home dads in March of 2020 with the onset of COVID 19. Regardless if you are just getting by temporarily, or a seasoned vet – I have 5 tips for your work from home dads to help with your day to day work and life balance.

But before we get into the 5 tips for work from home dads, let’s talk a minute about why we need these tips.

Especially today with the onset of Covid, working from home is terribly stressful. While you are ‘working from home’, it feels a lot of times like you are just at home, working. And I know that doesn’t quite make sense but here me out.

Your home is now your office. And your home. You are constantly surrounded by work. The temptation to become overworked is always there. Always looping. Whether you have a dedicated room as an office, or you are working at the bar top – it is always haunting you. No more leaving the office and leaving work behind. Work is now a constant surrounding.

And that could be tough – especially if you already had your job. So it is important to have yourself in check. BE sure to take care of yourself – or you will go crazy real fast. As hard as it is, create the space to separate the work and the home life the best you can. That will ease a lot of tension in the future.

All that said – let’s get into the 5 tips for work from home dads!:

5 tips for work from home dads

1) Breathe Deep. Deep breathes help clean out your body, relax you, and just give you a moment to reset. Throughout the day, especially when you feel yourself starting to stress and tense up, take 10 long, slow, deep breaths. Really slow your rate of breathing down. When we get stressed, our breath shortens. When we are relaxed, our breath lengthens. So consciously lengthening our breath throughout the day tells our mind we are safe and relaxed. Breath from your belly, big breath in your nose, feel the clean oxygen coming in, hold for just a second at the top, open your mouth slightly and exhale, feeling all the stress and toxins leave your body. That’s one. Do that 9 more times for a total of ten a few times a day and feel yourself starting to de-stress.

2) Air Squats. Nothing beats a good old’ air squat. There are a ton of modifications you can do, but here is the basic air squat position. Stand up with your feet about shoulder-width apart. Now unlock your hips (pop your butt out a bit) and lower yourself down to a squat position, hold for 1 second, then raise back up to a completely standing position (your hips should lock forward a bit). Do sets of 15 throughout the day. Set a trigger for the day (a word in an email, something the boss said, a certain time of day), and every time you see that trigger, get up and bust out 10 air squats as fast as you can, then get back to work. This gets you up, a quick burst of energy, exercise, and deep breathing all in one.

3) Take A Walk. Ah – the beautiful mid-day walk. Walks are my most favorite way to calm the mind on a stressful WFH day. Walks are probably one of the easiest things someone can do to stay healthy. They don’t have to be long walks. They don’t have to be vigorous walks. They just have to get your moving. Find a walk to do around your neighborhood and set two times a day to where you can do this walk. Maybe to the corner and back. Or 5 houses down and back. This not only gives a break from work, but it gets you sunshine, fresh air, and a bit of exercise. Get up, move around, and get walking.

4) Watch Your Posture. This goes especially for those of you that just recently become work from home dads with COVID, and double especially for those who are working at a table or couch or bar or outside lounge chair instead of a dedicated office. If you aren’t conscious of your posture, it is easy to have your shoulders forward roll, neck/head protrude forward, and low back tight due to slight lean. And any length of time of this can lead to all sorts of problems. The best thing to do is to work standing up (ergonomically correct that is). The second base is to get an office chair and a desk and set it up correctly. But understanding that some are in a pinch just be aware of it. Sit up straight. Bring your shoulders back. Pull your head up and back. Focus on the proper posture as much as you can to save you loads of pain in the future.

5) Stretch. Another fitness/stress reducer combination. This one is especially for those of you who fall into the category in #4 of a hunchback with your posture. Your muscles get used to being in one position. Sadly, that position isn’t a natural position to be in. Stretching is a great way to reset yourself. Stand up. Stretch your shoulders, stretch your neck, stretch your hips, all the areas that you don’t normally move. Let your body get back to the normal position that it is meant to be in. My home office is attached to my bedroom. Under my bed is a foam roller. Every morning, I try to spend some time on that roller, but I will pull that thing out in the middle of the day just to get a good full body stretch in.

There you have it. 5 tips for work from home dads. While not rocket science, they will save you in the long run from damage of the mundane life of a work from home dad.