I hear you ladies and gentlemen too..
Working from home amidst the current situation of lock down.
If you are working person/couple with family in these unprecedented times, along with work responsibilities, household, children, elder's responsibilities all of it has comes together without additional help at your disposal.
It is great that with technology availability in lock down period, we are able to support organizational clients, individuals with musculoskeletal health issues without any geographical boundaries. We are seeing more cases of increased aches and pains, symptoms of cold, some feeling worrisome symptoms.
Obviously, by now everyone knows which symptoms one should self isolate and get help right away.
Bulk of our consults have been in the area of increased aches and pain. However underlying causes in addition to physical strain are :
1. Overworking : Couples working should delineate household responsibilities too. There should be as close an equal share as possible. Role definitions and task allocation with mutual agreement. Distribution of work is must. Don't do 2 person's job alone if you can help it.
2. Too much to do : Not able to juggle with sudden increased demands at home at work
3. Lack of preparation: Well none of us could anticipate this in good times, daily needs and meeting simple life tasks like procuring medicines is added burden
4. Space availability at home: Varied scenarios.. most people do not have any designated area for work at home, so in this make do times, need for quiet nook for online meeting is additional strain to keep children quiet, reduce TV volumes etc.
There can be many more factors that will increase susceptibility for aches and pain.
For work from home Ergo. hacks check this:
We as Occupational Therapist/Ergonomist train people who are recovering from illness and injuries in " Work Simplification, Energy conservation"! In the current overworked scenarios. Let us explore these principles in a series of posts to be applied in our daily life to cope with increased pressures.
A. Work simplification:
It simply means completing a task with the least amount of time and energy.Time and energy are closely related. To lower both, one needs to learn about value of improving method of work. Reduce unnecessary duplicate activities.
1. Review your method, reduce amount of work and see if tasks can be broken down /done in the least amount strenuous ways/ posture. Check easier ways of doing task e.g. Sitting for chopping vegetables.
2. Alternate high energy activity with medium & low energy activity: e.g. kneading dough in standing, sitting to chop veggies.
3. Develop a better method to get job done: While washing utensils: If you have option to fill in sink with water and soap, let dishes soak for a bit and then rinse one by one keep them to air dry.
4. Eliminate unnecessary steps: Think if you can tasks done in one area and then move to next. e.g. may be cleaning one room completely before moving to other. Keep things soaking for longer in order to reduce force needed to get that stain removed or washing hand clothes.
We shall continue to explore more..
Do share your experiences or suggestions..
Stay Safe, Stay Healthy, Stay Productive..
Bharati Jajoo: OTR CEAS AOEAS
Body Dynamics: www.bodydynamics.in
E-mail: Bharati@bodydynamics.in
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