Tips to stay productive when studying or working from home

11/19/2020

Tips to stay productive when studying or working from home

Ever since the pandemic started, lots of companies required their employees to work from home. Schools are also not exempted as students take classes virtually. Work and study from home set-up are new for most of us. Some might find it hard to adjust since the boundary between work or school and personal lives may become blurry.

We rest and relax at home, but now, we also work or learn from home.

Here are some tips to help you stay productive when studying or working from home:

Have a routine

You may follow the same work/school schedule you have when face-to-face meetings are still available. If you usually wake up at 6 am, then continue to do so. You may continue preparing your breakfast, washing, and drinking coffee before starting your work/study. If you stop working by 5 pm, then follow it. Turn off any work-related notifications. This will help you set a boundary between work/study and personal life and condition your brain to be productive during work/study hours.

Creating your to-do list will also help you stay on track. Identify the tasks that you need to prioritize first. Break big tasks into smaller tasks so that you will not be too overwhelmed. Make sure that the list is manageable and breaks are included. You may also maximize several digital tools to help you manage your schedule.

2. Have a designated workspace

You may find working or studying on bed comfortable, but you may find yourself too comfortable that you can no longer focus. Your brain may also associate bed with rest; thus, it will be harder for you to be productive.

Having a designated workspace allows you to concentrate more on the task at hand. Make sure that the space is noise-free and clutter-free to avoid any forms of distractions. Have a table and chair with proper lighting. Place all your needed materials on the desk or drawer beside you. Doing this will help you avoid wasting time by roaming around the house.

3. Remove distractions

Your phone notification, dogs, or neighbors may distract you from working or studying properly. You may also be tempted to watch a show instead of doing your task since no one will be watching you. Removing any forms of distractions will surely help you be productive.

4. Have a break

Taking a break makes our minds more effective. You may also follow the Pomodoro technique. This technique is done by selecting the desired task, then by setting a timer (the Pomodoro) for 25 minutes, working on the task until the timer rings, taking a short break (five minutes), repeating the process three times, and taking a longer break after finishing four Pomodoro.

You may stretch, walk or do something that will relax your mind during the breaks. It is important that we also move our body to avoid body strain from sitting all day. Several workout videos don’t require large spaces or equipment.

Forcing yourself to work continuously may be unhealthy and may cause you to burn out. You must find time to relax your mind and your eyes. Staring in front of your laptop for a long time may also cause you eye strain. You may follow the 20-20-20 rule to avoid this. In this rule, every 20 minutes of screen time, you should look at something 20 feet away from you for 20 seconds. By doing so, you are giving your eyes time to relax.

5. Listen to music

Listening to calming music may help remove stress. Just make sure that the music is not too distracting. You may search for study or work playlists on the web. There are tons of playlists that help aid concentration. You can also find playlists with sounds of nature. Listening to music can increase creativity, as well. Experiment with what type of music suits you the most.

6. Have time for socialization

We are all used to the workplace chat when things are not going so well or the discussions with classmates when lessons are hard. It is a huge adjustment for most; this is why having time to socialize is important. We are all created to commune with one another. It makes work or school challenges easier to carry when we have friends around us. You can still catch up with your loved ones through chat and video call. However, make sure that socialization will not cause you or the other person any work or study distraction.

7. Reward yourself

You may reward yourself after finishing a certain task. You may buy the food that you are really craving or checked out the shoes you’ve wanted ever since. A reward can help you feel good and encourage you to be more productive.

Conclusion

There are absolutely new things in this “new normal” that we have now. We are now out of our comfort zones, and no one knows how long we will stay in this kind of set-up. The best thing we can do now is to adapt and take care of ourselves.

Ways to protect your mental health when using social media

11/15/2020

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Ways to protect your mental health when using social media

The advancement of technology also paved the way for the wide use of social media applications. Social media has dramatically impacted our lives- positively and negatively. It is a great way to communicate and connect with our loved ones, but sometimes it can also cause us mental health problems. Social media allows us to be more updated about what is happening in the world around us, but sometimes too much awareness can cause several problems. It is vital that we find the right balance when to use and not use social media.

How social media affect us negatively:

It can affect your self-esteem

Seeing other people’s selfies or post-workout bodies with hundreds of likes may cause us to feel insecure and compare ourselves to them, thinking that we don’t have their glass skin, perfect eyebrow shape, or the six-pack abs they have. These filters may lower our self-esteem because of the new standards we have for a face or body.

Moreover, social media has created ways for us to improve ourselves the way the world sets the “standard” for beauty. Filters are now available in almost all social media apps. We can get lip fillers, teeth whiteners, face contours, and so much more because of these filters. There’s nothing wrong with its use; however, if people will see it as the standard instead of loving their skin and beauty, it will only create a lot of inner struggles.

2. We lose “real” human communication

Have you ever experienced being with someone physically, yet the other person spends more time on social media than talking and listening to you? Social media affects our relationship with other people. We tend to forget that personal human interaction is more valuable than a chat or facetime. It is easier for people to mask their true selves through social media apps, but when we talk to them personally, we can have that more intimate connection that social media cannot provide. Instead of focusing on having quality time with our loved ones, some will simply take pictures and let the world perceive that we are spending time with our family even if it might not be the real case.

3. Fear of missing out or FOMO

Social media apps inform us of the latest trend in fashion, entertainment, beauty, or cars. People may fear that they may not be updated with the latest trend if they will stop using social media. They wanted to relate with their friends in a conversation, and because of this, they may feel the constant urge to use social media to stay updated.

4. Sleep deprivation

Have you ever told yourself the “just ten more minutes” social media use then found yourself spending 2 hours instead? We will then wake up the next day with lesser energy because of sleep deprivation. Using social media before bedtime may affect our sleep because we might encounter “triggers” on the web that can make us feel anxious, thus making sleep harder than usual. The light from our phones may also cause our brains to continue being active rather than signaling our bodies to fall asleep.

5. Cyberbullying

A person can easily create a fake account and post hateful comments on another person’s account. In just one rude comment and click, a person’s life can be ruined. What makes this harder is that it is not easy to track the fake account’s real identity. It is also easy for people to judge a person because of one post or picture without knowing the whole story behind it. Fake news can also be quickly disseminated and edited photos can be used to cyberbully a person.

6. Mental health issues

Thanks to social media, we are more updated with other people’s lives than ever. However, this may also cause us some emotional and mental issues. We may see a friend who hosted a party without you, and you might be thinking if you are still friends with them. You might see someone starting a business, traveling across the country or buying a new property, and you might compare yourself with them. You may feel that other people “seem” to know what to do with their lives and yet here you are trying to find your path. We might forget that what we see in social media is just the tip of an iceberg in a person’s life. Unknowingly, these things may cause anxiety, stress, or depression.

Ways to protect your mental health when using social media:

Balancing the use of social media is necessary so that we can take care of our mental health.

Set a time limit

Try avoiding social media before bedtime and after waking up. You might encounter posts that might keep you awake at night or might ruin the new day ahead. You may limit your social media use to 3 hours a day. If that will be hard for you, you may start with 4 or 5 hours a day across all platforms. Setting limits will help us avoid situations wherein we find ourselves endlessly scrolling and watching videos after videos or liking every post we see.

2. Get out of social media for a day or two

Social media is an integral part of our lives now. We now used social media to communicate with our colleagues and loved ones. We even open our social media to look for news and other announcements. However, too much exposure to negative news through social media may affect our mental health. This is the reason why we need to take a break from social media use. Instead of scrolling through your apps, you can read books, listen to music, learn a new recipe, do yoga, or whatever relaxing activity you want.

3. Turn off notifications

You may choose to turn off notifications after your work hours and deal with your work-related notifications the next day. Doing this will help you have a balanced work and personal life.

4. Learn to enjoy the moment

Instead of focusing on getting the most instagrammable photo, focus on the time to bond with your family during vacations or dinners. Communicate with your friends or date instead of spending time tweeting about it. We can also show them that we really value them if we spend quality time with them when we are together.

5. Unfollow accounts

It is okay to unfollow toxic people even if they are family members or friends. If everything you see in their posts is negativities, you also feed your mind with negativities each day. You are the only person who can take care of your mental health, so it is okay to draw boundaries on what you want to see and not. You may follow accounts that spread positivity and encouragements. You may also join support groups that may help you with your struggles.

6. Have a healthy mindset

Remember that what you see on social media is a glimpse of a person’s life. If you see your friends achieving things, celebrate with them, and make it an inspiration to achieve your dreams as well. Having a healthy mindset will help you stop your comparing yourself with others. However, you also need to keep in mind that you should be inspired to work on your successes for self-actualization and not to gain validation through likes on social media.

Conclusion

Social media is a powerful tool now. It can connect people but can also disconnect. It can strengthen relationships, but it can also ruin one. We must be aware of how social media can affect us and learn when to step away from it.

Learn more about your mental health by taking a course here. You may also try to check the free course we are currently offering.

Benefits of Workplace Counseling

11/03/2020

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Benefits of Workplace Counseling

Behind every successful organization, there are hard-worker staff who exerted effort to meet the target goals, closed the deals, and undeniably, have been assets to your rising sales. But the fact that there is no successful organization free of stress or has stress-free employees.

Your employees can have mental and psychological health problems arising out of workplace-related issues in their day-to-day life. They may have problems with their subordinates, colleagues, working system, or may have a race against deadlines, huge targets, higher goals, achieving accomplishments, combined with issues in their personal life that have totally left their emotional and physical foundations weak.

These causes can affect employees’ performance in the organization, as well as affects the organization itself. Research has proven that there’s a strong connection between an employee’s psychological well-being and their productivity at work. Some businesses have started counseling at the workplace to retain their current employees, to increase productivity, and preventing resignation or termination. This is one of the best ways to motivate their employee.

What is Workplace Counseling?

Workplace counseling can be defined as providing brief and accessible psychological therapy for employees of an organization, which is included in the employee benefits program paid by the employer. The primary objective of counseling is to achieve helping employees to improve and develop or bring an employee back to his normal mental condition in which he was before the emotional problem began.

The counseling process is about the employer providing a session room for an employee, giving them a safe place and assurance of confidentiality to talk about issues that trouble them, and allowing counselors to help them find their own solutions or develop better ways to cope with issues. It is not just about giving advice but providing a non-judgmental, constructive, empathic, and accessible means to allow an employee to find a way forward.

Nowadays, a counseling session may be conducted face-to-face or a telephone-based conversation. It is also adopting new technology every day such as online counseling through e-mails, messaging, video calls, etc. to speed up communication with employees even when working from home or away from the office.

Counseling required not only to be confidential but also voluntary. Therefore, the employer should not use counseling as a conditional requirement or discipline staff. Some employers consider the workplace counseling should only be used to address employee’s work-life issues. While work-related issues, including stress, overwork, bullying, and difficult colleagues, can of course directly affect an employee’s performance, personal issues can also have a similar negative impact.

Having workplace counseling has a lot of benefits not only for employees but for the organization as well. It can act as a bridge between employees and organizations towards successful relations, understanding both parties, and uniting to achieve business goals.

The benefits of workplace counseling for employees include:

Free and easy access to professional counselors.
A safe space to talk about their problems.
Helping employees to better understand themselves.
Coping with the situation and the stress.
Developing better decision making.
Understand the situation and help to look at the new and positive perspective.
It may prevent termination from the employer.
Increase self-confidence.

The benefits of workplace counseling for employers include:

Improved employee performance leading to productivity and functional improvements.
Reduced employee tardiness and absenteeism.
It may prevent resignation from employees.
It reduces the cost of hiring new employees and training new staff.
Productive way to handle sensitive situations or employees with behavioral issues.
It helps to create a positive environment in the workplace.
Establish a reputation as an employer that cares about their employees.

Keys to success:

Professional Counselors (should be a registered Psychologist or trained professional with a good understanding of the employees’ work environment, good listener, empathetic, patient, trustworthy)
Confidentiality (the assurance providing that the counselor would not disclose his/her personal problems or issues to others in the organization)
Free (counseling is offered or included in the employee benefits)
Easy-access (a safe space within the office and should be able to get an appointment in a short period of time)

Conclusion:

Stress is inevitable in human nature and so to enhance employee motivation, the willpower of the employee, and the satisfaction of the employers, the workplace counseling session or counseling program is vital.

The corporate world is changing and so, as well as the Human Resource process. Workplace counseling is not just purposely helping the employees, but also contributes well to overall progress and helping to show how much the organization cares for its employees. It helps to increase the productivity of employees and the confidence about the work, and the organization gains operation improvements while knowing that they’re helping to improve the lives of their employees.

Avail our free course here and get a 25% discount on other courses upon completion: https://bit.ly/3lWG1AT

Benefits of integrating counseling skills in your practice

10/12/2020

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Benefits of integrating counseling skills in your practice

Being a counsellor doesn’t only mean learning theories and principles. A good counsellor also possesses counselling skills that will help the client experience a successful counselling session. Counselling skills can be developed through time and can be applied to clients with varying beliefs, views, backgrounds and experiences.

Counselling skills

Here’s a list of counselling skills you can apply and hone in your practice as a counsellor:

1. Attending and active listening

Giving your full and undivided attention and making the client feel supported, understood and validated helps develop trust. Balancing when to talk and when to listen is also a skill that must be developed. Active listening also involves determining why and how the client says words. Moreover, the counsellor must evaluate how the client perceives a particular situation.

Attending to the client also pertains to the ability to comprehend not just verbal cues but also non-verbal cues such as eye contact and body movements. According to research, about 80% of communication occurs non-verbally, so determining what lies beyond what is expressed verbally is an essential skill that must be developed to gain more in-depth insight about the client.

2. Avoiding judgments

A counsellor must be unbiased, noncritical and non-judgmental. A counselor’s role is not to give advice but to give the client an opportunity to talk about his emotions and help the client see things from different viewpoints. A counsellor must learn to manage his reactions professionally as not to offend the client.

3. Information gathering

The ability to gather data and information that will help in the diagnostic, assessment and treatment is also a skill that must be honed. Ability to paraphrase what the client said also helps to gather data accurately. Recalling scenarios and checking perceptions will help validate the information collected and allow the client to speak further.

4. Maintain confidentiality

Anything that was discussed during the sessions must be kept in confidentiality unless special circumstances will require the counsellor to disclose it to third-party members. If the client can feel that the counsellor can be trusted, the client will feel more at ease disclosing sensitive matters.

5. Giving information

Explaining and giving information that will help the client comprehend his situation is also a skill that must be developed. The counsellor can share relevant and meaningful resources that will help the client process feelings and thoughts.

6. Resilience and patience

Learning how to practice self-care, develop patience and resilience will help a counsellor avoid burnout. Dealing with several clients with several issues may exhaust a counsellor, thus decreasing work efficiency. It is essential that the counsellor draws a boundary between work and personal life to maintain balance.

7. Flexibility

A counsellor must be able to handle different clients with various upbringing, culture, education, experiences, background, beliefs and values. Being flexible will also help the counsellor to avoid biases and judgments with what the client is saying.

Benefits of integrating counselling skills in your practice

Here are the benefits of applying the counselling skills mentioned above to everyday practice:

A better understanding of situations

The success of the treatment is achieved when situations and emotions are processed effectively. A proper comprehension of information and experiences will help the client untangle the thoughts running in his mind and will help him gain a better understanding.

2. Build trust

Trust is a critical element that must be established for a professional counsellor-client relationship. If the client trusts the counsellor, treatment and support can be given easily by the counsellor. The counsellor can help the client more effectively if the client does not withhold any vital information.

3. Improved communication

Communication is more effective if barriers are broken because the client trusts the counsellor while the counsellor can comprehend verbal and nonverbal cues. Effective communication between the client and counsellor is necessary because counselling is a ‘talking therapy.’

4. Healthy coping skills

A client who feels supported and validated may develop healthy coping skills. Effective communication with the counsellor will help the client gain a new perspective on the situation. A client may also learn ways and techniques on how to manage emotions, thus leading to a better life.

5. Self-discovery

As the client gains a new perspective, his view about himself and the environment will also change. Self-esteem and self-acceptance may also be developed as the client finds new purpose, potentials, hope and motivation.

If you want to take the courses we offer, you may check it out here.

We are also offering a FREE introduction to counselling course. Check it out and avail a discount on other courses upon the completion of this free course.

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