15 Mental Health Benefits of Remote and Flexible Work
Introduction
A lot of information we’ve received about working from home frames the experience as negative and stressful, but this isn’t always the case. Whether your company now allows remote working or perhaps you’ve started working freelance, we’ve all experienced this new way of working in one form or another.
One study even found that 43.64% of workers found that working remotely has positively affected their daily routine. With the chance to set our own rules and live with more freedom, remote working lets us do what we want while still paying the bills. Whether you’re already a remote worker, or perhaps you’re considering making the change, here are some of the key mental health benefits that this type of work offers.
Continue reading to find out more about the benefits of flexible work!
Why Do We Prefer Working From Home?
Though some of us are better suited to office work, the majority of us love our personal freedoms and cozy homes. Wanting to work from home more doesn’t mean you’re lazy, it just means you want to put your mental health and happiness first.
With multiple lockdowns and quarantines, the pandemic has forced us to experience life in a new way. Why spend hours of your day on a commute when you can just work from your home? Many of us are left questioning if we want to return to our previous way of living when remote work lets us live at a slower and more peaceful pace.
The Top Mental Health Benefits Of Working From Home
Interested in the benefits of working from home? Here are the top 15 perks for your mental health when working remotely.
1. No Work Commute
One of the most popular reasons people wanted to ditch the office 9-5 job was because of the tedious commute times. Some of us even spend three to four hours commuting to work per day, a shocking amount of time now that we can work from home!
Commuting can be stressful, expensive, and it can steal time away from relaxing with friends and family. Choosing to work from home rather than the office frees up more time to spend on yourself and your mental health will thank you for this. Swap the long commute for some self-care and you’ll be feeling more energized in no time.
2. Setting Your Own Hours
This benefit may be more aimed towards those who work in freelance careers, however, when you work from home you have more control over the hours you work. If you need to take a morning or afternoon off, it’s easier to do so when you’re working remotely.
Rather than turning up to an office and being watched by a manager, at home, you have more freedom to work when you want. Many businesses just want you to get the work completed, no matter what time you do it. You can also work into the evenings if needed, but this isn’t always advised.
3. Take On The Projects You Want
Another mental health benefit that’s aimed at the freelance remote work population, is you’ll have the choice to decline projects if you don’t want to do them. Sometimes you can tell the scope of the job isn’t right for your skills from the get-go, so having the ability to decline the work does wonders for your mental health in the long term.
This also applies if you want to take on more work than usual too. Freelance and remote work often free up more time than office jobs do, allowing you to spend an extra hour or two working on side hustles or extra work.
4. More Time To Spend With Family
A game-changing benefit that remote work gives you is more time to spend with the ones you love. It’s no secret that spending more time with friends and family boosts your mood and mental health, so why work an office job that separates you from them?
This benefit is especially important to those with young families, as certain traditional jobs mean parents miss out on many of the big milestones that come with raising children. Working from home lets you spend more quality time with your family, building a stronger family bond too.
5. You Can Live Where You Want
Remote work gave many families the freedom to move away from bustling cities to quieter areas. When you’re not chained to a fixed location, you have the freedom to live from your dream location.
Many younger workers took remote work as an opportunity to move to cheaper areas, helping them save money and build up their life savings. Why pay premium rent prices in big cities when you can work from home instead? This is a great way to reduce financial stress and anxiety.
6. More Job Opportunities
As more and more companies switch to a work-from-home structure, it widens the job pool for employees. Geographical limitations which once prevented you from your dream job are now lifted, letting you try different roles in new industries too.
Perhaps you’ve had your eye on a certain company or role, but you’d never been able to apply as you live too far away. You can now access a wider range of jobs from your home. Remote work has improved employee job satisfaction rates by far, allowing them more choice in their careers.
7. It Saves Money
We’ve touched on money briefly, but this advantage of remote work is an important one. One of the leading causes of anxiety and depression is financial issues. Remote work allows you to live where you want, it removes the costly commute, and you don’t have to spend premiums on expensive city lunches either.
Many of the costly aspects of work-life are removed when you work from home. Instead of spending too much on coffee or food, you can simply eat from a much cheaper grocery shop instead. Travel costs are slashed in half and you can move to more affordable areas too if needed. Working from home is a great solution for anyone looking to build their savings up.
8. You Can Create Your Ideal Office
Did you know you work better when you like your working environment? An exciting perk of working from home is that you have full control over the design of your home office. A positive working atmosphere directly translates into the quality of your work and it can improve your daily moods too.
When many of us started working for home sales of ergonomic keyboards, back support chairs, and various other office products shot through the roof. Instead of putting up with a mediocre office, we now can design it as we like. This also includes motivational posters and other design aspects that boost our productivity.
9. Better Work Output
Another key benefit from working from home is a better work output. Since working from home allows us to relax in our own space, the quality of work is raised and we’re more likely to return projects on time.
Offices often come with a range of distractions and this can cause a lack of concentration and bad organization too. Working from home was shown to create a better working atmosphere and much happier workers too.
10. More Time To Get Active
A major benefit that came with working from home was the ability to get active more. Keeping your physical body moving is proven to do wonders for your mental wellbeing, so having spare time and flexibility to get home workouts in is great for your body and mind.
Whether you embrace pre-work yoga, a lunchtime run, or an evening gym session, any movement goes a long way. Balancing the stresses of work-life with an active routine is a great coping mechanism when work gets tough.
You don’t need to start exercising like crazy to feel the benefits of this top though. Even a brisk 30-minute walk once a day will improve your mood and release healthy endorphins too. Try swapping your old commute time for an hour of activity and you’ll quickly see mental and physical benefits.
11. You Can Eat Better
Similarly to exercising more, eating better will improve your overall health. Working from home gives you more time to prepare meals from scratch and you can swap unhealthy options for nutritional alternatives.
While we aren’t all chefs at heart, it’s important to keep on top of our nutrition when working from home. A good, balanced diet is a game-changer when you want to feel better mentally. Batch cooking or sticking to a weekly meal plan is an organized way to keep your diet healthy and varied too.
You can also spend more time researching and grocery shopping now you have more free time. This is a fun way to spend your commute time and it can help you become the best version of yourself too.
12. More Time For Yourself
Though we keep suggesting productive ways to spend your extra time, doing nothing and relaxing is another great way to improve your mental health. We’ve all had days where we’ve felt burnt out and frustrated with work, so it’s important to stop and take a breather sometimes.
Instead of soldiering on with more work, it’s important to take time to invest back into yourself. Whether you opt for a self-care activity or just take a nap, making sure you’re not working 24/7 is important. Luckily, the flexible nature of remote work allows us to take moments for ourselves and therefore improves our overall mental wellbeing.
13. Being At Home Is Relaxing
For the majority of us, we’ll always prefer being at home than in an office. Our home environment is designed and curated by us, so of course, we prefer it to a generic office building!
Studies have proven we are more relaxed in general when at home. This means working from home allows us to be more relaxed in general life, reducing the likelihood of any diseases or conditions caused by stress. Whether it’s for physical or mental health benefits, reducing stress is always a good idea.
14. Less Work-Related Stress
Perhaps it’s because we can just close down our computers when needed, but studies have also shown that working from home has decreased the amount of work-related stress we feel. While work stress will always be a part of life, no matter where you work, flexible work does lessen the direct impacts of work on our personal lives.
This doesn’t mean our workloads have reduced or our jobs have changed, it simply proves that being in our atmosphere takes away some of the unnecessary problems of office life. There’s no wonder many workers are trying to secure remote jobs now!
15. Freedom When Working
Finally, one of the most important benefits of remote work is the overall freedom it gives us. If you want to travel and work at the same time you can! If you want to spend your morning doing yoga instead of commuting you also can! Many of the fixed rules that were once in place are now gone and we are leading more fulfilling lives instead. This is giving us more life satisfaction and a better general mental health outlook too.
The Takeaway
One of the biggest takeaways from remote work is that it has a large range of benefits that all leave us with better mental health. Again, remote working doesn’t suit everyone, but it can be an ideal solution for anyone that is burnt out and fed up with office life.
Have you experienced remote work? What are the key benefits you experienced when working from home? Do you think this way of life is better for our mental health? Let us know your opinion in the comments.
