The wellbeing of all members of our University was already of paramount importance, and in light of the recent developments surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, it is more important than ever for all of us. For postgraduate researchers, this situation is likely to have caused all kinds of disruption: interruption to data collection, cancelled conferences, a complete change to the format of your supervision, combining research with caring, among other things.

The University’s Six Ways to Wellbeing is an evidence-based framework to help support wellbeing. Here are some ideas on how we can use and practice the Six Ways right now.

Special thank you to ‘Five Ways to Wellbeing when Working from Home’ by Jenny Louise Lawrence on wonkhe.com for inspiring this article, in particular the idea of the psychic commute!

Take Notice

• These are very uncertain times and the situation is changing rapidly. It’s normal to be feeling a wide range of emotions. Something important to take notice of in these coming days and weeks is your mood. If you find yourself starting to feel low or overwhelmed, it’s a good idea to give yourself a break. This could be as simple as getting up and walking away from your work for ten minutes to distract yourself and reset your thoughts, or giving yourself longer periods of time to relax and unwind.
• Try to take notice (virtually) also of the moods of your colleagues, in particular any sudden changes. Notice if anyone appears to be struggling in any way; maybe they haven’t responded in a while or they seem confused and overwhelmed in managing their workload. If possible, reach out to them; this could be as simple as just asking them how they are doing – whether you are able to offer practical help with their work, or just the distraction of a friendly chat, is positive.
• This can of course be applied to your friends and family too. Be sure to put work to one side in the event of needing to prioritise giving attention to a friend or family member in need. Respond to messages as soon as you are able to, and check in regularly with any friends who seem to be more quiet than usual, and loved ones further away who may be feeling especially isolated right now.
• Be aware of the concept of the ‘psychic commute’. Without a physical commute to work anymore, you will notice how much more time you have in the morning before you begin your work day. Establish a ‘preparing for work’ routine: this could be anything from putting a wash on, washing the dishes, preparing food for later. Think of this as your ‘psychic commute’; doing these tasks will give your mind some space to plan for the day ahead, as you would have done on your physical route to work.
• Finally, as you would anyway, take notice of the small pleasures you encounter throughout your work day. Share them with any friends or family members you have at home with you through this time, or reach out to your colleagues to share them.

Be Active

• Even with the current restrictions, it is still possible to get outside to be active each day.
• Try to leave the house at least once a day to get some fresh air, even if this is just visiting your garden or taking a short walk in your local area .
• Regular breaks from your workspace are very important, even if you don’t have an outdoor space you can make use of, and studies show that standing or walking for two hours a day can avoid health problems.
• Try setting a reminder to get up from your desk once an hour, or do some desk yoga. You might find it useful also to incorporate your household chores into the physical activity breaks you take throughout the day.
• There are many apps available to help you incorporate short workout sessions into your day too. The 7 minute workout app offers fast simple daily workouts. Other apps such as the Daily Workouts Fitness Trainer offer fast workouts as short as 5 minutes in length. You don’t need a huge amount of space either, so you can find a room in your house to workout even if you don’t have a back garden.
• Some studies have suggested working in 90 minute stints is the most effective for productivity and minimising procrastination tendencies. There are also apps to help you time your work sessions before having a break, such as Clockify.
• Follow the UoM Sport Twitter, Facebook or Instagram feed #stayinworkout for daily inspiration for ways to remain active while still at home.

Be Healthy

• It’s all too easy to fall into some bad habits health-wise when working from home, particularly when it comes to food. Supermarkets are introducing more delivery slots to accommodate the increased demand for their home delivery services, making it easier to make healthy food choices when doing your weekly shop – you’ll avoid unhealthy temptations on the shelves, as well as staying safe by not having to leave the house. You’ll find some helpful tips here for ways to eat healthily for less.
• It is still as important as ever to stay hydrated: regularly get up from your workspace to get a glass of water or hot drink to stay hydrated throughout the work day.
• It’s normal to feel that your sleep pattern has been disrupted lately, with the upheaval of having moved into a completely new working routine. It may take a while for you to get back into good sleep habits, particularly with the effect of so much uncertainty in the progress of your research at this point, and in the world generally. But it’s important to keep up the same routines as always: go to sleep at a regular time each night, do not take daytime naps of more than 20 minutes and put away any screens for, at the very least, 30 minutes before you go to bed.
• There are many ways you can try to keep your mind healthy at the moment. Try to minimise the use of your phone, in particular try to take regular long breaks from social media at the moment. The news can be overwhelming and there are many unknowns. Focusing on these and wondering what could happen could give rise to a great deal of anxiety. Use social media sparingly to check in on friends and family, but resist the urge to scroll endlessly through your feed. Allot a time for you to check the news, once a day. When catching up with your friends, try to steer the conversation towards other lighter topics.

Learn and Discover

• This is a time when all of us will be learning a great deal, in terms of how we are having to adapt to not only a new way of working, but a new way of living. Accept that you are on a learning curve right now.
• Everyone will have their own working from home style, and some things you have tried that worked for other people may not have worked for you, try not to compare yourself to others.
• Reflect on what has worked well and congratulate yourself on even the small things you feel you have learnt so far through this process, while trying to not berate yourself for things that are taking longer to work out.
• Remember too that productivity should not be immediately at the forefront of your mind. Try to let go of ideas of what you should be doing and achieving right now. This article by Prof Aisha Ahmad addresses this subject.
• For some people this increased time at home is conducive to learning new skills and beginning new hobbies, e.g. activities good for mindfulness like knitting, painting, or something more active like yoga. It’s important to recognise though that this is also not something that will be appropriate right now for everyone, and the most important thing is to not place additional pressure on yourself because you feel you must fill any spare time in this way.

Connect

• Staying connected right now firstly involves finding a suitable workspace within your home. You need a suitable room or corner within your home that you can relocate to each day, to at least give the feeling of ‘going to work’.
• Keep in touch with your colleagues. As postgraduate researchers, you will no longer have face to face contact with your peers, or be present in labs and offices, and so online networks can be helpful to share strategies for coping, or tips for using technology to stay connected. Set up a group chat on WhatsApp or Facebook to share updates and work together. General communication may be more difficult when not in the office together, and rather than jam up already busy email inboxes, these kind of groups can facilitate easier communications. Online meetings through software like Zoom are also a good way to stay connected and keep some things running the way they normally would.
• Set up ways to stay connected to socialise, have virtual coffees with peers, to just talk and chat and check in on each other.

Give

One thing that has come out of this crisis has been an unprecedented level of generosity from so many different areas of society. The chances are all of us have been ‘giving’, whether that is to have picked up some groceries for a loved one who needs to self-isolate, or to share a helpful link on Facebook, or to have donated money to a cause supporting people during the crisis.

As PGRs you will also likely be contributing in less direct ways, e.g. by continuing to support undergraduate students in maintaining their learning via online teaching. You may also have gifted your own particular expertise to others in the HE community.

It is important to keep giving in the ways you have been. Ensure you do take appropriate self-care measures throughout though to look after yourself and give to yourself what you need at the moment.

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