Working From Home With Diabetes – Stay Productive And Take Care Of Your Health At The Same Time

Working From Home With Diabetes

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Owning to the recent coronavirus lockdown, more companies are imposing a work from home policy to ensure that all employees are safe. How does working from home with diabetes help you get the best of both worlds? Let’s find out.

Stay tuned till the end because we will also discuss some cons of working from home and how you can rise above them.

Working From Home With Diabetes – Why Is It A Preferred Choice?

On average diabetics have a harder time to keep a steady job because company owners are usually reluctant to pay for health insurance and they usually expect lesser productivity from diabetics.

On the other hand, it may be difficult for diabetics to manage long commute hours and long hours in a cubicle with their condition – things that you deem normal when you manage work and diabetes. It may lead to more health problems in the coming years.

Also, since diabetics are most prone to coronavirus, it is best to work from home. There are many pros and cons to it and since many of you are already working from home, you may have already felt some of them.

Pros Of Working From Home

What are some of the things that you look forward to when you work from home? Here are some of the best things about working from home:

1. You Have More Time

You have to spend less time travelling to and from work. Settling down after a long commute takes time and it is a lot more exhausting – so much so that you hardly have any time left at the end of the day.

When you work from home, you skip out on all the commute hours. You suddenly have a lot more time for everything else. You can spend more time with the kids, you have more time to clean, you can exercise as often as you want, and more importantly, you have time to take care of yourself.

2. Managing Your Diabetes Better

Now with more time in your hands, you can finally take care of your diabetes. Whether you have type 1 or type 2 diabetes, working at home does make it a little easier.

You can have your meals on time, have your medication on time. You can also listen to your body and pay attention to the signs of high blood sugar or low blood sugar – things we learn not to pay attention to when we are stressed in an office environment.

3. Pay Attention To Your Feet

We’ve talked about diabetic feet in many of our articles in the past. Putting your feet in uncomfortable office shoes and sitting/standing for long hours can aggravate all diabetic foot problems.

When you work from home, you can keep your feet on an elevated surface and stretch from time to time. You don’t have to wear uncomfortable shoes. You can wear comfortable diabetic socks instead, and make sure your feet are okay. 

Working from home also gives you time to stretch your feet, massage them, and check for blisters from time to time – something you were probably too tired to do when you had to commute to work.

4. Away From Stress And Strained Relationships

Now we aren’t saying that all offices are bad but if you have a strained relationship with some of your colleagues, going to work can be very stressful. Working from home has an advantage – you won’t have to indulge in strained work relationships and tensions that take place in the office.

5. You Can Manage Time In Your Own Way

You can find the time that works best for you and stick to it. When you work from home, you can start work at 6 in the morning or start work late in the afternoon and work till late at night.

When you work from home you have the luxury of managing your own time in your own way. As long as you meet deadlines, no one will ask you to work at the allotted office time. 

Of course, there are exceptions to this rule. Some offices do insist that you follow a  timing but most offices are finding new and innovative ways to keep track of work and deadlines. Letting employees meet deadlines while managing their own time is more beneficial for the company.

Cons Of Working From Home

On the reverse side, there are a few cons to working from home as well. It’s good we know about them so that we can find ways to work on them.

Here are some cons to working from home:

1. It’s Easy To Procrastinate

When you work from home, you become your own boss. Some people struggle to work when they are at home because they associate that time for non-office related things – like spending time with the family, doing household chores etc.

Having to do office work at home gets difficult to adapt to at first. But this can be easily achievable if you get into a routine and establish a ‘work spot’.

Your work spot can be any place with a table and a chair. Avoid the bed and the sofa because you usually spend time sleeping or watching movies in these places. 

You can also throw a few cushions on the floor and make that your work spot in case you don’t have an empty desk.

It is also important to choose a place that has little distractions so that you can focus on work.

You can also get into a routine before work, just like how you would when you go to an office. Get ready and perhaps stretch for 10 minutes before you start work. Some even meditate for a few minutes to get into their groove.

2. You May Take More Than You Can Chew

While for some, it may be difficult to get into the groove, it may also be easy for you to lose track of time and take on more pressure than you can actually handle. 

This may cause you to work late at night, early morning, lose sleep, compromise on proper eating habits – all these habits are deadly for a diabetic.

It is important to discipline yourself right from the beginning. An average person works for 5 hours in an 8-hour work shift but that productivity level drops as you stretch the number of hours. So, if you sit for 12 hours of work, you may actually work for only 6-7 of those hours.

The more you strain yourself, the less productive you will be. It’s important to identify when you are stretching the hours and not really getting a lot done.

Get up, stretch a bit when you see that you are not able to concentrate. You can make yourself a cup of (sugarless) tea.

Also, make sure you get some time off every day. Don’t let work be the first thing you do after you get up and the last thing you do before you go to bed.

3. There Are Many Distractions

Since everyone is home because of the lockdown, it is very easy to get distracted. Your kids may want more attention, or there is a TV playing in the background, or parents trying to talk to you. It can all be very distracting.

It may take a little effort at first to seclude yourself from all the fun and start to work, but with discipline, it is possible.

If you have a room that you can use as a workplace, that would be great. It is important to talk to family members and discuss that they can’t disturb you while you are working. If you have a healthy conversation with those who live around you, they will be very happy to respect your boundaries.

As you can see, the pros are way more than the cons. With a little discipline, the cons will stop being a problem and after the lockdown, you may look for permanent work from home solutions! Do you agree with the list?

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