Learning to find a balance between your professional and personal life is every bit as important as choosing a good location to telework from. Unwinding in order to reconnect with free time and improve one's physical and mental health.
Most psychologists agree on a series of norms that can be extremely helpful for putting limits on the amount of time we devote to work, optimising productivity and reserving the time needed to enjoy other aspects of life.
The Canary Islands, the office with the best climate in the world, offer the solution to all the recommendations psychologists make for disconnecting from work:
Afterwork activities
Isabel Rovira Salvador, a health psychologist, says “it is essential to disconnect at the end of the working day. As far as possible, all work should be completed within the professional timetable and we should devote free time to disconnecting, investing it in ourselves”.
In this regard, one of the advantages of closing the lid of your laptop in the Canary Islands is the wide range of leisure options available which, since they are islands, do not require long journeys that put a limit on one's plans for days off.
Discover new places
According to psychologist Jaime Rodrigo, “holiday periods allow us to break with routine and enjoy ourselves, and they help reduce stress levels”.
Spending long spells of time on the Canary Islands gives one the chance to discover the immensity of this little region. An ideal destination for throwing off monotony and exploring new places during rest breaks. The draw of its scenery and charming villages is compounded by the numerous transport alternatives and attractive driving routes.
In addition, remote workers can use their days off to travel between islands and, within minutes or hours, enjoy any of the eight islands they have not visited yet.
Connecting with other people
If you choose the right location, being a remote worker, or digital nomad, does not have to mean living in isolation. It is advisable to spend free time connecting with people who share our goals, or with established teleworking communities in the Canary Islands.
In this regard, having informal talks or chats, sharing projects, enjoying nature together or simply sipping a coffee in one of the lovely spots around the Canarian archipelago are ideas that come up spontaneously all year long thanks to the vibrant community of digital nomads or local remote workers that exist on each of the islands.
Set realistic work goals
In our everyday working life, it is preferable to plan realistic, achievable work goals. In the event that we do not attain these objectives, schedules or tasks must be reframed, or certain strategies redefined, to prevent us from feeling overwhelmed during the working day.
It is also a good idea to explore the possibility of delegating some tasks, defining priorities precisely, in order to sort the tasks to be performed by importance and try out some methods for achieving greater productivity during our working day. All this will allow us to improve how we use our time, and increase our enjoyment of free time.
In this respect, the psychologist and lecturer Alfonso Alcántara, better known on social media as @yoriento, reminds us that “the factor that makes it more probable that we attain any goal is… putting one’s mind to it, that is to say, defining and establishing objectives in the most specific manner possible. When you fix a point on the horizon, you are mapping out a route that invites and motivates you to follow it”.
And in this regard, having the beach or the mountains waiting for you just 10 minutes away is an incentive for anyone to establish objectives and set limits that favour wellbeing.
Restricting notifications on work devices
There can be no doubt whatsoever that mobile devices today are huge allies for any worker, and much more so in the case of remote workers. However, excessive notifications arriving at any time of day can make it difficult for remote workers to truly disconnect from work.
Which is why it is reasonable to establish timetables for deactivating notifications from one’s mobile phone. This can be done manually or, in some cases, and depending on the operating system used, certain periods of the day can be stipulated automatically when no messages will be received, or at least the type of messages we want to receive can be filtered.
But without a doubt, the best way of silencing notifications is to submerge oneself in the water of the swimming pool or on any of the 500 beaches - as distinctive as they are unique - that exist on the Canary Islands.
Practising sport
Practising any sport helps maintain a good physical and mental health condition, and also facilitates disconnection from work and improves stress management. And although there are gyms anywhere in the world, not everyone is content to settle for a room containing machines and weights.
The Canary Islands, with their mild temperatures all year round and the beauty of their landscapes, are the ideal setting for practising any outdoor sport, from more relaxed activities like hiking, to sports that provide more of an adrenaline rush, like surfing, climbing or paragliding.
Knowing how to unwind is a necessary skill for maintaining the physical and mental health of any remote worker. On this point, psychologist Rosario Linares maintains that “there are numerous studies that indicate that the constant practice of sports improves our self-esteem. When we feel good about ourselves, that improves our interpersonal relationships as well, and we are more productive and in the long term, we are happier too”.
