A web site full of self-care

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So, it’s late 2020. You’ve been locked in the house off and on since March. The kids are doing school from the other room and maybe your spouse or partner is working from home right there alongside you.

Time to be honest about something.

Time spent at work isn’t always time spent working

You’ve probably felt a lot of pressure to be productive while working from home. Maybe a paranoid boss installed a keylogger on your computer. Maybe you’re just feeling like the other folks in your house will judge you if you’re not working hard while you’re at your desk.

People have this vision of work-from-home being nothing but a pizza-pajama party and a Netflix binge. Ask a career telecommuter and they’ll tell you that you work harder when you’re at home. At least the successful ones will tell you that. The folks who goof off while telecommuting are not going to keep doing it very long.

But, even the most seasoned “home-based road warrior” will tell you that it takes a balance. Sometimes you just have to goof off a little. That’s why I invented the “Fun Friday” series in 2012. Sometimes it’s time for a little self-care, and self-care takes many forms.

Self-care: the term you probably didn’t need to hear before 2020

I think there’s only one term I’ve heard more this year than “self-care,” and it’s “Zoom.” That one hardly needs a definition at this point, does it.

But as to “self-care,” it has as many different definitions as there are people. This has been a stressful time, to say the least. Certainly not the most stressful time in history, but perhaps the most stressful time in many folks’ lives. The difference between today and the way we lived a hundred years ago, though, is that we recognize mental health is as important as physical health today.

So, a lot of doctors recommend that you take some time to make sure that you can feel as normal as possible. It’s different for everyone. Maybe it means taking a walk in the sun, as safely as possible. Maybe it means quiet time. And maybe, just maybe, it means goofing off at work just a little. The other folks in the house will just have to understand that a little recharging goes a long way.

The best time-wasters

I found this list of time wasters at Lifewire, and each one of these games will draw you in and increase your bliss. At the very least they’ll help you forget what’s going on in the world and that can be something very helpful right now. All of them should run on virtually any PC although some will require Flash Player in order to work. Your work-from-home computer may no longer support Flash or your office policies may prohibit it. Still, even limiting the list to games that you can play in-browser will give you plenty of opportunities to let your mind rest. Believe me, it’s worth it.

About the Author

Stuart Sweet
Stuart Sweet is the editor-in-chief of The Solid Signal Blog and a "master plumber" at Signal Group, LLC. He is the author of over 10,000 articles and longform tutorials including many posted here. Reach him by clicking on "Contact the Editor" at the bottom of this page.