I know that I’m not the only one who has worked from home since 2020, just like I know that I’m not the only one who has benefited a lot from it. While I had some experience before 2020, it wasn’t the same. But now, I work 36 hours a week, all from home, in addition to dealing with my 7+ illnesses and living independently. So in this post, I’m sharing my best tips for working from home.
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The Best Tips for Working from Home with Chronic Illness
Before we get into it, let’s talk about my credentials.
As you know if this isn’t your first blog post, I’ve lived with chronic illness and pain since 2001, so every job I have held in my life I have held with chronic illness.
In addition to this blog, I have worked for my company since 2018. It is a non-profit, so when COVID hit, they realized they could save a boatload of money by having people work from home, or at least not having centralized offices.
This has been life-changing for me. When the pandemic hit, I worked 32 hours a week, which was only possible because I worked 1 day a week at home and 4 days in the office. Now, I work 36 hours per week, which is only possible because we are still virtual.
Working from home means that I can work enough hours to have benefits, including healthcare. It also means that the days when I would be in too much pain to work in an office, I’m still able to work at least a little bit because I’m working from home. I’m so grateful for working at home.
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Make your own workspace
If you work from home, then you should have a space that is JUST for working or, at least, primarily for working. This will help your brain recognize that when you’re there, you’re working.
If you don’t have a spare room for an office, pick a spot in your house that will be your office. Maybe that’s your dining room table. Maybe you have room for a desk in your bedroom or your living room. Whatever the place, pick one that is where you’ll work from. This doesn’t have to be your office forever and ever, but if you have a designated work space, it’ll be easier to get into the work mode.
And you don’t have to deck it out to be like an office. Just get the things that you need to work!
I have a desk in my bedroom, which is where I keep my work notebooks, second screen, keyboard, and mouse. I don’t work from there every day, but at the very least it’s where I work when I need to use two screens or have meetings with people outside of my team. I spend a lot of time home in Maine, and I have a similar desk set-up there.
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Make sure you have a good chair
The definition of “good” will depend on you and what you need but it should be a supportive place to work from. And this is true whether or not your chronic illness includes back trouble!
If your chronic illness includes back, rib, or SI joint pain, then having a good chair will help improve your symptoms. If it doesn’t, then having a good chair is better than a bad one since a bad one will add back trouble to your symptoms.
Not to mention – it’s hard to focus on work when you’re thinking about how much your back hurts!
You know those big chairs that are generally for gamers? Those are built the way they are because often people will play video games for hours, and you need to have supportive chairs for that.
The University of Pittsburgh has an amazing article about how to pick an ergonomic chair, which is great because it helps you identify whether or not a chair works for you and your body. This is necessary because just like every chronic illness is different, so is everyone’s body. What works for my and my body will be different than what works for yours.
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Get a discreet heating pad
As someone with SI, spine, and rib pain, I use my heating pad a LOT. And the next time I buy a heating pad, it will not be bright blue.
My team is aware of my health stuff – I started at my company when I was still on crutches post subtalar fusion, which helped – but I don’t always have calls with people who are aware, and in those cases, I feel self-conscious about my bright blue heating pad.
You can also get heating pads for specific parts of your body. This one is perfect for neck and shoulders, while this one is great for lumbar and abdominal use specifically. Finally, this heating pad is designed to contour to a variety of body parts, like thigh, shoulder, arm, elbow, etc.
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Get compression gloves
If you live with arthritis or another kind of inflammation impacting your hands, you should check out compression gloves.
Compression is one part of RICE, a method for recovering from inflammation – Rest Ice Compression Elevation. But if you have a chronic illness, RICE is not for recovery but for everyday life. While this will apply to inflammation in multiple parts of the body, it especially applies to your hands if you work from home.
These are a product that work best to prevent future pain rather than recover from it.
The Arthritis Foundation recommends IMAK Compression Arthritis Gloves, and I agree. AF says that these gloves are “Designed to help relieve aches, pains, and stiffness associated with arthritis of the hands” (x).
If you aren’t sure if they will help you or not, I recommend getting a cheaper pair before getting the IMAK ones, but the IMAK ones last a lot longer than other pairs.
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Get a lap desk
I’ve had my lap desk for years and I love it so much.
Using a lap desk is helpful when you are working from bed, an armchair, or a couch. You want your neck to be at an angle similar to what it would be if you were at a regular desk, and if you’re someone who spends a lot of time typing, you want your wrists to be an an okay angle, too.
Hell, I use my lap desk for watching TV. It’s that helpful.
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Put on real clothes
Of course one of the benefits of working from home is that you don’t always have to wear real clothes unless you have meetings, but it might help your productivity if you do. I’m much more likely to work well if I’ve gotten my brain in the working zone, and unfortunately, that includes wearing real clothes. I don’t necessarily mean putting on business casual, but just wearing jeans and a casual shirt instead of leggings and a tee can make a huge difference.
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But make sure you have comfortable work clothes
Years ago, I was introduced to the brand Wit & Wisdom. Their Ab-Solution pants are made with spandex, making them so much more comfortable than straight denim. I have exclusively worn Wit & Wisdom pants since 2018. The style looks like normal pants, but they feel so much better than normal pants.
I’m also a big fan of flowy dresses, which can also be professional but oh so comfortable when it comes to heat intolerance and muscle pain.
Chronic illness and chronic pain are already difficult without clothing making your symptoms worse.
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Keep regular hours
If you aren’t working full-time or don’t work a 9-5 schedule, schedule your work time and stick to it. That doesn’t mean you have to work a 9-5 – schedule a time that works for you and your life.
The point is to have regular work hours to separate your work time at home from your non-work time. This helps you get into the working zone easier and schedule other parts of your life (such as medical appointments 1, 3, or 6 months in the future – around working hours.
It also means that, spending on the field you work in and what exactly you do, you can work during the time of day that is best for you. Maybe you aren’t really functional until the afternoon. Maybe you only do work working overnight. Maybe you need a lot more sleep than other people.
Chronic illness is different for every single person – after all, if it was easy to understand and adapt, I wouldn’t have this blog. But if you can, you might be able to work from home at a time and day that is most likely to be successful. That’s one of the benefits to working from home.
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Pack your lunch
Think about it this way: If you get your lunch all ready before you sit down to work, you have more time in your lunch break to do other things! You can catch up on social media, read a book, watch an episode of a show, meet a friend, etc. But really, this is another thing that helps you get into the work zone and it’s a way to ensure that you eat healthily instead of snacking on junk because you can.
I also like doing this because I only have a 30-minute lunch break and I want to spend those 30 minutes eating lunch and taking a break, not making lunch and hurrying to eat it before going back to work.
If you’re like me, your chronic illnesses mean that you have food intolerances. Very few ready-made meals are available to me, so I have to assemble most of my food from scratch. Meal prepping helps with that.
(I mean, do you have any idea how much soy is in frozen and shelf-safe foods? It’s a lot.)
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Take breaks (away from gadgets)
Okay, so your lunch break is a good time to get caught up on social media, but I also like to spend some of that time not looking at screens.
Between how much time I spend looking at screens and my Sjögren’s syndrome, my eyes get fatigued really easily. That’s why I like to spend time away from gadgets, and it’s a great way to make the day easier on your body.
I do this by spending my lunch break reading a paper book or listening to an audiobook while I eat. Sometimes I’ll spend a break going on a short walk.
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Stretch
I’m kind of famous for doing this at work, pre-pandemic when we were in-office. I would just sit on the floor and do stretches; everyone got used to it.
Most people aren’t able to do that in-office, of course, but it’s a lot more feasible when you’re working from home. Just take 3 minutes – literally 3 minutes – to stretch. Relax your shoulders, roll your neck, unclench your jaw. Do some stretches.
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Get out of the house
When you work from home, it’s easy to go days without leaving the house. That means sometimes you have to make yourself leave.
Again, you can do short walks during the day, but you can also do that when you finish your work day.
I’m adjusting to my body being more normal than, like, ever. That means that I don’t have as many doctor’s appointments, and for many years that was the impetus for me to get out of the house regularly. Now that I’m not doing that as much, I try to schedule reminders to get out of the house.
What I’ll do is go on a short walk as soon as I finish the work day. This also helps me avoid going straight from my Day Job to blog work.
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Find what works best for you
First and foremost, all of these tips don’t work for everyone. Everyone has different things that make them more or less productive, that help them or hurt them, so you really need to figure out what it is that works for you. This might mean that you try a variety of strategies before you settle into a routine, so if something doesn’t work, be sure to try other tools or strategies!
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Like this post? Share it! Then check out:
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Kate Mitchell is a blogger, chronic illness patient, and advocate who helps people understand chronic illness and helps chronic illness patients live their best lives.
A thoughtful and practical guide for making remote work more manageable while prioritizing health.
Such a helpful and honest post, your tips are so thoughtful and real. Love how you balance work and health with such care and strength.
Thank you for sharing tips and advice. Being sick will not hinder a mom like me from being a breadwinner for my kids. This is a great article, indeed!