In March 2021, we opened the virtual doors to our HR Café – sessions focused on ‘checking in’ with people professionals and providing a much-needed relaxed space for people professionals to meet, pause, reflect and focus on self-care with a view to being better resourced to support others.
Our first event attracted 35 attendees, many of whom talked about their own experiences. We began our first session with one big question ‘How are you today?‘ A question that’s so simple yet so powerful. We were overwhelmed and humbled by the open dialogue between everyone. One attendee described the session as ‘HR for HR’, which is exactly what our HR Café is all about- although anyone working within the people profession is welcome to join our sessions.
We captured some simple yet effective tips and resources for you to explore.
Mindfulness and meditation
Practising mindfulness and meditation was a common theme from many of the attendees for their own self-care. Attendees recommended various apps, including free access for 12 months to the Calm app for HR professionals:
Boundaries between work and personal life
Homeworking has become the norm for many people in the last 12 months, but we know this shift to working from home has brought some huge challenges for people as they’ve struggled at times to separate work from personal lives. To help achieve that much-needed separation here are some great suggestions:
- Dressing for work as usual to signal the start/finish of your working day.
- If possible, pack your office and work items away at the end of the working day or using other ways to separate work and living spaces.
- Fake commute – simulate a fake commute by taking a walk before and after work.
- Put limits on your use of technology, for example, after a specific time at night.
- Book and protect your ‘lunch hour.’
Focus on good quality sleep
It is estimated that we spend one third of our lives asleep but we imagine that most people reading this article will have or continue to struggle with disrupted sleep patterns. Poor quality sleep can have both short and long-term impacts on your health. We talked about what impacted our sleep, and people shared the following tips to improve sleep.
- Try to have a technology-free time before you go to sleep. If this isn’t possible, consider using a blue light function on your screen.
- Use Night Shift on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch – Apple Support
- You can download a sleep diary/log from the Sleep Foundation website. This can help you identify helpful and unhelpful things which may be impacting your sleep. Sleep Diary: How and Why You Should Keep One | Sleep Foundation
- Research suggests that hitting the snooze button makes you more tired as the time between your alarms going off is to narrow for good quality sleep. Stop Hitting the Snooze Button: 5 Easy Ways to Wake Up in the Morning | Sleep.org
- Use an App like MyFitnessPal to check how much sleep you’re getting and what quality it is
We’d love to hear your own tips and experiences
We invite everyone to stay around for about 30 minutes after the session for a chance to chat freely. If there are particular topics that you think are important and you’d like us to cover in future sessions, let us know! and please add your comments below.
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