How to Adjust Your Home Office Routine for Clearer Skin

More people are working from home than ever before. For one thing, the pandemic is still raging across the US. For another, many businesses have come to realize the benefits of a distributed workforce and plan to stick to telecommuting even post-corona.

Basically, if you’re working from home, now is the point to invest time and resources into creating a sustainable home office routine. This will allow you to stay healthy and happy working remotely for as long as necessary.

Skin impurities are one health issue to consider when you draw up or adjust your remote work routine. A significant number of adult Americans struggle with acne. But according to acneresearch.org has shown that even minor lifestyle changes can help you clear up big time.

Here are five simple, skin-boosting habits to integrate into your home office routine. So that your path to productivity also takes you to better health, and a serious glow-up.

1. Schedule Water Breaks

Hydration is key to clearer skin. Several studies suggest that drinking 3 liters of water or more a day increases skin hydration, elasticity, and smoothness. This level of water intake also improves your skin’s surface pH, which is a vital defense against acne-inducing irritants.

Plus: Upping your water intake improves your concentration and cognitive performance. A welcome boost when you’re dealing with the productivity challenges of working from home.

There are several ways to make sure you drink enough. The most straightforward is to always have a bottle of water on your desk as a visible and convenient reminder. Also, you don’t have to constantly interrupt your work to run to the tap.

If you tend to get lost in your work, it’s a great idea to schedule water breaks to make sure you get those 12 cups. A quick notification on your phone or a dedicated app usually does the trick.

2. Stick to Fixed Meal Times

This one is a little less obvious than “stay hydrated”. In order to improve your skin health, you should stick to fixed meal times – and try not to eat too late. That’s because your blood glucose levels – especially when they spike – play a major role in determining your skin health.

When you eat, your body breaks food down into its basic components, starting with glucose. In return, your insulin levels rise, since this hormone controls how you convert glucose into energy. This is completely normal and healthy.

However, constantly elevated insulin can drive overproduction of androgens like testosterone, and growth factor IGF-1. In combination, these chemicals cause your skin cells to grow and overproduce pore-clogging sebum – finally resulting in acne.

This means that a major step towards clearer skin is managing blood glucose levels. One way of doing that is by watching what you eat. Processed carbohydrates, especially sugar, get into your bloodstream super fast, making your insulin levels skyrocket.

Another extremely useful approach is to stick to fixed mealtimes and to avoid eating too late in the day. Research has shown that the later you eat, the longer your blood glucose levels stay up.

Eating earlier, and at fixed times, lets your body produce insulin in a healthy, daily rhythm. This avoids insulin overproduction and contributes to clearer skin.

3. Plan Healthy Meals Ahead

There are no lunch dates with colleagues or cafeteria breaks at the home office. When you’re absorbed in a task, or just want to finish a paragraph (or page) in your report, it’s easy to lose track of time. Suddenly, you’re ravenous. By then, it’s too late to cook a healthy meal, so you quickly binge on fast food or snacks – and keep on working. One way to prevent this is to plan (and make!) healthy meals ahead.

Two studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland have shown the massive skin health benefits of binging on fruit and veggies. By just adding two portions of greens to their daily diet, study participants achieved clearer skin with a healthy golden glow in just six weeks.

Take some of the stress out of your home office routine by planning meals ahead. Draw up a meal plan stuffed with skin-healthy fruit and vegetables, shop for ingredients, and make what you can in advance.

That way, your skin gets all the nutrients it needs to clear up and shine. And you won’t end up growling at an empty fridge after getting overwhelmed by hunger in the middle of a sales report.

4. Boost Your Home Office Air Quality

Air quality is a major factor in skin health. Studies have shown that air pollution – especially in urban areas – can lead to inflammation, oxidative stress, and autonomic dysfunction even in otherwise healthy people. All this can cause zits at best, and chronic acne at worst. There’s a variety of actions you can take to improve the air quality in your home office.

Regularly airing out your room is a no-brainer especially if it’s an old foreclosed property, but it’s still easy to forget. Real estate platform Lamudi.com.ph says these properties may need repairs before they can be your comfortable home office. Make it a habit to throw your windows open for a few minutes while taking a break. This will also let more oxygen into your workspace, boosting your concentration.

Another approach is to put plants into your home office. Not only will they increase oxygen levels, but a little green in your workspace does also wonders for mental health and concentration.

Air purifiers are a third option. Especially if you’re living in an urban center, or if you’re struggling with allergies, purifiers can be invaluable for both skin health and general quality of life.

5. Make Time for Relaxation, Meditation, and Exercise

When you’re working from home, it can be hard to prevent your business life from encroaching onto your personal time. However, skewing your work-life-balance can seriously affect both your physical and mental health, leading to stress and skin problems.

Make time in your day for relaxation and meditation to combat anxiety, stress, and risk of depression – all of which aggravate skin conditions. Exercise improves both your mental and your hormonal balance, setting the stage for clearer skin.

The Bottom Line

If you’re facing the prospect of working from home in the long term, it’s vital to invest time and effort to create a sustainable routine.

By integrating habits such as drinking enough water, scheduling healthy meals at fixed times, boosting your air quality, and making time for exercise and relaxation, you can improve both your overall health, and your skin.

Without a doubt, there will be pitfalls and lapses. But once you are secure in your routine, you’ll be set to work from home healthily, productively, and with radiant skin.