3 Daily Wellness Habits for the Remote Executive

How can remote executives build healthy daily boundaries?

Working from home seamlessly blurs the line between personal rest and professional obligation, drastically accelerating burnout. Remote executives can reclaim their mental health by implementing three daily habits: blocking 60 minutes of "no distraction" deep work, transitioning one meeting into a physical "walk and talk," and scheduling intentional connected check-ins.

In January, I urged you to take time off. Fast forward six months. Today, COVID-19 has directly or indirectly impacted not only our time but our mental and physical health as well. My message from January still stands, however; we still need an escape from work. Taking a physical and mental break from our work this summer has never been more important. As we have all learned, home does not = a break/vacation.

While on deadline writing this column, there was this cute, tiny distraction who kept getting in my way: my 10-month-old sweet puppy Molly!

As much as I love to hang out with her, when Molly wants my attention it’s tough to focus on work. Who says no to such a sweet puppy, even on deadline!

Throughout the pandemic, I have evolved my mindset for the times when she tries to get my attention during the day. When I take time out to play fetch, rub her belly, and give her all the attention she deserves, I have focused on the benefits, not the burden. Ultimately, she expends a lot of energy so she can nap, I enjoy playing with her and my mental and physical state is improved!

My advice? Get a dog! Problem solved!

Ok, not so fast. As easy as it might sound to simply tell all of you to get a pet, that’s not practical or realistic.

However, what I CAN tell you is that you are in more control of your wellness than you realize.

If you do these three things EVERY DAY, you will continue to thrive in your career and spend quality time with your family while prioritizing your health and wellness. It’s a win-win-win!

First, identify your daily “no distraction” time. Is your calendar “open” all day, every day? If so, you are sending two messages:

1) “I am always here to help!” I understand! We are in public relations, a service industry. We want to be available! However, it leads to:

2) “I will prioritize everyone and everything over myself.”

We need to evolve past this self-perception that we aren’t doing our jobs if we aren’t available all the time. Setting boundaries will not only improve your health and wellbeing, it will show others that you are creating a standard for them to follow.

I recommend blocking off at least 30-60 minutes every day that can’t be used for meetings. Find the best time that you can benefit from no distractions.

Second, identify your daily “walk and talk” time. I recommend auditing the next five days of meetings that are scheduled. Identify one meeting per day that you can take as a walk and talk meeting, vs. sitting at your desk or conference room. Some of my walk and talks are for business, however many of my walk and talks are family time with my wife Christine and Molly to get outside and enjoy the fresh air. Our walk and talks are scheduled during business hours, yet it is sacred to our family. We only cancel or postpone in case of an emergency.

Your walk and talk meeting – whether it’s virtual or in-person - should be planned for and scheduled during the day.

Finally, identify your “connection” time. As an extrovert throughout COVID-19, it has been TOUGH for me not to be around people – so I’ve had to find new ways to stay social! Even with today’s sophisticated communications technologies, I have dug DEEP to stay out of the doldrums.

Throughout quarantine, I check in every few days with a select group of people. I block off 30 minutes at least 2-3 days per week to send messages. Recipients are a mixture of friends, current and former clients, former colleagues, and trusted advisors.

I ask how they are doing. They push me, I push them. They empower me, I empower them.

This has helped me immensely to stay mentally healthy through this time, and I guarantee I will stay connected with them this summer and beyond.

Crisis Leadership: Protecting PR Pros in the Remote Era

How can PR professionals protect their mental health during a global crisis?

Managing relentless corporate crisis communications from a chaotic home environment requires unprecedented mental and physical resilience. To survive overwhelming pressure and avoid total burnout, public relations professionals must ruthlessly schedule non-negotiable breaks for deep work, outdoor sunlight, and strict daily cutoff times.

It’s 8:00 a.m. but already feels like Midnight.

You’re about to join your first of five (or more!) video conference calls today.

You’ve been up since 4:00 a.m. but haven’t eaten yet.

You thought you had time for breakfast but that urgent email you received at 6:30 a.m. has taken over your life.

Your kids are driving you crazy and aren’t going anywhere.

You’re about to start the 8:00 a.m. call when you realize, “I’m still in my sweatpants”!

It’s ok. Judge the sweat, not the sweatpants.

This is not the time for me to tell you how to set up lighting for video conference calls, or what clothes to wear, or share my list of favorite standing desks.

This is about acknowledging YOU and what YOU are doing.

I am YOUR cheerleader today.

I see the blood, sweat, and tears that you are pouring into your work every day.

I read it in the press releases, the company updates, the social media posts.

You’re creating tight, concise messages that are helping your audiences feel informed, calm, heard.

You’re using well-developed crisis plans.

You’re rewriting those plans.

You’re throwing those plans out the door.

You’re commanding trust and respect as you pour sweat into your work fighting people with big egos who are thinking more about their legacy than the message that needs to be delivered.

You’re putting on the brave face and ensuring your employees that their voices are being heard, while you are an employee yourself.

You’re responding to stressed and overworked reporters who are constantly asking for updates.

You’re showing compassion for your colleagues, your teams, your bosses, your directs who are dealing with difficult situations at home.

And you’re doing all this from home, running a family, managing tight quarters and trying to manage YOURSELF.

What you are doing requires the sharpest mental and physical strength you have.

You are prepared for this. You are prepared to lead.

All this said: please put on your oxygen mask first.

I need you to three things, every day.

First, you need to PLAN your alone time. The Slack notifications, the IM messages, the constant pings. You need time during the day to think! Allocate whatever time you can, even if it’s 15 minutes, for your personal “No Contact Zone.” Block this time in your calendar.

Second, you need to PLAN your outside time. Find a couple of hours per week during the WORKDAY that you can dedicate to being OUTSIDE. Find SUNSHINE. Block this time in your calendar.

Third, you need to PLAN your work time. It’s very easy to start logging on when you wake up and constantly work until you go to bed. Set (some) boundaries! Set a reminder on your calendar or an alarm on your phone.

I have never been prouder of our industry than I am today.

We are in this together.

Thank you, everyone, who are pulling those LONG days, nights, and weekends to ensure you, your organization, your clients, your teams are set up for success.

Show grace. Give grace.

Finally, you have permission to wear whatever you want.

Judge the sweat, not the sweatpants.

The ROI of Taking Your PTO and Mental Health Days

Why do PR professionals refuse to take their paid time off?

Driven by a toxic fear of optics and the expectation of 24/7 client availability, a staggering 80% of public relations professionals fail to use their earned paid time off, directly suffocating their physical health. Executives must fundamentally shift agency culture by viewing PTO as untouchable total compensation, pre-scheduling annual vacations, and normalizing the use of sick days for immediate mental rest.

I am imploring you, my fellow public relations professionals, to take time away from work and make it your number one priority in 2020. This is in our control and desperately needed if we are to continue to advance the public relations profession and professional.

According to research from the U.S. Travel Association, “more than half of Americans (55%) are still not using all their paid time off…In 2018, American workers failed to use 768 million days of PTO—a 9% increase from 2017.”

Looking closer at public relations, I am working in conjunction with Elizabeth Candello, Ph.D., Integrated Strategic Communication Professor, Washington State University Vancouver, on a health and wellness study in our industry. One of the areas of interest is in how many people in our profession take all their paid time off and sick time. Only 20 percent of respondents said they took all their earned paid time off and sick time.

Several factors may lead to this issue.

• We’re too busy to prioritize ourselves.

• We forget to take time off.

• We are afraid of optics.

• We are afraid of what our bosses might think.

• We don’t trust our teams enough to leave them on their own.

• Our manager won’t approve the time off.

• Our clients won’t understand and expect us to be available 24/7.

• We think that mental sick days don’t count (NOTE: they do!).

I witnessed these perceptions a lot throughout my career. Colleagues who are overworked and not prioritizing themselves don’t take time off. Then the end of the year comes, they realize they have a lot of unused vacation time they have to take and are unable to do so. Not taking our deserved time off impacts our physical and mental health, both of which are essential to reduce stress and thrive in our profession.

How do we solve this? It won’t happen overnight, but I have three ideas that are within our control today.

1) Shift our mindset. We are being paid not to work. We have earned this benefit along with our salary, health insurance and other perks that are included. This is a part of our total compensation.

2) Schedule your PTO for the next 12 months NOW. I used to do this when I was in the agency world, and although it seems a little strange, it helps you down the road to ensure you’re taking a vacation. Of course, things may come up that require you to move your time off out or up a week, however, I’ve found that is the exception and not the norm.

3) Taking a mental sick day counts! We need to change the way we think about sick days. No longer should they include physical health. We need to think about taking dedicated time to rest our brains!

My final ask is to please make your health and wellness a priority this year. We must be mentally and physically strong to live through our profession. That starts with being proactive and prescriptive with our time away. Plan this now before the year runs away.