4 tips to ease yourself back into work or study mode in the new year

After a full year of distress and confusion in our dealings with Covid-19, year-end celebrations were a welcome breath of fresh air.

Yet as the New Year celebrations and festivities come to a close, many of us are left with a murky anticipation of what is to come in this year.

Nevertheless, a negative mindset will do nothing in improving our outlook. Instead of bemoaning the end of the holiday season, why not take this opportunity to hit the reset button on life and take full control of your day-to-day activities.

For that, here are three tips to help you stop tippling and sober up after the holidays, so that you may march onward into the new year with poise and purpose.

Spruce up your work and leisure spaces

No one enjoys plying their craft in a dusty, cluttered space. If you're spending the majority of your day in a room, it should be a conducive environment.

Nothing beats a good, clean and aesthetically-pleasing workspace. Spruce it up with colour — line your workspace with objects of interest to you, whether something relating to your hobby or simple decorations.

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A few potted plants or cacti can make a huge difference by adding a spot of greenery to a dull backdrop. Alternatively, consider putting up some posters or frames to gaze at while awaiting your next Zoom call.

BenQ's GW2485TC or GW2785TC monitor would also make a fine addition to your space. These monitors are an elegant jet black and sport a crisp, clean look that easily complements any desk.

Apart from the indirect increase in productivity from a conducive environment, these BenQ monitors also have hardware that can directly enhance your efficiency. The all-in-one aspect of their built-in noise cancelling microphones and two 2W speakers with vocal mode ensures smooth online meetings where clarity is key. 

Not only do the GW2485TC and GW2785TC have USB-C support, but they also allow you to daisy chain monitors together (provided your other monitors also support Multi-Stream Transport).

With all these built-in features all within one monitor, you can finally welcome 2022 with an uncluttered desk.

Introduce healthy habits gradually

No, I don't mean writing down "more exercise" in your New Year's resolutions list. Certainly, exercise is a good way to keep healthy, but we all know how well New Year's resolutions go.

Sometimes changing too many things at once can be overwhelming. Instead of jumping right into completely altering your lifestyle, take things slow and introduce new habits at a steady pace.

One easy, impactful habit to pick up is caring for your eyes. With WFH likely to remain an integral part of work culture in 2022 and more time is spent in front of a computer screen, eye care is more of an issue than ever.

You've probably heard of this basic tip many times over: rest your eyes at intervals to take pressure off them. However, BenQ has released a brand new software for GW2485TC and GW2785TC monitors — Eye-CareU, which presents a new way to help with just that, allowing you to pre-emptively set time reminders and forced breaks. 

You also won't have to worry about overexposure to blue light — Eye-CareU can assist with picking up healthy eye care habits by informing users of current blue light levels and letting users adjust their consumption accordingly.

Apart from these options, the monitors are also capable of detecting ambient light to automatically adjust screen brightness. They're also flicker-free and come with new Care, E-paper and Coding modes, as well as the Low Blue Light Plus mode that filters out blue light while maintaining vivid colours on screen.

For those who do a lot of reading, you'll also be pleased to know that both monitors are ergonomically designed, and can tilt 90 degrees to display in portrait mode for a more comfortable experience.

Although these products will likely be a great help, healthy habits must begin with initiative and discipline from yourself. After all, consistency is key.

Rid any distractions — focus on one thing at a time 

Many may find that WFH offers too many distractions, from the bed that you've reluctantly crawled out of to the Netflix subscription you've got for the rest of the month. While each few minutes spent exploring the furthest reaches of your fridge may seem trivial, they quickly pile up and become a large time sink after a day of accumulation.

To really get your productivity going, it would be best to focus on one thing at a time — to do that, it may help if you shine a light on what you need to do first.

What better way to focus than with a desk lamp to give you a good spotlight on your work. For this, BenQ has WiT, a LED Smart Desk Lamp that comes with a unique curved design to generate a 150 per cent wider lighting coverage than other traditional desk lamps.

In addition, WiT features auto-dimming by a built-in smart light sensor to automatically detect the ambient brightness as well as zero flicker LEDs, producing steady light output that is healthier on the eyes.

Furthermore, the fatigue of focusing for many hours, staring a hole in your computer monitor can be alleviated with BenQ's monitor light ScreenBar. It provides direct lighting to your monitor screen for more precise adjustments and greater eye comfort, as well as automated tuning via the ambient light sensor on the monitor. 

The ScreenBar Plus also comes with a desktop dial for you to manually adjust your ScreenBar light settings, further optimising your work environment.

Stick to a schedule

Many might feel as though they've had the least dominion over their lives and decisions around them during the past two years and expect the same for 2022. However, there is constant in the chaos of it all, should you seek it. 

If you find yourself overwhelmed or losing focus when it comes to your daily tasks, try using Eye-CareU's software timer. By limiting usage to 15 minutes per five-minute interval of rest, you can get yourself into the groove of the Pomodoro technique. After four work-rest intervals, take a good, long break of about 15 to 30 minutes to rejuvenate yourself and re-energise to power through another set of tasks.

As a final note, maintaining productivity amid the pandemic is certainly tough and may be a vexing process for many. Although it may be difficult to put festivities aside and return to a life of study or work, keep these tips in mind and take things slow — you may just find greater success this year in all that you wish to do.

This article is brought to you in partnership with BenQ.