Spending large portions of the day—or longer when it comes to work travel—is stressful enough for today’s often overburdened workers. While most people don’t feel they have time to worry about what is going on at home during the work day, it is nearly impossible not to. If you have children, pets, or expensive items or family heirlooms in your home, you are going to worry. It is human nature.
There are ways that you can reduce the stress you feel when you are away from home from dawn to dusk, or for days on end.
Here are four ways to minimize stress when away from home:
1. Keep Up Regular Home Maintenance
If you travel for long stretches of time, you stand the chance of leaving your home looking as if it is vacant or simply uncared for. An unkempt yard can attract the attention of some bad characters, so make sure to perform regular upkeep, or hire someone you trust to do so. Consider hiring a local landscaping company to tend to grass and weeds and a pool maintenance team to clean your pool and balance the chemicals. Regular visits from these home care professionals also helps to maintain the appearance of a busy atmosphere, making it a riskier proposition to try to burglarize your home or cause other problems.
2. Invest In Identity Theft Protection
Investing in a high-quality identity theft protection, such as Lifelock, can help you protect your financial assets and reputation in case someone does ever break into your home and steal your belongings. With a full menu of services packed into detailed plans, you can put a damper on criminal activity as soon as you realize your information has been stolen.
3. Install a Manual Lock on Your Garage Door
If you have a high-tech, remote-operated garage door, disconnect it when you are traveling. Hacking is standard behavior for cybercriminals these days, and that behavior could easily apply to local neighborhood thieves who understand that garage openers can sometimes be opened by universal remotes. Go ahead and disengage your garage door opener and go with a manual lock.
4. Don’t Advertise Your Comings and Goings on Social Media
It is easy to develop a certain degree of comfort when talking to friends, family and co-workers on social media, discussing upcoming work trips and how long you will be away. Keep in mind that your friends or followers also have friends and followers. You simply can’t know how many degrees of separation there are between you and a local criminal waiting to rob your house while you are away. Minimize the personal details that you provide on the open timeline, such as your home’s location and your schedule, whether your daily schedule or your travel itinerary. Discuss those matters only in private messages or off-platform.
By tightening up entryways to your home, making sure your property looks happily lived in, minimizing personal details you provide to strangers, and reducing potential risk with identity theft protection, you can lessen stress daily without much effort.