Take Care of You: Guilt-Free Self-Care

Concurrent Session 1

Session Materials

Brief Abstract

Whether you are considering full-time remote work or you are a remote instructor, instructional designer, administrator, or corporate professional development personnel, understanding the need for self-care in a home-based work environment is important. This conversation focuses on strategies for maintaining physical and emotional well-being when being a full-time remote worker.

Presenters

Lead Presenter: Tammi Kolski, AECT

Dr. Tammi Kolski is an adjunct faculty member at the University of South Carolina where she also serves as the dissertation chair and committee member of doctoral students in the Learning Design & Technologies Department. She is also an adjunct instructor at Coastal Carolina University, Southern New Hampshire University and Central Michigan University. Before entering the higher education field, Dr. Tammi Kolski was a clinical psychologist for more than 25 years. She has been teaching in the online environment since 2011 and places student engagement at the top of her course designs and pedagogy. Dr. Tammi Kolski has published multiple articles in education journals as well as co-authoring two books.

Extended Abstract

Transitioning from a workplace office setting to a full time remote, home-based, working environment sounds easy. However, it then becomes more tempting to attend to domestic responsibilities, to have less defined working hours, or to have blurred work-life boundaries when your full-time workplace setting is within your home. Research is lagging on the utilization of effective self-care strategies - specifically for instructors, course designers, or other education/professional development occupations - when the person’s work environment is solely remote or home-based. Dr. Kolski worked as a clinical psychologist for 26 years before becoming a full-time remote instructor in 2012. As a psychologist she specialized in stress management practices and she now brings forward effective self-care strategies into the education discipline. Through this conversational platform, Dr. Kolski hopes to define and identify the need for research on how to best take care of ourselves physically and emotionally when working remotely. Specifically when the research population are higher education faculty, course designers, or corporate professional development personnel who are working remotely full time (or considering entering into a full time home-based career). Dr. Kolski will share her own experiences having worked over a decade solely out of her home. She will share tips and strategies she has offered to others who have transitioned to full time remote work. Predominantly, she will share as well as learn from the sharing of those in attendance at this session about effective self-care strategies when one’s work environment is no longer in a traditional office setting.

Conversation topic: Identifying effective self-care strategies for the full-time remote (home-based) worker

Key points and engaging questions for discussion:

1.    What challenges do you find in working full-time remotely, from home?

2.    What benefits do you find in working full-time remotely, from home?

3.    What self-care strategies do you use for maintaining physical and emotional well-being when being a full-time remote, home-based, worker?

Handouts as well as digital resources will be provided on effective physical, behavioral, and emotional self-care strategies.