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.