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Even if is finally on the horizon for the wider world and, therefore, the higher education sector, we will likely continue to meld home and work for a good while yet. As such, we asked five experts for their top self-care tip for working during the pandemic. From learning something new (and not work-related) to seeking out sunshine, here are their responses:

¡°Try to stay connected to your colleagues, set up regular times to chat to people who can?support you and share your worries with them ? they are probably feeling the same concerns as you.?And if you can, separate your workspace from your personal space.¡±?
Kalwant Bhopal is director of the Centre for Research in Race?& Education at the University of Birmingham, UK.

¡°In Australia we have not long finished off the academic year, [during] much of which we worked from home, teaching fully online since March and back to partly online since September. My top tip for self-care is to prioritise sunshine and exercise. In March, I told my colleagues that for one hour during the day I would be on my bike and I¡¯ve held myself to that. It¡¯s helped me maintain fitness, manage my mental well-being (even in times of considerable stress) and helped me keep off the Covid kilos.¡±?
Cath Ellis is associate dean (education) in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at UNSW Sydney.

¡°Learn something that isn¡¯t work-related. Learning takes concentration and means you¡¯ll be less likely to be thinking about work. It will also give you some empathy with the learners studying at your university, which is no bad thing. Plus, you¡¯ll have a new skill at the end of it.¡±
Robert Macintosh is a professor of strategic management and head of the School of Social Sciences at?Heriot-Watt University?in Edinburgh.

¡°Setting up a daily routine that works best for you, and following it, is a great way to boost mental health and work productivity at the same time. I have developed something of a ritual. In my case, reading is more productive than writing in the morning. So, in the morning, I always read journal articles with a cup of espresso. In the afternoon, I transfer my thoughts to Word based on the documents I read in the morning. If you find a routine that suits you best and develop it into your own ritual, you will get both mental well-being and work productivity.¡±
Chang H. Kim is a research fellow at the Cairns Institute, Australia.?He serves as an executive director of the Korean Association of Human Resource Development in South Korea.

¡°Make sure you don't spend all day stuck in front of a screen without any sort of break. Take time for a proper lunch away from your desk and take a walk or some other gentle exercise. Stretching muscles, refreshing with caffeine (or other drink of your choice) and clearing the brain is vital to productivity.¡±
Dame Athene Donald is a professor of experimental physics at Churchill College, University of Cambridge.