It’s true that while many of us have had the time and space to establish our home-working routines (influenced by the strange outcomes of 2020). It’s also true that many of us have found it difficult to perfectly balance our work and life obligations. Often, the two can blend into one another, particularly if we continually receive emails or work messages outside of work hours, or we are contributing to a larger project rather than contributing to daily deadlines.
So, how can you find a work/life balance when working from home? Is it possible to do? It depends, of course, what management efforts have been laid forth in trying to help you become more aware of your daily working responsibilities. Your employer may or may not place an emphasis on the importance of achieving a work/life balance. Regardless, it’s fine to feel that we need to improve our schedule. In fact, it shows a real readiness to adapt in the healthiest manner possible. Without further ado, let’s get started:
Use Different Devices
If you can, using different devices (or more realistically, different user profiles on those devices) to differentiate between work and home life can be useful. For instance, your main desktop computer or laptop can be more easily managed when you use both a work and home profile, this way you need not worry about both of those organizational setups intermingling, and when you spend time on this device for recreational purposes, you can do so without worrying about work.
Separate Your Space
Just as having space between your organizational setups is important, it’s also quite essential for you to separate your working and living spaces. Of course, not everyone can afford to steward a large home office, but that’s okay, you don’t need to. A small desk placed in the corner, or a stand for your device, or perhaps a separate room you can enter to take work calls can help you keep your space divided.
Many people enjoy little additional elements they can make use of too, such as wearing more formal clothes for their work duties despite working from home, or walking outside for ten minutes each morning to simulate a commute. This way, you can more readily train yourself to view work and home life as different, despite them both occupying similar areas.
Make Sure Your Home Is Functional
It’s important to make sure your home is functional, to the degree that you can allow for this. You may find, for instance, that caring for maintenance tasks ahead of time can prevent you from feeling dismayed or irritated, or worse, hindered, when and from trying to achieve your best work at this time. This might mean having your boiler or AC serviced at the start of a new season, or simply saving the number for a 24 hour AC repair firm. It’s better to be prepared than have to react to a crisis during your work hours.
With this advice, we hope you can more readily find a work/life balance when working from home.
