Since the pandemic hit, many companies have been encouraged to continue allowing staff to work from home (if their employees’ job scopes will enable them to). That may sound enjoyable at first — the thought of waking up 5 minutes before meetings, having your meals in front of you while you work, being able to work in more comfortable clothing, etc.
However, that’s not always the case. Many people report that they struggle to distinguish between work and personal time, often having to reply to work emails and texts at unsociable hours and experiencing burnout just a few weeks into working from home.
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Work-life balance might even seem impossible, especially when you are “at home and can’t go anywhere” and end up having superiors and colleagues who start to expect you to reply to work-related messages almost immediately, 24/7. Needless to say, that causes a lot of unnecessary stress. Unfortunately, when someone starts working overtime from home, others often feel compelled to do the same.
At this point, you must be thinking, “so, how exactly do I achieve work-life balance while working from home?” The good news is many corporations do recognise the importance of work-life balance and encourage their employees to take adequate breaks when needed. We also have some ways to achieve a work-life balance while you work from home on an individual level.
Be it a room or just a separate desk, it’s good to have your workspace separated from your everyday life. We mean that the area you designate as your workspace will solely be for work-related activities and nothing else. Doing so helps you focus on the matter at hand, depending on which space you are in. For example, when you enter your workspace, you will focus only on work. Likewise, when you enter your rest space, e.g. your bed or your living room, you concentrate only on rest.
There are many reasons why this is important, the most obvious one being your mental wellbeing. When work constantly stresses you out, you risk experiencing burnout quickly. The problem with working on every surface in your house is that every corner of your house will remind you of work, and you don’t want that. On the other hand, separation helps you rest completely in your rest space, without anything to remind you of your work.
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Another reason is that separation helps you to be more productive and motivated for work. It is a simulation of your regular life before the pandemic, where you must make your way to your “office” and leave when it’s time to leave. This simulation allows you to mentally prepare for the transition from rest to work and vice versa, which increases your natural motivation. In an actual office setting (if you remember what those were like), make sure you take your breaks away from your work desk! Get up! Walk away!
Without physical indicators to remind us that it’s lunchtime, it is easy for us to keep working nonstop without breaks. Working from home also allows us to eat while working, which is an unhealthy practice that could even cause indigestion and gastric pains. Research has shown that taking breaks can be very beneficial for both health and productivity. We need different breaks to help us cope with other areas of stress.
Dr Saundra Dalton-Smith, a board-certified physician, researcher, university lecturer and author of the book “Sacred Rest”, suggests that everyone needs to follow 7 types of rest to refresh and motivate themselves for the day. You can integrate these rest types into your breaks to de-stress.
The 7 types of rests:
So when is the best time to take a break? Ideally, you will take a break during lunchtime, leaving your seat to have lunch elsewhere. Try not to have lunch in your workspace. Lunch breaks are usually 1 hour, so try to use that 1 hour to focus on eating and resting. You can also set a timer to remind you when it’s time for a break. For example, you can select your timer to ring every 45 minutes to remind you to take a break for 15 minutes. Resting could mean getting up for a stretch, drinking, looking outside the window, or simply taking a nap.
This might sound simple, but it’s not. Often we forget to do even the simplest thing like drinking water while working. Not drinking enough water often leads to severe dehydration, even if you are sitting down the entire time. Your body still needs liquids to function.
Similarly, exercising or any form of physical activity helps strengthen the body physically and mentally. Activities such as jogging, cycling, or playing any type of sport outdoors help you de-stress and stay healthy. If being outdoors is not your thing, you can also hit the gym or still exercise at home by doing stretches and following fitness channels on YouTube.
You read it right. Working overtime does not equal higher productivity. We generally associate long working hours with more work done, which, to be fair, is not wrong, but it’s not right either. Studies have shown that working overtime is one of the leading causes of burnout. Contrary to popular beliefs, the longer you work, the less productive you get. It’s also extremely unhealthy, both physically and mentally.
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More often than not, we work overtime because we can’t complete our existing tasks at hand. However, think of it this way: by disciplining yourself to end on time, you motivate yourself to achieve as much as possible, leaving no room for procrastination. This technique is called timeboxing, and it's good enough for Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk!
Essentially, it’s boxing periods to work on distinct tasks each day. There are times when you’re engrossed in a task, and the idea of leaving it incomplete might be disheartening because you won’t still be able to strike it off your to-do list, despite the time allocation. That’s exactly what you shouldn’t do. Try to build schedules, not to-do lists. A key component of timeboxing is time; one should leave the current task, though incomplete, for the next one when your schedule calls for it. You can still schedule deadlines for your tasks as needed, but your "achievement" with timeboxing (as opposed to everyone's dishearteningly endless list of unchecked boxes on a to-do list) involves staying fully focused on the task at hand for the period you allocated to it and no less (and no more)!
Here are some timeboxing tips to get you started on your time management journey:
There are, of course, many other methods out there for managing your time and your tasks. Still, we like Timeboxing as it helps you prioritise your tasks, schedule enough time to complete urgent tasks and carefully contemplate and assess what you have got on your plate. You can also motivate yourself to end on time by rewarding yourself afterwards. Just like how you look forward to going home after working in the office, you can do the same when working from home. Make some time to catch up on that Netflix drama or chat with a friend.
Believe it or not, leaving on time helps to improve the quality of your work as well. It means you get enough time to rest, recharge and enjoy activities that make you happy. You will be more motivated and less stressed the next day for work. As a result, your productivity improves, alongside your quality of work. That’s hitting two birds with one stone!
Achieving a work-life balance means working efficiently without compromising your health and your wellbeing. Think of it as a long-term investment, where the reward is a healthier and happier you.
WORK-LIFE BALANCE. COMPLETED. ✅
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