No matter if you come from a background in remote work or if this is your first fully remote experience, learning how to establish boundaries between your work and home life can be a struggle. When you live in the office, stepping away at the end of the day is often easier said than done. To make the process easier, we’ve gathered some best practice tips to establish a better work-life balance.
Create a Designated Workspace
We briefly touched upon this in our article about making work from home more productive, but the value of setting aside a designated space in your home just for work cannot be understated. Having the freedom to work from any area of your home may sound nice in theory, but after a while, you’ll find these same areas start to feel less relaxing even in your free time. By setting aside a room or space in your home solely for working, you’ll find it easier to leave the stress of the workday there when you finish.
Start the Day With Something Just For You
When you wake up, before doing any work, take time to do something just for yourself. Make breakfast, do yoga, take your dog for a walk – anything not related to work. It may seem inconsequential on the surface, but having this sort of morning ritual helps to establish mental start and stop points. By having something to regularly act as a buffer between waking up and working, you’ll find it easier to create solid boundaries between your personal and business life.
Set a Schedule and Stick to It
One of the greatest benefits of working remotely also happens to be one of the biggest hindrances to a healthy work-life balance. The high degree of flexibility that allows employees to set their own schedules can also make it difficult to know when to walk away for the day. Without a clear end time, remote workers often find themselves working longer hours and questioning their own efficiency.
The best thing you can do for yourself is to create a schedule in advance and truly stick to it. You can still choose to work “unconventional” hours if that suits your lifestyle best, but by giving your day structure, you’ll be able to accomplish more within that time and prevent the lines between work and home life from blurring.
Plan Breaks Throughout the Day
To follow up on the previous tip, part of creating a daily schedule means going beyond simply planning when you’ll begin and end your workday. Aside from calls and meetings, you should also plan several breaks throughout the day and be diligent about taking them. Research has shown that the average person can work for up to 90 minutes before they start to lose focus. Despite your best efforts to simply power through, motivation and efficiency drops significantly after this point.
We highly recommend adding breaks to your schedule as you would any other work-related activity. To help keep track of the time, try utilizing the Pomodoro Technique – Set an alarm on your phone or computer for one hour. During this time, commit to doing nothing but work. When the alarm goes off, step away from your computer and do something you enjoy for 15 minutes.
Prioritize Your Work-Life Balance
No matter how hectic your schedule may be, establishing a proper work-life balance is essential for your health and long-term professional longevity. Looking for a job that better suits your lifestyle? Get in touch with us today to learn about the opportunities we have available.