You may be working at home and wondering, “How do I separate my work life from my home life?” You are not alone.
At first, you can have the best feeling of working from home, because you can plan your days in the best way that suits you. You may be more productive working from home, but find that separating personal life from work life is the hardest thing now. You have both the daily chores and work on your plate, which can make you feel less comfortable. Many have found it hard to separate work life and home life, but the below tips can help you figure it out.
Prioritize Your Calendar
A good schedule of your activities will help you still have a work-life and enjoy your home as usual. You need to list down, either in your diary or notepad, the regular activities that take place on your day, be it the personal activities like watching your favorite TV program that you never miss or work obligations like attending a departmental meeting via video call.
Depending on what times you love working, be it morning or at night, prioritizing your calendar will be of great importance. Some like working in the morning hours, and therefore, they prepare the day early. Wake up as early as 5 am, and begin your work with 2 to 3 breaks, and by the afternoon, you’re done with your work activities, and now you can rest and enjoy your family time.
You should note that working all day without a proper schedule, and with the unlimited home interruptions, will result in you mixing the two forms of life into one. Planning for when to attend to work-life and when to attend to personal home life either is essential.
Set Reminders to Stop Work at Specific Times
In offices at your workplace, depending on the company, there are short breaks to either take tea, coffee, or lunch. Your workload can determine whether you will have a longer or shorter break. In your house, too, you have the same guidelines to help you. Have set reminders to notify you when to change from one task to another. When you work following a set time plan, it enables you to understand when it is time for work and time for your personal life.
If you convert that extra room or corner in your house to be an office and leave it for working only and visit it only during working hours, then you will have instilled work from home discipline and created a healthy job routine, which is essential. Step into your home office at a specific time, let’s say 6 am and leave your home office at 3 pm. Keep this a daily routine.
Keep Your Laptop/Work Phone at Your Home Office Setup
In a case where you have a separate phone or laptop for work, you should always ensure there are left at the home office. It becomes unhealthy when you are relaxed on your couch, trying to work on an unfinished task. What is meant for work should remain at the office space while you join your family in the living room and enjoy your personal life. Do not mix your working time with home time. When this kind of setup is followed well, you will have enough time for both family and work. You will end up enjoying working from home.
Consider Removing Work Access from Your Personal Phone
This is the best and hardest thing to every individual as long as you’re employed. When you remove work access from your phone, you mean that if office hours end at 3 pm, then that’s it. Nobody else can reach you after those working hours until the following day. If you succeed in removing the work access from your phone, then you will have drawn a line that completely separates work life and home life. However, some bosses are against this, because they would like you to answer calls and offer assistance whenever possible or reply to an urgent email.
Conclusion
In conclusion, working from home increases self-discipline, which is beneficial not only in work but also in personal life. Also, time is saved from commuting, which can be translated into meaningful ideas. You also have enough time to rest. If you consider the above tips, then you will always prefer working from home.
Ben Tejes is a writer for Thermal Bankruptcy News and Living New Economy with the goal to help lead people to achieve debt and financial freedom. He covers topics such as Chapter 13 and Child Support Arrears, Chapter 13 Payment Too High, and Is Chapter 13 Worth It. When not working, Ben enjoys going on adventures with his wife and three young daughters.
