What is work life balance? Should it be life work balance? And why do we need to bother about it. With a lot of us working from home for over a year now has our balance between home life and work life changed? I did hear someone mention that we aren’t working from home since we moved our offices in to our living rooms, bedrooms or kitchens (or thankfully shed in my case 😉) and that we are in actual fact now ‘living at work’!
My top tips picked up along the way over the last 10 years or so of having at least some days of working from home a week are as follows:
- Make sure to still have a morning routine – there’s nothing wrong with working in your PJ bottoms and fluffy socks but you do need to look like you are at work from the chest up (unless you don’t use a camera) – although it does helps the mindset to get fully dressed!
- At the end of your working day, log off! If you are in a room that you will then spend the evening in, put the laptop and any other equipment you use away (if a different room, close the door!)
- It can sometimes help to still have a commute – so leave the house and walk round the block to ‘go to work’. At the end of the day walk back home by going the other way round the block!
- Make sure to take breaks away from the desk – even if it’s only a short lunch break or to make a coffee.
- Don’t feel guilty/embarrassed if the kids/pets/partners can be heard in the background – it’s their home too! Yes in an ideal world you would be in a quiet space – but even in an office you can end up near a loud person on the phone!
- Holidays and weekends are important!! Just because you can’t go anywhere doesn’t mean you should be working every waking hour!! Sitting on the sofa with a book or a movie is sometimes just what you need – or pick up a new hobby!
I asked the world of Linked In for their top tips – here’s a small selection:
- zone off areas of the house for work, relaxing, or health. Only these activities happen in these zones – S Aitken
- don’t forget meal times, get some fresh air… – A Rajendra
- I always suggest installing something like Flux on your laptops and desktop: it “warms” the colour temperature of your display as the sun sets, so the blue light doesn’t keep you awake longer than you should be up – J Moore
I am sure there are plenty more great tips from the joys and pains of the last year!
My last corporate world boss used to joke I was her poster child for having a good work life balance! So, I guess it makes me a bit of an expert! 😉 Do you have any tips or tricks to working from home?
Above all else – look after yourself! Your physical and mental well being are just as important now as they have ever been – and if you don’t look after those aspects, who will? Down time is SO important! I’d strongly suggest you look at your own work/life balance and be objective – have you got the balance right? If not – what is the first thing you are going to change?
Angela Daye 