Achieving Work-Life Balance in the New World

As more and more of us opt to continue to work from home as a

result of our prolonged periods of lockdown and isolation from 2020; we find ourselves facing new challenges as we work to achieve the elusive work-life balance.

While we have become aware of the advantages of working from home, with less travel time and more time being closer to our family and loved pets; there are some downsides to this new working arrangement.

One of the biggest challenges we now face is our inability to ‘leave’ work, and as a result we often find we are now spending more time working; and while this does increase our productivity, it takes away from our much needed downtime. This can lead to mental fatigue and and increase in our work-related stress.

Check out some of our strategies below to help you strike an important balance between working from home and ensuring you have quality time for life.

1. Set a routine - by setting specific work hours and sticking to them you work to create important boundaries between work time and family time. This includes not checking or sending emails outside of these hours. You might even want to set an automatic reply on your emails which clearly states the hours in which you will be checking and responding to emails.

2. Dress for success - one of the perceived perks of working from home is the idea that we can sit in our sweatpants and hoodies while we plug away at our tasks. However, studies have shown that when we wear work appropriate clothes we shift our mental and emotional state from one of relaxation to being more professional and ready for action.

3. Create space - do you have your computer set up on the kitchen table, or are you curled up on the couch, streaming your favourite T.V shows in the background? While free space can be a precious commodity in a lot of households, having somewhere that is away from the central hub of your home and is quiet and without distractions is essential. Not only are you then free to focus on your work, but it also allows you to walk away and not be constantly reminded that you have more work to do every time you see your computer on the kitchen table. However, if this isn’t possible, then I encourage you to find a way to hide your laptop once your work day has finished. This may be as simple as throwing a blanket over it, so that it really does become ‘out of sight, out of mind’.

4. Take regular breaks - while at the office you are entitled to a tea break and a lunch break; you would also get up from your desk to walk across the office to chat with colleagues at intervals throughout your day. When working from home we are less likely to do this, and unless you are like me and have a bossy little dog who likes to remind me when I have spent too long at my desk; it is important to stop and have a genuine break throughout the day. Don’t make lunch and then sit back down to eat it while you continue to work; take it outside and get some fresh air while you eat. You’ll quickly realise that this will provide much needed relief and you will come back to work feeling refreshed and refocused.

5. Use your travel time wisely - since working from home saves us a significant amount of time in travel; we often now find ourselves starting work earlier and working later. However, do not discount the importance that your travel time played for you in mentally shifting from ‘home’ to ‘work’ and back again. As you are now saving yourself anything upward of several hours a day in travel (traffic is usually pretty light from the kitchen to the study in my household), use at least some of this valuable time to continue to create that buffer between home mode and work mode. Even if this means taking a 10 to 15 minute walk around the block prior to starting your work day and again once you have finished. This not only provides an opportunity to get your steps up and grab some daily exercise, but it allows you the mental space to process either what’s waiting for you at work, or what you have dealt with during your day.

Play around with any of these strategies and make them work for you, not only will you find that you are effective and productive at work, but your family (and pets) will thank you for it as well.