Four Tips for Work-Life Balance While Working From Home

Ever been at work and your personal life keeps interfering or go home after the day’s done and work goes with you? While most of us try our best to maintain a work-life balance it’s not always easy. Well, it’s even harder now with the COVID-19 direction to work from home and to top it off, there are no school-leaving kids home too. What to do?

At this point is a work-life balance even possible? For parents, it could be even more challenging because now they wear multiple hats – performing their work duties, teaching their kids, and keeping food on the table. How do you create a clear separation?

Here are four tips to help you find a work-life balance at home:

1. Create your own office space – Pick a room (or space) inside your home, maybe even convert an old shed, to create your own office space. When you’re in this space, your work is your focus. Leave the TV-watching and personal phone calling in the living room. If you’re having trouble concentrating (maybe the kiddos are playing or your roommate is blasting loud music) buy a pair of noise-canceling headphones! They can help you concentrate and bring the focus back to your job. Overall, make it a rule that when you are in the office and the headphones are on, it means you are working. Once you take the headphones off and you step out of the office, it means work is done. You can relax or go about your other chores, just as you normally would when you previously got home from work.

2. Buy a planner – What better way to balance your work & real life than by adequately scheduling necessary tasks (and wants) on a planner? The time and days can begin to blur when you have to work from home and are constantly juggling different activities. A simple planner will help you set boundaries to establish your work-life balance. Once you set a particular hour to work on a project for your job, you should stick to it. Don’t go over or under. Once it’s time to close shop, you now have space to focus on the other things you wrote down for the day.

3. Set the alarm to remind you to stretch or take a walk outside – Everyone needs a break throughout the day. People can easily get absorbed doing work and can forget to use their muscles. Try doing some simple stretches or go on a 15-30-minute walk. If you don’t want to leave your home, then take those steps around the house. Even when you are going back and forth between preparing lunch, and helping the kids with their homework, you are getting some hidden exercise. Your kids or partner may also need a break. Go outside for a short walk with them or go out in your backyard to get some much-needed Vitamin D & sunshine.

4. Remember to reward yourself – We all have different things we enjoy and can use to reward ourselves for accomplishing the goals that we set throughout the week. If it’s binge-watching one of your favorite shows, then go for it! If it’s indulging in some ice cream, or giving yourself an extra hour to read a new book also completely okay. YOU DESERVE IT!