You wake up and get ready to head into the office. Only these days, your office is no longer 20 miles away. It's now just 20 feet away.
On the one hand, working from home offers a number of benefits. You've saved time, gas, and dining-out money by transitioning to a home office. But on the flip side, you can't seem to achieve a balance between your work and your home life.
When your home suddenly becomes your office, it can understandably be hard to separate the two. Fortunately, here are seven secrets to achieving work life balance.
Let's dig in!
Table of Contents
1. Don't Log on Right Away in the Morning
3. Save Your Workspace for Work Alone
4. Make Your Health a Priority
5. Set Aside Time for Your Family, Your Friends, and Yourself
6. Be Strategic in How You Use Social Media
7. Remember That Achieving the Perfect Balance Between Work and Your Personal Life Isn't Possible
1. Don't Log on Right Away in the Morning
You may be tempted to go straight to your computer as soon as you get up in the morning. But don't.
Instead, try to create a routine that you're okay with going through every morning. This may include grabbing some coffee or even working out before signing in.
Just 15 to 20 minutes can give you the time you need to become acclimated to working before you start handling tasks.
2. Give Yourself a Break
When you work from home, you may be tempted to work all day. And every day.
Again, don't.
Working for between eight and 10 consecutive hours isn't healthy for a number of reasons. For starters, too much screen time can put a strain on various parts of your body, including your eyes and your neck. In addition, it deprives you of opportunities to connect with other people.
So, give your body a break from the computer from time to time. And take time to socialize with others during the day, like a family member or friends at your neighborhood coffee shop. This is all good for both your physical and your mental health.
3. Save Your Workspace for Work Alone
Be sure to set aside a certain area of your house for your work. In other words, don't just use your kitchen table to complete your tasks.
Why? Because it will help you to stay focused on your job, rather than being distracted by television or other activities in your home. And the more focused you are, the sooner you'll be able to break away from work and enjoy personal time for the remainder of the day.
4. Make Your Health a Priority
You may feel that since you are working from home, you should be able to power through sickness. However, if you're feeling ill, don't think twice about calling in sick.
If you overwork yourself when you're not feeling well, you'll only keep your position from improving. And as a result, you may end up having to take off more days down the road.
5. Set Aside Time for Your Family, Your Friends, and Yourself
Although your job may certainly be important, it should not become your whole life.
In light of this, be sure to carve out time to spend with your family and friends, rather than constantly being "on the clock." And create some "me time" as well.
If you don't plan out personal time, you'll never make time to do activities you enjoy outside of work. Also, plan a romantic date night once a week with your significant other. And plan a family date day as well.
The more you set aside time for the people you love, including yourself, the happier and more fulfilled you'll feel long term.
6. Be Strategic in How You Use Social Media
Another way to keep your work and personal lives separate is to keep your online work life and online personal life separate as well.
For instance, use LinkedIn and Twitter to build the professional network you need. Then, use Facebook to share news and photos with close friends and family.
Of course, be sure to communicate your preferences to your various contacts so that they understand how you would like to keep in touch with them going forward.
7. Remember That Achieving the Perfect Balance Between Work and Your Personal Life Isn't Possible
No matter how intentional you are about achieving work life balance, it is critical that you realize that you cannot perfectly balance your work and your personal life. No one can.
The reality is, some workdays will be more productive than others are. And on some days, you may end up working a little longer than you had intended.
Also, even though you may want to leave work early to hang out with family and friends, a suddenly crazy workday may prevent this from happening.
All in all, it is paramount that you stay flexible when working from your home. Also, keep in mind that you'll get better at achieving work life balance over time.
Set goals for working from a home office, but be willing to adjust those goals as needed. If you have the right attitude, you can make working from home work for you long term.
How We Can Help with Achieving Work Life Balance
In addition to providing advice for achieving work life balance, we make it easier for you to work from home by offering a second business phone line with privacy.
The reality is, it's difficult to handle business calls on your personal mobile phone without compromising your personal privacy. However, you can forward your office calls to the second phone line you receive from us.
This line can handle calling, voicemail, and even texting at a competitive price.
Get in touch with us to learn more about how we can help you to keep your personal life and business separate while working from home.
