Maintaining the boundaries between work and life

 

With the ever-changing landscape, the challenges we face day to day are also changeable. Whether that be in terms of keeping on top of changing policies, government guidance or managing and keeping a team engaged remotely.

It can sometimes feel overwhelming being faced with the workload, while being within our home environment. Those household chores mounting up, distractions we are faced with which we wouldn’t be in the workplace, and balancing our home and work life relationships are all things we are juggling.

Through the work I do, something that is coming up time and time again is maintaining those boundaries between our home life and our work life. Gone are the days of the commute, which allowed us to wind down, distance ourselves, and gather our thoughts before we stepped back into the home. And with 58% of companies planning to combine remote and office working in the future (A recent study by Hubstaff); if people are able to better maintain working and home life boundaries, it ensures more effective and flexible working in the future.

 

Here are some top tips to keep us healthy, productive and calmer while working, living and relaxing in the same environment.

  • Signify the end of your working day. And do this practice daily for it to become a habit, part of your daily routine. It needs to be something that calms the mind, ready for you to be able to relax. Something as simple as physically closing the laptop or putting it in a drawer; close the door of the room that you are working from; take a short walk; do some exercise; or a short meditation.

 

  • Split your working day into chunks. Take a short 5 minute break between chunks. By keeping focussed on one task for a period of time helps you to maintain momentum on that task and stay productive. The 5 minute breaks enable us to more effectively switch between tasks and this time can also be used for any small household chores which is one of the issues people have when working at home, finding themselves unable to concentrate fully or they procrastinate of household chores need to be completed.

 

  • Go for a walk half-way through your working day. This will reduce stress and lower anxiety levels. Not only are you keeping active which will help lower cortisol levels (the stress hormone) it also has the positive effect of increasing endorphin levels as well! This can help us stay focussed and productive for the rest of the afternoon.

 

  • Communicate your working pattern, not just to your team at work but also to the people that you live with. Simple communication can really make a difference in improving those relationships. Making for better quality time with those with whom we live as it may not always be apparent when we are and are not engaged in work.

 

  • It may be that you are flexing your working day whereby you do pick up work in the evenings. Particularly if you’re involved in activities such as home schooling during the day. Or even doing the school run. To help counteract the anxiety others may feel from receiving emails late into the evening, be overt when communicating with others and explain that you are working flexibly and that you don’t expect a response until, they are next in work. This can have a real positive effect when leading teams and improving those work relationships.

 

We have a new module launching in April which specifically focusses on helping people to stay productive and maintain those boundaries while working remotely. If you would like to hear more about this please let us know! Jennifer.rawlinson@flourishinmind.co.uk


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