When you work in the same physical space that you eat and sleep, finding the right balance between work and everyday life can be challenging. All too often, the boundaries begin to blur, and we find ourselves torn between the two. When we think of work-life balance, we often think of both being in perfect harmony and equal hours spent on both sides. However, a view of this literal is unrealistic and bad for our mental health. It will only leave you feeling incredibly overwhelmed and unaccomplished. Work-life balance while working from home is more of a juggle or a blending of both aspects of our life. Work-life balance refers to how people prioritize their time and effort between professional and personal obligations. It will look different for each of us and could change daily. It will contrast drastically if you are single, married, or have kids at home all day. It varies so much between us because we lead such individual lives, and we all have our unique priorities.
We used to find it difficult to spend enough time with our families because we spent too much time on our work. Now, we have the same amount of time, and we need to divide it evenly so that both family and work should benefit from it. We used to bring stress home from work. Now we bring stress to work from our daily lives where we need to deal with our general anxiety and depression, the increased load of housework, and internal conflicts. We used to endure heavy workload periods anticipating a holiday when we can get away from it. Now we don’t know when we can get to escape, and it seems futile to bet on an escape that might not happen at the time we would need it. In the search for balance, we don’t only need to let go of the idea of having an 8-hour regular workday where we get everything done. Still, we also need to let go of a perfectly clean, structured, and organized home routine with a squeaky clean and tidy flat around us. The physical separation can mean to designate a separate space for working — i.e., not working from bed — or to signal your body that it’s working hours but getting dressed and making the bed. Mental separation is about having a different mindset for work and life. We used to unplug from work, and now we need to disconnect from the external work to ensure that we stay mentally stable. We need the time out, and we need to learn to reach for it. Previously it used to be about getting home from work, and now we need to find another way. Exercising, meditating, mindfulness, journaling can be the ways that can offer us the solution to escape — even if we can’t leave the house. When working from home, one of the best time management tips is to set specific work hours – and make sure your teammates and manager are also aware of them. Notify your colleagues, or mark in your hours using xTimesheet. xTimesheet has been a pioneer of this new economic order, with its built-in features like project expense & progress tracker & employee work/hour monitor. This way, you’re less likely to receive emails and meeting proposals during your non-work hours.
Transitioning to working from home and finding a work-life balance can take a bit of experimenting. Be patient with yourself as you learn to adjust to a new situation and take an active approach to find your work-life balance. A perfect work-life balance may not be attainable a hundred percent of the time, and the constant search for it can be exhausting, so allow yourself to embrace imperfection now and again.