When you exclusively work from home, you will feel there are no physical boundaries between your personal life and work.
No matter how organized you are, it is still difficult to successfully manage work-life balance, especially when you are living with your family.
You can either draw a line between personal and professional, or you can integrate different facets of your day to juggle all the work better.
The second option seems to be better as you can balance both personal and professional life from home.
Here are a few expert tips on how to manage the balance while working from home.
1. Get Dressed :
The most common mistake that people make is work in their pajamas. The reason behind it is that they feel comfortable.
This is exactly why you shouldn’t be doing it. When you go out, you are dressed according to your comfort. This feeling is important when you work.
You need to feel like you are working in an office to finish your work in time and with accuracy. We are not talking about wearing suits and heels, but formal outfits which you wear when you go outside is needed when working from home.
2. Maintain A Designated Workspace :
Much like a proper outfit, having a defined workspace in your house create an office atmosphere and increase productivity.
If you are working from your bedroom, you will feel relax and lazy which you do at night. However, that isn’t how an efficient office works.
You need a separate space with no distractions from your house. So, avoiding working in rooms with TVs and Radio as you are attracted to these things more than your work.
Moreover, don’t let any of your family members interrupt you on a regular basis.
3. Clear Communication Channel :
When you work in an office, you are able to physically explain things in meetings and private conversations to colleagues. This advantage vanishes when you begin working from home.
For this reason, you need to set up proper and clear communication channels. Many companies use slack and team viewer to communicate among employees.
Similarly, when you are at home, you need to set up clear rules as to how to communicate with you. Not everyone can just rush into your office space.
A phone call is a much better option as it plays out in the same way as working in an office.
4. Dedicate Time For Specific Tasks :
One of the problems that people face while working from home is that they aren’t able to give time to a specific task.
For example, if a person is working on a presentation, he/she gets regular distractions from other home-related tasks and vice versa.
To avoid this distraction, you can begin by dedicating time for specific tasks like laundry, feeding your children, etc. While you are doing your task, under no condition get distracted from anything else.
Once you start removing this interference, you would automatically be able to balance better.
5. Take Breaks :
When people begin to work from home, they forget to take breaks, and they end up staying in the houses for days. This can psychologically break them as breaks are important to fresh their mind.
You should take breaks from both personal and professional work in a day. It can be a coffee break or a walk down the lane for a few minutes.
While you do so, you can contact your friends, and this will take your mind away from work at hand.
6. Always Turn Off Your Business:
One of the issues that people face while working from home is that there are no business hours. They are being called upon at night and in the morning for a file or an update.
This mess-ups their personal hours and their whole schedule go away. For this reason, you need to define specific working hours and shut your professional work after a certain time.
So, you can begin working at 10 AM just you would do in an office, and before that, you can bath, dress up and finish any personal work.
Similarly, at the end of the day, keep a 10 mins period to wind your office work before you turn off.
So, here are a few things you can do to manage your work and life. These are important tips for people who are just starting to work from home.
If you are able to work with these habits from the beginning, you won’t face issues later on.