Maintaining a healthy work life balance when working remote

Working from home is great!  There’s no commute, you can sleep in, and take better care of yourself.  However, if you’re not careful, you might start to feel as though you’re always at work.  Here are some tips to ensure that you don’t feel trapped:

1.Set up a designated part of your house or bedroom to work.

That means you only work in this space.  To feel like you’re only at work when you’re at work, you can’t let your workspace drift into your relaxing or cooking areas.  Otherwise, you’ll start to feel as if you must be working when you’re off the clock.

2. Don’t check your email after work hours.

If it helps, completely remove your work email and teams from your personal cell phone.  Only check your work-related communications when you’re at work!  Just like the advice above, you don’t want to

3. If you don’t already, have designated work hours – and stick to them.

It sounds repetitive – I know – but don’t work at random hours during the day.  The stronger and more rigid your routine, the better you’ll feel about going to work and actually working.

4. Have an established morning routine.

The morning routine ensures that you’ll have some time for yourself every day.  Waking up more than 10 minutes before work, exercising, having breakfast, and reading the morning paper will allow you to relax, and approach your work with more efficiency.

5. Find time to exercise daily

Keeping your body in shape will keep your mind sharp, in addition to giving you sometime to reflect and think about your life. 

6. Make a list of things to do the next workday at the end of every workday.

This way, you won’t step into the “office” and immediately feel overwhelmed.  Having a list of things to get started on as soon as you enter will help decrease the stresses of the day.