The line between your personal life and work life is a little blurry right now if you’re working from home. A lot of leaders/ bosses/ managers might think that their employees are working less right now because of all the built in distractions that can accompany working from home. However, A 2019 survey by Airtasker found that while productivity can soar when employees work from home, it usually comes at a cost of their work/ life balance. So how do you know if you’re working too much and on the road to burnout?
You struggle to “end” your day
In a pre-COVID world, you had responsibilities outside the office that required you to have a hard stop at the end of your day. Of course you always had your personal device to keep you connected after hours, but it was something you could ignore and be present for the activity you were engaging in. Whether it was something simple like picking up your kids or getting to your workout class on time, these activities provided a reason for you to stop your workday. Without these barriers, and your computer and personal device being accessible all the time, it can seem impossible to turn off work. If this sounds like your situation, you should try to develop a routine. Set a start time and end time to your day, and develop habits around those key times so your brain knows it’s time to start work and end work. If you train your brain, it’s likely that the rest will follow.
You have no office at home
If you’re working in a common space in your home, and don’t have a designated office area, you literally cannot shut the door on your work for the day. However, you can rearrange a room to physically separate yourself from the rest of your common space. If creating a furniture barrier is out, you can put your laptop and files in a drawer or in a cabinet when they’re not in use. That way, work can be literally out of sight, out of mind, and it will be less tempting to continue your workday.
You’re working longer hours to make up for the time you’re being a parent/ chef/ friend
Your workday is probably in more disarray now than ever. If you’re working from home and have a partner working from home, or trying to do distance learning with your kids, or all of the above, you’ve got other priorities that are demanding your attention, and often without warning. One way to take some control back over your workday is to use the Pomodoro Method. This scheduling method is based on breaking out your day to drive maximum productivity. If you can get your other “work from home colleagues” on board with knowing when you’re taking a break, you can encourage them to minimize out of schedule interruptions. Of course this is not a foolproof situation, when the internet goes down, it will throw even the most regimented schedule into disarray.
It’s easier said than done to inject work/life balance into your days when you’re working from home. When you’re literally surrounded by work, and struggle to get the time you need to get work done, you need a strategy to keep yourself from constantly working. If you have too much in common with one of the above scenarios we mention, acknowledging that you might be letting work take over will make you more mindful of making sure you start taking time away from your job.