Establishing boundaries between your personal and professional lives is the key to maintaining fulfilling versions of each.
Living where you work, or working where you live, means the lines between those two things blur very easily. You have downtime at work so you throw in a load of laundry or cook a hot lunch (both clear perks of working from home). But you then may find if you don’t have plans, you’re working far later than you should.
Establishing boundaries between your personal and professional lives is the key to maintaining fulfilling versions of each. If you’re always working you’ll get burnt out, but if you’re constantly distracted by household tasks, then your work will inevitable suffer.
So, if you find yourself in a work-from-home rut, consider implementing a new routine to provide clear lines between work life and home life.
Stay Realistic
First off, it’s important to be honest with yourself. Even if you’re a routine master and you don’t think you’ll stray, there is a very high likelihood that you’ll still find yourself scrolling emails at night or dusting during the workday. And that’s OK. But, the idea is to separate work and home as much a possible so you can feel productive and fulfilled in both.
When thinking about what your ideal work-from-home routine looks like, be completely honest. If taking a two-hour break in the middle of the day for personal tasks and then working later at night works for you, honor that. The whole point of setting up a new routine is noticing, and moving towards, what works for you.
Start Slow
Don’t change everything all at once. You will be overwhelmed, confused and likely feel like a fish out of water. Instead, make a list of a few things that you really want to change. For example, maybe you snooze every morning, sit at your desk in your pajamas until noon, or check your emails at midnight. Conversely, you could be slacking on work tasks because you can’t concentrate if your space isn’t immaculate.
Figure out the one thing that’s annoying you the most right now and change it. Making that one conscious change will not only help you right now, but it will lay the groundwork for other small changes that will then build your routine.
Be Consistent
Once you’ve identified what you want to change, stick with it. They say it takes 21 days to build a new habit, but in all reality, it might take even longer. So be as consistent as possible in all aspects of your life. Once you’ve found that you’re not straying from the first change you put into place, start to build on that with another new element.
The old saying consistency is key is true here more than ever. Stick with one change then, when you’ve found that that has become second nature, build on it. It might not be the fastest change of all time, but it will be the most efficient.
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