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How do you manage to separate work and personal life when working remotely?
Hello everyone! I often have a problem with the fact that my personal life is mixed with my work life. What kind of life hacks do you have for organizing your work from home?
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Failmane
Time management and keeping a diary helps me a lot.
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@mangosik Thank you, This gives me the separation of space and mindset as well as it encourages in the box thinking and out of the box thinking
Its tough, but for me the following are important:
1. Routine, plan things that you do daily on routine
2. Regular progress meetings with team/clients -- when you have something to deliver, its easier to work
3. Goal setting and tracking - I use OKRs that I track weekly, making sure I have a target to follow
@berthakgokong Is it always possible to follow these rules? How do you act in cases where there was a force majeure at home?
@berthakgokong excellent point on Routine. Benjamin Franklin' method was to acquire a new habit by working on it for 3 weeks as it took that much to implement a new habit. In the era of information and multiple disruptions, this would be more difficult to achieve, however it is doable and the rewards are immense in my opinion.
I think keeping a list is the best way. It helps you plan your day better for today and so on.
@ekaterina_butterfly I was trying to keep a to-do list. But everyday problems and animals can distract me. And as a result, everything is not going according to plan for me.
1) Having separate checklists for work and personal life
2) Self-discipline & self-management
3) Hobbies that make me want to finish my tasks at 6 pm and go on with favorite activities
@stefaniya_sparysheva How do you manage to maintain self-discipline? I have a big problem with this
@elina_rappu Oh yeah, that's also my biggest struggle. I use Eisenhower Matrix for planning tasks and it helps me organize myself.
@stefaniya_sparysheva Very good points. I too use seperate checklists with visual aids and connections on my data management app as it allows me to easily recall events and tasks. Hobbies are also very important - they keep you in line along with providing you incentives to wrap up your work schedule
I try this: Nights are always for personal time. Weekends are for personal time too, but if I must work, I try to keep it until lunchtime. Otherwise, I won’t stop and burnout starts to feel real.
@fabianacm The consequences of burnout from work are very severe. I changed three areas of work because of this.
A couple ways that have helped me. I try to design my life accordingly so that I have time away (planned vacations or short break times). In addition, I go offline after 9 p.m. (before work) and before 6 a.m., so not really having any work related emails in the day when I should be resting is best for getting healthy.
@secure_slate That's a good time management to seperate both the lives.
@secure_slate Now I try to follow the same rules. Plus, I'm trying to add sports to what you've called. While working, stretch or just lie on the floor and meditate. It has a very positive effect on me.
Hi Elina - curious what this means for you. Are you having trouble unplugging or are team members expecting your response at all hours?
Back when I lived in Vancouver, I always scheduled my evening gym session at 6:30pm to force myself to log off. My walk to and from the gym was included crossing a bridge over the inlet. I'd usually catch the most epic sunsets around this time. I loved these quiet walks so much which is why I continued this habit for many months :)
@gracehur Hi! Rather, my family members distract me from work and my workday turns into chaos because I'm trying to do everything at once. The operating voltage state begins. I get out of it easily afterwards when I go for a walk with my dog. But it's wasting a lot of my nerves. Therefore, I am looking for a way to relax while working and I want to find a way to separate work and personal life.
Pomodoro works for me. 20 mins of work , 5 mins family time then 20 mins of work. Don't avoid family time , integrate or find a symbiotic relation with family time
@praveen_kumar36 looks like you've hacked your Pomodoro clock, it's typically 25 minutes. but good work! i'm gonna try that too!
When working from home, the line between work life and personal life can get blurry. It may become harder to tune out at the end of the workday. Having worked remotely for some time now, I tend to diversify a working week a bit by for example going to another location. I prefer a coffee shop, but it also could be a library, or shared working space, etc. Changing scenery once in a while helps a lot.
But other than that, it also helps to define the schedule for yourself (working hours, taking a break, etc), and also having a separate space for work in the house helps with imagining that you (me😉) work from an office and not home.
Its hard for me too, but when I had work from home.. I used to get in to separate room, lock the room from inside and work...how we use have breaks in office I tried to maintain the same way.. after log out , lock the room from out side. But still it hard because too many knocks on the door apparently ended up with too many breaks,....
I am still trying to figure this out. My jobs include SAHM, cook, social media manager, data analyst, content writer, strategist... I've got a lot going on and I have to work when my baby is sleeping. I'm giving calendar color coding a shot to see if that helps me get more done and enjoy more of my time!
Taking a walk at the end of the day helps to cut off my working hours.
@tinaciousz To help define the end of your work time, change for more comfortable clothing. I go for pijamas. haha It always works.
Hi, I like work time but making space for home/personal stuff. By example if I do/eat breakfast I will wash the dishes right after I finish (this allow the dishes to not make a big pile growing as the day progresses), then I get into work and do a burst of tasks to make advances, if I need to get up to relax from being seated, I often also do water the plans or do any other task that takes less than 10 minutes. Same happens after midday.
As you see mine is somewhat mixed up too, is difficult to separate them, the best you can do is to know how and when to make time for work / personal. Because if you want to separate them completely you will be working from 8 to 5 and after that time you will have a lot of personal stuff to get done, which is somewhat as if you were working not remotely. If in your home live other persons wether are mates, family or couple, you need to let them know you have time to work and you can't be constantly interrupted for home related stuff and time they see you around the home is not that you are free, is time that you need to release tension from being seated.
Keep in mind what is the purpose or benefits of do remote work:
- Claim back time that it usually get wasted in commuting and use that time for personal stuff
- Since you work from home, you can take breaks from work but use that time to make some little home related tasks
- Do not work more that the hours you would work in office, if your exit is at 5pm, stop working at that time, if you have a need to do work organize or respond or follow up emails, use an app that allow to schedule the send the next business hours (this prevents that mates and bosses see you as an always on demand person)
- Once you exit at 5pm is fully your time, use it for whatever you want, go shopping, go for a walk, relax, etc.
Hope this helps
Hi! I go to another room for work and arrange everything there for a working atmosphere
I use separate devices for my work and personal affairs. That helps my set clear boundaries and compartmentalize my work and personal life.
Depends on person to person. There are some who are excellent in planning and execution and time management. For me, Planning works to certain extent as most of the things land up ad hoc. I take things as they come and before I do that, I ensure to complete the task in hand. Otherwise, I will mess up the entire day!
Hi @elina_rappu. Really a tough question to answer. But, I have a thumb rule to work only in office room in my home for work and arrange everything there for a working atmosphere.
Great question. Things that help me is a routine, daily/weekly/quarterly goals, and daily journal.