Over the past year for many of us the line between home and the workplace has become increasingly blurred. This can be disconcerting with work encroaching on your home life and your home life distracting you from work. We’ve put together our top five suggestions to restore your work life balance, helping you to adjust to the ‘new normal’.
- Set boundaries – Do you really need several email accounts on your phone? Do you need to be responsive at all hours of the day and night? Do you have a designated emergency contact for out of hours and could the responsibility for this email or telephone number be shared? You could also put your ‘out of office’ on when you need a break or when you need a couple of days to complete an important project. Your clients may be impressed with a quick response to a general enquiry on a Friday night, but would they necessarily expect it? And would they be doing the same?
- Learn to communicate effectively and manage expectations – If you communicate effectively with the people who might be wanting your time, when you think you may be unavailable or less able to respond, this will allow both parties to plan ahead and ensure that work is effectively completed within the timeframe set, thus allowing you both some down time.Whilst it is nice to be busy, you may want to look at the necessity of the events in your diary. Do you really need to attend all of them? For example, a colleague could attend a business social or networking event on your behalf and gain useful experience. They would also feel valued at the gesture.
- Time blocking and making daily lists – This gives you a visual plan and can help you to prioritise realistically. If you stick to your list, this will also prevent you from wasting your valuable time on tasks that don’t need doing or that could potentially be outsourced (you are welcome to talk to us about this as well! As a rule, try to plan for three main tasks per day, anything else can then be considered a bonus!
- Schedule in time for you. It’s easy to let a busy schedule convince you that you don’t need that yoga class, or that walk or that coffee and a catchup with a friend. However, a break can often find you returning to your tasks energised and with your enthusiasm restored. If you schedule your breaks or exercise classes into a diary or planner this will also prevent you from double booking yourself, or overrunning.
- Are you working effectively? From the outside (pre-lockdown), remote working or the ‘laptop lifestyle’ did actually look quite fun, almost glamorous! We can assure you that it’s not that simple! We have designed our certified in remote working E-learning course based upon years of experience in this field, taking into consideration, the above factors and much more! This certified and accredited 13 module course will enhance skillsets and provide confidence to employers, clients and themselves. Plus, with our downloadable resources, it provides valuable tools for the professional worker.Learn how work remotely effectively with our course