How To Balance Work-Life When Working from Home

If you’re struggling to strike a balance between your professional and personal lives, you’re not the only one. It’s become increasingly hard to do so. And now that many people work from home, the boundaries between work and home are fuzzier than ever before.

Work-life balance isn’t a single bullseye you hit or miss. It’s a continuous process you need to keep refining. Implementing good habits can make it easier for you to devote the time, attention and energy where it’s needed most -- especially for the WFH crew.

Why you need work-life balance

Remote work is the new normal, and it comes with challenges. You don’t have the hard boundaries of a commute or an office to give you that mental and physical distinction between work and home. Without them, you can easily slide into the habits of a workaholic.

WFH has its perks, like saving on gas and getting your commute time back. If you’re looking for jobs you can do online or already have one, it’s important you make WFH work for you by setting boundaries.

Establishing clear boundaries to find work-life balance has many benefits. Boundaries help you:

• Stay energized. Carving out and keeping time for self-care, family time and anything else going on outside of work will help keep you fulfilled and content.
  
  
• Avoid burnout. Overworking, taking on more responsibilities and generally neglecting your own needs is the fast track to burnout. Boundaries help mitigate this.
  
  
• Stay in better health. Stress can pile on in the WFH environment. Over-stressed people can turn to unhealthy coping mechanism to deal with it, and stress can also exacerbate existing health issues.
  
  
• Be there for the people you care about. Poor work boundaries can cause you to miss important life and family events with the ones you love. By sticking to a schedule, you can make WFH the best thing to ever happen to you and your family, instead of a life-consuming headache.
  
  
• Keep an increased sense of control and direction of your life. By implementing just a few tactical tips, you can take back time for your life outside of work and increase your sense of autonomy and control.
  
  

Boundary-setting helps you define your role in your work organization, create positive connections with your team, and get clear about what you really value. They protect your energy, time, and job function.

18 tactical tips to create WFH work-life balance

1. Do Not Disturb is your friend. Put your phone on “do not disturb” when you’re not available for work. Toggle yourself as “Away” on any apps or software you use for work when you are unavailable.
   
   
2. Share household chores and duties. It’s easy fall into the habit of folding the laundry or washing the dishes as your “break” from work. Chores are not a break. This type of multitasking blurs the line between work and personal life. When you’re “on the clock,” you aren’t “home” and available to do chores. Work breaks should be exactly that: breathing time away from work responsibilities. And just because you are home most of the time doesn’t mean it’s your job to take on all the household duties. Communicate expectations with your partner or housemate.
   
   
3. Have a dedicated workspace. If you have the space, dedicate a space for your work or even convert your garage, shed or spare bedroom into an office. A dedicated work location in your house helps create a physical boundary for you and those you live with. When you’re there, you are at work. When you close the door or shut your desk, you’ve left work for the day.
   
   
4. Trick your young children, if you have to. It’s hard for kids to understand you’re at work when you’re right there at home where they can see you. If you need to, create a routine so small children really thinks you’ve left for work. Leave the house and quietly return through the back door to go to your office. Or consider a daycare facility for your pre-school kids so you can truly focus on work.
   
   
5. Create a morning routine. Without a commute, an office, and colleagues around you, your morning routine can dissolve, and sometimes even showering and dressing for work falls to the wayside. These routines help set the stage for the day. Keep up a morning routine that helps you prep for the day, even if no one from work will see you. Don’t think you need a routine? We think otherwise. Here’s 7 reasons you need a morning routine.
   
   
6. Schedule buffer time. It helps you recharge. Add some buffer time before everyone wakes up in the morning or before the kids get home from school to tend to your self-care, exercise, meditation or anything else that helps you recharge and feel good. This is a “need to have” not a “nice to have” so schedule it in! Before WFH, the commute allowed you to amp yourself up or mentally decompress. You don’t have that built-in buffer time in a WFH environment, so you need to schedule room for it.
   
   
7. Take real vacations -- not a remote working vacation. Not an “I’m out of town but still checking emails” vacation. Take a vacation where you completely disconnect from work. It will help you recharge and reconnect with what you enjoy, and it’s an empowering example to set for your team.
   
   
8. Take meals away from the screen. At the office, you would probably do your best to eat away from your computer. Maybe you’d hit up the cafeteria with a friend or run out for a quick bite. You deserve that time officially off the clock to enjoy your breakfast, lunch or snack throughout the day. Don’t drag your laptop along or scroll through work emails and texts on your phone out during meals.
   
   
9. Say no. Know your short-term and long-term goals in life and at work and be courageous enough to say no to anything that won’t help you hit your goals. Sure, the helpful side of you wants to assist a work friend out with his project, but if you have enough – or too much – work on your plate, don’t stretch yourself thin. Overcommitment will seep into your personal time, sapping your energy reserves and mental capacity. It’s okay to say no.
   
   
10. Flex your hours. Some employers are willing to let people set flex schedules. If you have a midday commitment, you may be able to work four hours in the morning and another four in the evening. Ask your direct supervisor or HR. Maybe you have sick parents to care for, remote schooling to manage, or some other commitment that needs your attention during traditional work hours. If you can take advantage of flex time to control your daily schedule, you can reduce your stress.
    
    
11. Schedule time for deep work. There are some work tasks that take deep concentration. It’s okay to put yourself “Away” or block your schedule if you need to keep the notifications at bay for an hour or two. With WFH, co-workers can’t tell that you’re busy and honor your boundaries unless you show them on your online calendar or live status updates.
    
    
12. Eat well. Too many people forget to eat, and by 3 pm they are searching for any carb, caffeine, or sugary treat they can find. This isn’t sustainable and it’s not healthy, either. Treat your body well with nutritious foods, and make sure your meals aren’t an afterthought. Plan meal breaks throughout the day, so you don’t feel completely spent by the time your workday is over.
    
    
13. Maintain your work support systems. WFH robs you of the opportunity to stop by your work friend’s office or catch up in the hallways. You miss the funny things that happen around the office and other face-to-face encounters that help make a workplace enjoyable. Find ways to nourish your work relationships while on worktime. Send a funny GIF, a “how are you” email, or hop on a quick phone call. Keep up with what’s happening in their world to keep those enjoyable work relationships strong.
    
    
14. Set your work schedule and make it available to your team. Once you’ve set your schedule, keep to it. Make sure you revisit this as necessary. Put in your vacation time, set up your out of office messages in advance, and keep everyone informed—including the people you live with.
    
    
15. Get your family or household on the same page. It’s important that everyone else in the house respects your rules and rituals around work. Sit down for a conversation about what is expected when you’re on the clock. Is it okay to be interrupted at any time? What noise level is appropriate? Think through what will actually work for you and your family.
    
    
16. End the day officially. Similar to a morning routine, you should end your workday with a definitive action. It could be turning off all devices and going for a walk around the block. Or maybe it’s mellowing out to a few songs or going for a short drive to signal your mind that work is over. Make it something physical so it becomes a habit. Even just closing your office door (and not opening it again until the morning) or walking the dog creates a healthy, relaxing exit from your workday.
    
    
17. Do something after work. Go to the gym, help the kids with homework, or mow the lawn. Have a plan for after work. This makes it easier to leave your email inbox or not-quite-done project behind when working hours are done. You can pick up again tomorrow.
    
    
18. Give yourself grace. Perfection is impossible. Did your kid start screaming during an important video call? Did you schedule two meetings during the same time slot? Did you ping your colleague at a bad hour for them, forgetting that they live in another time zone? It’s okay. WFH comes with interesting problems and most people totally get it. You’d forgive someone else for the error, so grant yourself forgiveness when these things happen.
    
    

How Blink by Chubb Can Help

Build a WFH routine that helps create balance in your life. You’ll carve out sweet, valuable time for what’s truly important in your personal life, while setting yourself up for success with your work responsibilities. The boundaries you choose to set may not work for everyone, but they will work for you. And that’s the coolest thing – we all can choose different things to build the life we want. We get that at Blink by Chubb. That’s why we have build-your-own insurance coverage and protection options for you to choose from, to fit your own unique life. Come take a look!