Whilst the majority of employees have taken on working from home during this pandemic, it is highly important to make sure that you maintain a balance between your work and your home life, as well as creating a good home working environment! Here are some tips to striking the perfect home working balance:
Manage time effectively:
Create a work schedule that allows you to complete tasks effectively whilst also scheduling in time for small but frequent breaks. If you have an online calendar, create personal events and reminders that tell you when to shift gears and start on new tasks, Outlook Calendar makes this easy. You can also set a goal to leave the ‘home’ office at a certain time, this helps to manage your working hours for the day. Doing this will help you stay on track and means you’re less likely to let your work and home life overlap.
Having the correct equipment:
Not only does having the correct equipment improve the overall efficiency and health of your home working, but it also helps to maintain the balance between your work and home life! Having a desk with your monitors or laptops correctly placed on stands will allow you to ‘leave’ your home office when appropriate, however, if you’re using a laptop on your sofa this is mixing work with your home life and is not very good for your overall health. Headsets, speakers, wireless mouse and keyboard can all help with creating a good home office environment.
If you want to find out more about the correct equipment for home working, please don’t hesitate to contact our Technical Account Managers on [email protected]
Work phone balance:
For those of you with work phones, consider not using it during your non-working hours. It may be easy to send a couple of emails over the weekend or after you have finished your day ar work, but this then crosses your work life with your home life. It is very important to let your mind rest and have a break from work!
Invest in your health:
Making physical and mental exercise part of your routine is highly important, a healthy body and mind allow for optimal functionality in your work and home life. Having a few minutes away from your screen frequently can help your mind to re-energise, or try going for a walk during your lunch break as the fresh air helps to clear your mind!
Avoid using social media:
Social media is designed to make it easy for you to open and browse quickly. At work, this convenience can be the detriment of your productivity. One way you can prevent yourself from using social media could be setting up ‘Screen Time‘ on your iPhone, this means you can set time limits for apps you want to manage! Another alternative would be to log out of every account.
Natural lighting:
Where possible, ensure your home office gets plenty of natural daylight to keep productivity and creativity on a high. It will also help brighten your mood, ensuring even the most tiresome tasks get ticked off the to-do list. If your office can not access much natural lighting, a desk lamp is a good alternative!
