Maintaining a work life balance can prevent burnout and increase productivity, but learning to hit the do not disturb button, literally and figuratively, is harder than you think. Keep your work and personal life separate when remote working with these simple tips.
Work life balance
Maintaining a work life balance is key in reducing stress and preventing burnout; a state of mental and physical tiredness.
It’d be great if separation between work and home was easy, but in reality mobile phones and social media blur the boundaries between professional and personal. It is hard to switch off from work to personal when your colleagues follow you on Instagram, you get calls from family during work hours or your work ‘bestie’ invites you out to drinks on a Friday night. How do you make this separation to allow you to switch off from work and avoid burnout? How do you press pause until your next working day?
Why Press Pause?
The ability to press pause at work is essential in maintaining a healthy work life balance and avoiding stress and burnout.
Pressing pause and taking time out for yourself can help you not only enjoy both parts of your life, work and personal, but also increase your productivity. The Sun reported that 8 out of 10 parents feel they are running on ‘autopilot’ and feel disconnected with their family because of their busy schedules.
This can apply to working environments as well. Those who are running on autopilot risk burning out and becoming unable to do basic tasks because of stress.
Setting up strict boundaries between your work and personal life can help decrease stress and make your work and personal life more fulfilling.
Remote Working
Remote working, made the new normal by the pandemic, has made it harder to separate work and personal than ever. When your home becomes your work space, it seems almost impossible to draw a line between work and play.
Remote working is new to many of us and so are the challenges that come with it. Adjusting to remote working has not only caused stress, loneliness and lack of productivity for some people, but also caused people to lose the healthy balance between their work and home lives.
A study done by Buffer, revealed that 22% of remote workers have struggled with switching off after work. Maintaining a healthy work life balance during remote working can take a lot of extra energy; the best way to set up healthy boundaries is to commit to a routine, manage your time and learn to prioritise work or play, when needed.
It can be hard to commit to work hours when you’re not leaving the office, if you are working remotely, it can be easy to let your job turn into a 24 hour job. In April 2020, Blue Jeans conducted a survey that revealed remote workers spent an extra 3.13 hours a day on the job. Social plans can force you to stop working and start the personal part of your day, in order to help cement the work/home boundary.
Physical boundaries can also be a good way to highlight mental boundaries between work and home, when working remotely. Create an area or corner of your home that is strictly a ‘working zone’, so that when you are in it, you aren’t focusing on personal things, and when you leave the zone, you are officially clocked out of work.
Most importantly, set a routine. When working in an office, a routine is effortlessly embedded into your mind; get up at a certain time, travel to work, get into the office, have a coffee and start your day. When working from home, however, it can be hard to wake up and transform into an employee when you don’t have a journey to get you into the mindset. For example, even though you are not leaving your house, still get up at the same time every morning, follow that by an activity you can do every morning, like showering or meditating. When you are ready to enter the work mindset, start your day; you do not need to immediately start working from the moment you wake up just because you are not commuting anymore.
Using your Work Phone to Press Pause
Communication in these times is extremely important, for remote and hybrid workers connecting with colleagues, clients or customers.
One major way to switch off and separate work and personal can be to actually physically press pause on work.
Following routines, setting time boundaries and carving out time for socialising can help separate the line between work and personal but there will always remain some crossover. Finding a comfortable balance between the two may be the answer; separate what you have control over, such as your work and personal phones.
Many businesses are beginning to rely on mobile phones instead of office phones. Not only is this cost effective for companies, it is also supportive of the remote or hybrid working models. This does not mean that you will have to give out your personal number to customers or clients, however.
Devyce is a VoIP system which means your number lives in the cloud, so you can have a second number on one phone, without having a SIM or second contract. This is perfect for those who don’t want an office phone but want to keep their personal and work numbers separate.
Having your work number on your personal phone may sound daunting but actually can help you separate your work and personal life. A work phone can be hard to put down and ignore, but with a work number on your personal phone, there is no physical reminder that the work number is there, or that people are trying to reach you.
With Devyce, you can customise the Do Not Disturb feature to suit your business hours, for example, people will only be able to call or text your work number during office hours, leaving weeknights and weekends completely work free.
Advantages of having a work number on your personal phone are endless. Not only is it the simplest and cheapest option, for both employer and employee, it gives personal control and familiarity to the user. Instead of using an unfamiliar work issued phone, you can use your phone as you wish, update it when you want, and have personal control over the settings and changes; unlike with a work phone where there may be limits and boundaries set up.
Communication is also improved when you use a work number on a personal phone, as you will always have it on you. You won’t need to worry about misplacing a second handset, or having to keep track of two phones; your customers will appreciate being able to get in touch with you quickly and easily.
Discover more about how Devyce can help keep your personal and work lives separate here: https://devyce.com/product/what-is-devyce/
To download Devyce click here: https://devyce.com/pricing/
Sources
https://timemanagementninja.com/2014/02/10-times-you-need-to-press-the-pause-button-in-life/
https://asparker.com/2020/02/do-you-take-the-time-to-push-the-pause-button/
https://www.careercontessa.com/advice/privacy-work-life-balance/
https://www.inc.com/inc-masters/how-to-set-great-work-life-boundaries-as-a-remote-worker.html
https://medium.com/publishous/set-healthy-boundaries-to-get-work-life-balance-cd95abcc414f
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/using-personal-phone-for-work
