5 Easy Boundaries When Working From Home
COVID-19 has created many challenges. One challenge might be that you are now working from your home. I have worked from home for essentially 12 years. I know that many of you are working from home now because of COVID-19 and you are trying to stay safe. However, working from home can be tricky in “normal” circumstances, so I wanted to offer up some tips about how to set up your work life at home, so that you can also have a personal life.
You will need to set up some boundaries around your work so here are five tips.
Set a Schedule
First, you will need to set some a schedule or “office” hours that you will sustain. Will you work from 9 am to 5 pm with a 1-hour lunch? Maybe, if that what your work requires. If you are able to set up flexible hours, then this tip relates to you. It would be good to set some boundaries about the hours you are going to work and the hours that you are going to stop working. One rule could be, I am not going to work before 8 am or before I had my first cup of coffee. Another example, I am not going to work after 9 pm. These are some examples. Try to stick to your schedule or the rules that you set up, but there are some exceptions and that leads to my next tip.
Rules for Exceptions
There will be exceptions to the rules that you set up around your schedule. Sometimes, you have to work after 9 pm to finish an important project and that is the only time you get to have peace and quiet around the house. However, you should set up rules for your exceptions. For example, I will work late after 9 pm when I have a deadline. Another example, I will work before 8 am if someone calls me with an emergency. Try to think of some exceptions and make some boundaries around those. Of course, stuff happens, so do not be hard on yourself. The idea is to have some clear boundaries around your time and to be clear when it is okay to ease those boundaries. Just because you work from home does not mean you always have to be working. You should remember this and communicate this with others.
Communicate Boundaries
You should communicate your schedule to your colleagues and your family. Let your colleagues know the hours that you have set up for working hours. One way to communicate your schedule to your colleagues and others that you work with is by putting it in your email signature. To communicate with your family, you could put your hours on a sign on your office door or by your designated workspace.
Set Up a Designated Workspace
If you do not already have a designated workspace, you should. Not only could that help with tax deductions, it could also help with maintaining the boundaries of work life and personal life. One tip, make it look and feel like a workspace, if you are able. Try to keep your work to that workspace, again if you are able. I do not always follow this tip myself and then I get frustrated when I cannot find something for work.
Set Time for Yourself and Family
My last tip is to set aside intentional time for yourself and your family. At the start of the day, get up, get ready for the day, and drink a cup of coffee or tea before you start to check your emails. Make sure when you are done working for the day, you are done working, which means, not checking emails before bed or checking your work social media pages. If you need to, have a notepad on hand to write down ideas and thoughts as they come to you, but that you can also set back down and go back to what you were doing. Also, make sure to take days off and take vacation days, even if those vacations are staycations now.
I know that these tips might be hard to follow, especially now when we are all at home, and some of us have families, spouses/partners/roommates, and/or pets that are also home with us. These tips are only some guidelines to help you maintain some sort of work and personal balance when we are all trying to figure out how do live this “new” normal.
Written By Guest Contributor, Sonya Luna
-Sonya is the Coordinator for Latinx Ministries for the Michigan Conference United Methodist Church
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