2020 was not a good year for me—but not for the reason you might think. At the end of 2019 I suffered an injury that prevented me from walking for the first three months of 2020. Pretty quickly I realized that my apartment was not exactly ADA compliant. I was on a knee scooter. Not able to walk, I couldn’t get around in my own home. I literally couldn’t get food from the kitchen to the couch. I couldn’t do anything. There was simply too much stuff and in places that were difficult to reach.
So, this last year I have put a focus on making not just my workspace but my entire home a happier and simpler place for me. Now I know exactly where things are, and I can easily access everything that I need. The result has been an environment in sync with my needs, where I can be productive in both my work and personal life.
With everyone working from home right now, it’s easy to just never stop working. We all know that’s not healthy, but boundaries have become blurred. Many of us don’t have the luxury of a separate home office but you can still create a dedicated workspace. Make it different than where you watch TV or sleep or eat. Even if it’s small – like my little desk facing a window – only use that physical space for work. You need to be able to step away from it and not be constantly reminded. And if you’re in a stressful job, it’s even more important to put it out of sight. Having a dedicated working time and working space has helped me stay sane this past year. It makes me better at my job because I’m well rested and excited about work. It really helps my overall productivity and happiness levels.
Now that you’ve identified your workspace, get rid of any clutter. Following advice from the famous Japanese organization guru, Marie Kondo, I piled things up by category: clothes, documents, office supplies, books, dishes, etc. Soon I discovered that I owned five hammers which is about four hammers too many. I threw out or donated anything that wasn’t useful to me or that held negative associations. I hadn’t realized that just looking at some of these objects had been draining my energy.
Clearing out my space gave me this calmness that I didn’t have before in my home. I have what I need, and I know where it is. It’s completely changed the way I work. My happiness levels have gone through the roof. For me, part of the whole work/life home balance was figuring out what I actually need and jettisoning the rest. I try not to give attention to things that are either unimportant or that can wait until later.
We all talk about it but few of us do it. Do you always have your smart phone within reach? How often do you check it? Do you look at work emails at all hours of the day and night? That has to be taking an emotional toll. Here are some ideas to curb your electronic addiction.
Let’s say you don’t have a lot of dedicated workspace at home. Maybe your laptop is your desk. If that’s the case, at the end of the workday, shut down and put it out of sight. Create a day-end ritual like going over your To Do list and setting goals for the next day. Clean up extraneous papers. Then close everything up and move on to your home life.
Ah. But what about the phone? I’ve created separate work and personal screens. My work email goes into one app, my personal into another. On my computer, I use a separate browser for work-related tasks. And I’ve set up my phone so that I’m not getting notifications about work in my off hours. Right now, we may not be able to create hard and fast physical boundaries between work and home, but we do have the tools to do it electronically.
This can be the most challenging when working from home. It’s easy for work and home life to mesh and before you know it, you’re working 12 hours a day. One way to avoid this is take regular breaks and find a flow that works for you—and stick to it. Do you always blow off lunch then hit a wall around 3 pm? Schedule a lunch break on your calendar every day. Need to step away from the laptop? Put it on your To Do list and make it happen. Exercising not your thing but you know you need to get up from your desk? Set small exercise goals like a 10-minute walk around the block, or to pick up something for lunch. It’s amazing what a difference it can make to your emotional state and your productivity.
With a smart phone – which, let’s face it, is more than just a phone; it’s a small computer – always within reach, it can be difficult to separate work and life. As easy as it might be to glance at work emails at night or before you even get out of bed in the morning, respect business hours. David Janowsky, senior vice president of sales for Planet Professional, goes a step further. He only contacts his team during business hours, period. He might write the email in the moment (which could be 7 pm) but he doesn’t send it until the start of the working day. Some managers would counter, “Well, I might send it, but I don’t expect them to reply.” But the reality is that folks check their email all the time and when one comes in from their boss, they will pay attention. Even if they don’t answer the email until the next morning, it has created an emotional ripple in their home time.
All of these tips can create a much better balance between work and life. For me, making these changes – having a dedicated workspace, clearing out the clutter, and finding a good flow – has made me happier and more productive working from home.
