Three ways to separate work from home when working from home
“Stay at home”. The catch phrase for the Covid-19 pandemic. All of a sudden the nature of home has changed. It’s no longer that protected space where we can relax with our family, have people over, decompress after work. Home is no longer just home, it’s work, nursery, school, pub, restaurant and the eternal Zoom conference room. It’s a lot! So how can you keep home and work time separate when they take place under the same roof? Here are our top tips!
“Go to work” - normally you would walk, drive, cycle, train to work. Your commute isn’t lost time, I gives yourself time to prepare there and debrief back, it creates an important separation between home and work that allows your brain to switch off. Try creating this space even when you are working from home. Walk round the block before and after work. Go and collect your morning paper, cup of coffee etc. Or just allow time to do your mental wind up and wind down. Whatever works for you but create a routine that marks the beginning and end of the work day. No quickly checking an email in the evening... if you wouldn’t do it outside of Covid rules, try not to do it.
Try to create a work space that doesn’t invade your home space. This can be really tricky if home space is at a premium but try to create an area that is just for work if possible or if it’s not try to pack away your laptop at the end of each day. Again this is all about creating a separation between home and work. If your work papers are all over the kitchen table it’s hard to cut off.
Take your lunch or coffee breaks. Normally we have all sorts of informal interactions and discussions with colleagues that are a routine part of the day we don’t really think about but they break up the workload. Without these moments work is pretty intense! Make sure you take your breaks and step away from that computer. Schedule in times to have conversations that aren’t about work.
Remember working from home is hard, it’s ok to find it difficult, it’s ok to find motivation and concentration more of a struggle, it’s ok to need to take care of yourself more. Explore what works for you. Just because you find something difficult doesn’t mean you are doing it badly.
Written by Nicola