How To Maintain Work-Life Balance When Working From Home
With millions of Brits now working from home on a daily basis, it’s getting harder than ever to maintain a good work-life balance. As personal and professional boundaries become blurred, more and more remote workers are struggling to switch off at the end of a busy day.
When your home office desk is conveniently located in the next room, it’s easy to slip into bad habits. Starting a bit earlier. Finishing a little later. Working through your lunch break. It doesn’t take much for you to lose control of your work-life balance.
If this boundary does get crossed, it could have a negative long-term effect on your overall performance. A poor work-life balance leads to unnecessary stress, impacting your happiness and health as well as your productivity and quality of work. Want to avoid it? Follow our top tips for working from home to make sure your work and home life balance remains intact.
What is Work-Life Balance?
Work-life balance is the phrase used to describe the connection between your professional responsibilities and your personal life. A good work-life balance involves managing your days so your career doesn’t limit the time you have for family, friends, hobbies or relaxation. Understanding the broader work-life balance meaning helps you recognise when those boundaries start to slip.
Understanding the Work-Life Balance Meaning
The importance of work-life balance has become greater than ever now so many people are working at home. According to Finder, 41% of Brits are currently working from home for at least part of the week. That’s around 23.2 million people – 13% are working exclusively from home while 28% are hybrid workers.
As a result, work-life balance has taken on a whole new meaning for the work from home (WFH) generation. It’s about setting clear boundaries between work hours and downtime, and knowing how to manage the pressures that come with a remote working culture.
WFH and the Importance of Work-Life Balance
WFH presents many work-life balance challenges which require strict discipline to overcome. When your living space doubles up as the office, it’s harder to switch off and maintain a healthy boundary between your professional and personal life. Some of the most common problems include:
- Blurred boundaries – no separation between home comforts and workspace
- Less downtime – lack of commuting reduces downtime at the end of a busy day
- Longer workdays – the pressure to stay visible leads to an ‘always online’ mentality
- Isolation and loneliness – missing out on face-to-face interaction and socialising
- Less exercise – fewer opportunities for walking with no office commute or lunch break
- Domestic distractions – anything from family commitments to street noise or lack of air-con
Working From Home Tips
If you’re working from home and it feels like you’re starting to lose control of your work-life balance, don’t panic. With a bit of planning and discipline, there are plenty of things you can do to redress the balance. Get started straight away by checking out our top tips for working from home.
1. Create a Designated Work Area
Resist the temptation to work casually at the kitchen table or in the living room. Designate a spare room or set aside a specific corner of your house away from distractions such as the TV or sofa.
Creating a designated workspace helps your brain associate that spot with work rather than downtime. Make it feel as professional as possible by choosing a home office desk and an ergonomic office chair for the ultimate in support and comfort.
If you aren’t able to designate a room for home working, you can use office partitions to create a quiet corner within your living space. Many of our screens are freestanding and foldable, so you can set them up or tuck them away with ease.
2. Set a Schedule and Stick To It
A strict schedule is essential for maintaining a healthy work-life balance at home. Aim to start and finish work at the same time each day, and communicate your work hours via shared calendars or messaging apps. Set them to automatically decline meeting invites and mute alerts outside of your core hours.
Your WFH schedule shouldn’t just focus on work hours. Factor in morning and evening routines as well. Don’t just roll out of bed and start work immediately. Consider recreating the traditional commute by planning in a 10-minute walk before and after each shift – it sends a signal to your brain that it’s time to switch modes.
3. Make Time for Breaks and Exercise
In addition to a short walk before and after work, make sure you incorporate regular screen breaks into any WFH schedule. Even 5-10 minutes every hour or two will help you feel more refreshed and focused when you return to the desk.
If possible, spend some of your break time outdoors. Green spaces are great for reducing stress, so consider taking the dog for a walk or enjoying a relaxing stroll to the local park. Incorporating some light exercise before and after work is also highly beneficial – it gears you up for the working day ahead and helps you wind down at the end.
4. Decorate for Focus and Comfort
Equip your workstation with furniture designed to improve concentration. Choose practical office storage to stop the room from becoming too cluttered, and consider equipment such as cable management or organisers to keep your desktop tidy.
You should also consider adding accessories to increase support and comfort. This can range from keyboard wrist support and chair back support to anti-fatigue chair mats and footrests beneath the desk. Don’t forget a decorative touch as well – indoor office plants are great for reducing stress.
5. Manage Expectations for Family Members
Many remote workers love the flexibility of a WFH role, but it does come with an additional set of distractions. If you have young children, they may think you’re on holiday. You may also be given household chores to complete while working from home.
That’s why it’s important to set boundaries. Remind your family that you have work to do, and that you require quiet and uninterrupted time to complete it. Share your schedule with them to manage expectations over when you will and won’t be available – an office noticeboard is a great way to display your schedule.
6. Stay Connected with Colleagues and Friends
The feeling of isolation is a problem for a lot of remote workers. If you’re working at home permanently, you may miss the social interaction that an office provides.
Make the effort to keep in regular contact with colleagues during your workday, and set aside time for socialising with friends after you’ve logged off. If you’re still struggling with loneliness while working from home, speak to your manager or HR department about options for workplace adjustments.
TOP TIP: If you’re fed up with seeing the same four walls every day, visit one of your local co-working spaces. These shared workspaces let you book a desk by the hour, day, week or month. It’s a great way to meet new people and provides a welcome change of scenery.
7. Plan After-Work Activities
Don’t let the workday spill into your evenings. Plan something enjoyable for when you log off – it’s a deserved reward after a hard day at work, and also helps you switch out of ‘work mode’ to clear your head.
Whatever your hobbies are, be strict about making time for them. It doesn’t matter whether it’s something energetic like a run or gym session, or a more relaxing alternative like cooking or reading. Reclaiming your personal time for your favourite activities is a great way to keep your work and home life balance in check.
8. Pack Your Equipment Away
It may sound like a simple idea, but you’ll be amazed how many people don’t do it. If you leave your workstation switched on at the end of the day, the temptation to nip back and do “one more thing” is always there.
Don’t leave your laptop on your computer desk when you close it. Put it away in a drawer or anywhere that’s out of sight. If you’re working in a designated room, keep the door closed once you’ve shut down for the night – it provides the same type of closure you’d normally get from the evening commute.
In Summary
The importance of work-life balance shouldn’t be underestimated if you’re one of the millions working from home on a regular basis. Remote or hybrid roles make it so much harder to separate your personal life from your professional responsibilities.
Once you lose that balance, your stress levels start to rise and your downtime isn’t nearly as relaxing or refreshing as it should be. If that’s the case, don’t worry – you have the power to fix it.
By following our simple working from home tips, you’ll overcome those work-life balance challenges and make remote working far more manageable in the long term. From creating a dedicated workspace to setting strict schedules, taking breaks and packing equipment away, you’ll form habits that protect your downtime and make switching off easier.
Create the Perfect WFH Setup
Browse our huge collection of computer desks to find a workstation that meets your professional needs without compromising on home comforts.
