Posted by Your boss just told you that you can continue work from after the MCO, and you are excite about it. Because you believe maintain a work/life balance is easy when you’re work from home. You have no one else to answer to, so it should be easy to switch off. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case in reality. In fact, many home-based employees struggle to strike a healthy work/life balance because the lines are more blurred.
But what we can do to achieve and maintain a healthy work and life balance? We have came out the 14 tips for you to consider:
- Play to your strengths
Don’t try and be all things to all people. Focus on your strengths and work with your team.
2. Prioritise your time
You may have a to-do list with 50 tasks on it, so you need to prioritize those tasks into four categories.
They are:
- Urgent and important
- Important but not urgent
- Urgent but not important
- Neither urgent nor important.
3. Know your peaks and troughs
Are you a morning person?
If you are, assign tough, high-concentration tasks to the mornings. Don’t leave the tough tasks until its night time and vice versa.
4. Plot some personal time
When personal issues arise, it can be tempting to bury yourself in your work. Don’t do it If you don’t make time for your personal life – your “me” time, including your family and your health – you won’t have a business to go back to
5. Manage your time, long term
Create a timeline of your activities. Specific computer programs can help with this, or you can customize your own Excel spreadsheet or Word table.
Put dates across the top and activities down the side. Break each task into components.
Include family commitments – such as holidays, birthday parties, etc. – so you don’t forget that you are unavailable for work on those days.
6. Make your workspace work for you
Working for yourself does tend to require long hours and not much downtime, so invest in equipment that will support you.
That includes getting a comfortable chair, an ergonomic keyboard, a support stand for your laptop, etc.
An ergonomic assessment of your workspace is worth every cent.
7. Tap into technology
Instead of driving to a meeting, use Skype or conferencing technologies like GoToMeeting. But remember to switch them off.
8. Take time to make time
Invest in time-tracking tools. There are plenty of tools you can use to track everything from the frequency and duration of meetings, to chasing and converting leads.
Time-tracking software allows you to quickly build an understanding of how long a particular task takes.
That way, you can effectively estimate how long your next work task will take.
9. Know and nurture your network
Prioritise growing your network and have a structured lead/conversion system in place so you can track the time/cost involved to grow your network.
Set the benchmarks early on and learn the lessons early.
10. Do what you love
Make time for something you love – other than work – and give it the time it deserves. It will energise and refresh you, and enable you to nurture the creative thought that is essential to every business owner.
12. Be realistic
At the end of each working day, perform a little self-analysis. Ask yourself what worked today, what didn’t, what went wrong and how the issue can be fixed.
13. Manage your mind
When fear or self-doubt or anxiety creeps in, do some work on your mental health such as meditation or reading a business book.
Alternatively, spend time with someone who will lift you up and support you.
14. Take a break
Remember to take time out throughout your day.
Some tasks are easier than others, so if you find yourself with an hour up your sleeve, be realistic about whether you can “afford” to rest or not.
You might not have time every day to simply sit and “be”, but do your best to give yourself a lunch break.
Also, make a point of getting up and stretching every 15 minutes. It will help you become clearer, more focused and more productive.