Struggling to juggle work and personal life while working remotely?

Working from home may give your family members, and even yourself, the impression that you are available to talk and do chores throughout the day. For this reason, setting contact, communication, and time boundaries is vital to ensure that everyone, including yourself, understands that when you are in a certain corner or room of the house, it is as if you were physically away in the office. By clearly defining these boundaries, you signal to others and yourself that your work hours and space are to be respected. Additionally, you can establish a routine with defined breaks and switch-on/switch-off times, according to your needs. This approach may not work for everyone. Give it a try to start with, and then make adjustments as needed.

Absolutely, setting boundaries when working from home is essential. Keep regular work hours, inform your family, and create a dedicated workspace. This helps you stay productive and ensures you can truly relax during personal time. Consistency in these practices makes them effective and sustainable.

There are some things in someone's personal life that could hamper their productivity and time spent at their work remotely. These include: household chores, raising children and attend to family matters. One should ensure that their family is well informed about their remote work, put a schedule of their working times on the fridge in the kitchen and find a place that is not noisy around the house such as having a study room or an empty room for when family members make noise. They should hire a helper regarding their kids so that their kids are cooked for and attended to therefore having more time to focus on their remote work.

Setting boundaries is essential to your own health and well-being but what many leaders don't realize is how beneficial their boundaries are for their team. Instead of the team seeing boundaries as "weakness" or "annoying" as one of my clients was afraid of, her boundaries gave her team permission to establish their own when she finally set hers up. If you are a leader you need to lead by example by setting and maintaining strong boundaries. It's your actions, more than what you say, that empower your team to do the same.

Balancing remote work and personal life presents challenges. Establish clear routines and boundaries, create a dedicated workspace, and set specific work hours. Prioritise self-care, leverage technology for productivity and communicate openly with family and colleagues for a healthy balance.

I have worked remotely (well, hybrid) for over 15 years. In my experience, the following are fundamental to a strong balance: 1. CLEAR EXPECTATIONS: Being explicit about your boundaries is crucial. Without open communication on this, your boundaries do not exist. 2. SET PRIORITIES: Know what you aim to accomplish in each day, setting a top 3 items for each day. Get them done EARLY. It's easier to lose focus later when energies dip. 3. SELF-CARE: Ensure you get exercise and movement in. It is INCREDIBLY easy to be stuck behind the desk all day. Make time for exercise, walks, movement on the hour 4. STANDING DESKS: If possible, use both sitting and standing desks so you don't screw up your posture

When a person is working remotely, the demands from the environment where the person is physically present tend to weigh higher. Same is true for a person working from office and completely ignoring personal responsibilities. Boundaries and rules are important. While working remotely, it is important to have a dedicated and disturbance-free work-space. This will help in focus and attention. Once that is taken care of, one needs to be taking some extra efforts to bring in the clarity needed for the remote communication till that become a habit. Also, some may face the challenge of work spilling over into personal space and time, regularly. Discipline is important to adhere to set boundaries. HR plays a huge role in this to happen smoothly.

Delineate between deep work and low-value, busy work. Deep work should be done during the hours that you are most alert and aware. It can also have the ripple effect of energizing you to complete the busy work a little faster.

As Oliver Burkeman shares in his incredible book 4,000 Weeks, you will die with a full to-do list. The goal is not to get to inbox zero as that is realistically impossible. As a leader your goal needs to shift from getting EVERYTHING on your to-do list done to getting THE HIGHEST VALUE things done. Clearing roadblocks and obstacles for your team to execute is infinitely higher value and leverage than checking the box on tasks that should be delegated or automated.

When your to-do list is a mile long, it's essential to prioritise. Start your day by identifying the most critical work tasks. Tackle these first when your energy is fresh. For personal life, decide what must be done today and what can wait. Sometimes, it's okay to leave the dishes for later if it means finishing an important project or spending quality time with loved ones. Prioritisation is about making intentional choices with your time and resources. Use techniques like the Eisenhower Matrix to categorise tasks based on urgency and importance. Remember, not everything on your list carries equal weight.

For healthy technology use while working from home, set clear self-care boundaries. Yes, some may seem more difficult, but you are worth it! Your family will thank you! 1. Designate and stick to specific work hours, using tools to manage time effectively. Schedule regular breaks to rest your eyes and stretch. 2. Create a dedicated workspace to physically separate work from personal life. 3. Use apps to block work notifications during personal time, ensuring uninterrupted focus on family or other tasks. 4. Establish a tech-free zone, like the dinner table, to promote family interaction. Prioritize self-care activities like exercise or hobbies to maintain a healthy work-life balance and prevent burnout.

Using technology effectively can transform your remote work experience. Integrate productivity apps to streamline your tasks and keep everything organized. Project management tools can help you track progress and collaborate seamlessly with your team. Leverage video conferencing for face-to-face interactions to maintain strong connections with colleagues. By harnessing the power of technology while setting boundaries for its use, you can create a balanced, productive, and harmonious work-from-home environment.

Balancing work and personal life while working remotely can be challenging, especially if communication is unclear. Clearly inform your team and clients about your working hours. Create a daily to-do list and prioritize tasks based on their urgency and importance. Provide regular updates to your manager and colleagues on your progress and priorities. Set and communicate realistic deadlines for tasks and projects. If you foresee any delays, inform your team in advance. Schedule regular breaks throughout your workday to recharge. Communicate your break times to your team to avoid any misunderstandings. #lifecoaching #executivecoaching #timemanagement #expectations #prioritize #goals

"Unspoken expectations are premeditated resentments." - Neil Strauss. When you begin to communicate expectations to your team clearly, both their performance and your trust in them will rise.

Clear communication with your team and family is vital when working from home. Let your colleagues know your availability and share your work schedule with your family. If you need uninterrupted time for a project, communicate that need upfront. Similarly, if family time is non-negotiable, make that clear to your team. Open communication helps manage everyone's expectations and reduces misunderstandings.

Clear communication is key when working remotely. Keep your team informed about your availability and response times, and let them know when you need focused, uninterrupted work periods. Use tools like shared calendars and status updates to maintain transparency. Setting clear boundaries helps manage expectations and ensures that both work and personal time are respected. Effective communication fosters a supportive and productive remote work environment.

The goal is not have a large, infrequent self-care activities. They should be a part of your daily routine. Build in breaks directly into your schedule and honor them. Think of them as part of your non-negotiables. During the break, do the opposite of what you were just doing. For example, if you were on a laptop or screen, set outside and look at something else. Maybe don't even take your phone with you.

Incorporating self-care into your routine is essential for maintaining productivity and well-being. Make time for activities that rejuvenate you, such as a morning run, meditation, or a favorite hobby. These practices can boost your energy and focus, helping you perform better in both work and personal life. Remember, self-care isn't selfish; it's a crucial component of your overall success and happiness.

Taking time for ourselves is essential, but when I think about self-care, I also consider its deeper implications. Spiritual Intelligence teaches us to connect with our “Inner Selves” and to recognize that nurturing our “Spirit” can enhance our capacity to manage work and personal life. It’s not just about physical activities. Engaging in self-reflection or gratitude practices can shift how we view our responsibilities. This awareness can transform our approach to balancing remote work and home life into a more intentional journey. Let’s not just fill our schedules with tasks, but also with moments that align with our true purpose.

Document your wins at the end of the week. Don't wait for the splashy milestones to celebrate your success. Momentum drives me, so I've kept a weekly win journal to document success and create space to reflect along the journey. Wins can include things like: -I helped a coworker solve a problem -I made progress on an initiative -I spoke up on something important to me -I tried something new -I made a mistake, but I handled the situation well

When you reflect, know that busyness is not a measure of success. We live and are rewarded for participating in the culture of busyness. Focus more on the output and achievements rather than the activities. Not only can you actually enjoy the process, but more often than not, also deliver a higher quality output in a shorter amount of time.

Don’t think of it as working from home. Think of it as working in an office in your home. Even if that is a fold out desk in your kitchen. Don’t do anything else but work there. And only work there. No laptops on the sofa. No phone calls from the bed. After 12 years remote working, this is the single biggest thing that helps me keep work life separate.

It's important to consider what about your professional and personal lives are important when attempting to juggle them. It can help us judge: 1. where the boundary lines should be for us 2. in what order your priorities should lie 3. how much of yourself to give to what, and when Not all hours are created equal once we allocate people and activities to them. What are our values? Our needs? Our desires? Especially if working remotely is a new experience, it will have an impact, when couple with a new child or home, or other life milestones Juggling only works when you acknowledge the weight, size, and shape of each ball, is unique