Working from home every day is both a blessing and a curse. Dropping the commute is an easy way to get back wasted time, however that can come with unhealthy habits that are fairly easy to slip into. In this blog I cover some approaches that I take in order to be more effective, take effective breaks, and have a work-life balance.
Lunch Break Reset
One of the most effective things I have introduced into my day is exercise during my lunch break. I mostly try to remain constrained to an hour, but if allowed I'll occasionally go over to enable me to take a longer ride on my Peloton or work on more muscle groups than I normally would during a strength workout. Alternatively, I have a small enough lawn that I can get in trimming/mowing and soak up some sun.
The benefits here I feel are numerous:
- The great feeling of accomplishment when complete
- I get to keep my "personal" time open for hobbies
- I force myself to take a longer break and mentally reset
Of course there's negatives:
- Occasionally I'll have to skip on particularly busy days
- Skipping feels especially bad
There's many ways to approach this, but I've put a calendar block to make sure nobody tries to sneak me in a meeting last second and ACTUALLY needs my time during that dedicated window.
Making Up Time
This is one I still find myself struggling to keep up with, which is making up time whenever I do some extra time at the beginning/end of the day. Usually I'll make an effort on the next day to sign off a little early or log on a little later in order to bridge that gap. It seems like common sense to be talking about this, but once you get into the work from home groove this is easier and easier to let slip - don't let it.
Separate Work From Personal
This one definitely seems like a no-brainer, but when you're like me, you enjoy having one setup that can work with multiple computers. I do enjoy writing code or playing games in my personal time, and typically that involves using my personal computer. I use the same desk and same monitors to perform both of those activities.
One thing that has helped me is separate mice and keyboards that way when the day is over I can switch those around, flip the monitors to my PC input source, and know that I am fully disconnected at that point. It's such a minor difference, but one that can give you the peace of mind knowing that you're in personal mode and work can become an after-thought as you progress with the rest of your day.
Take Mental Health Days
One really undervalued option I feel is to take a day off on a particularly slow day for the rest of the world and just go do something. Recently I took a Monday off and went to the zoo. It gave me the opportunity to spend time with my wife in a relaxed atmosphere because it was quite empty. This may highly depend on the time of year, but definitely something to consider.