The main challenge facing those working from home is the ability to switch off from their work life to their home life.
For many of us, we leave home and go to a place of work, then return home. Each location has a specific destination, so we can switch on and off reasonably comfortably. Home and work have different sights, sounds, smells, and our senses pick up on these differences and automatically switch our thoughts.
There are ways to work from home and switch our brains on and off so that we can relax at home and not think about work, despite it also being our place of work.
Just like getting a good night's sleep, it is all about consistent patterns.
When you are working from home, have a single place that you call "the office". If you don't have a room designated as an office, it can be anywhere in your home. I suggest somewhere far away from where you relax.
For those in the farming community or who actually live in the middle of their work, and don't have a physical office, choose a chair that is 'the work chair'.
When you enter that office/location or sit in that chair, say inside your head say - "Time for work!" When you have finished work and walk out of that office/location or stand up from that chair, inside your head say - "I'm home!"
Changing our pattern of behaviour can take a little time, often 60 to 80 days. However, if we bring physiology (a physical action) and psychology (what we say or think inside our head) together, amazing things happen in a much shorter timeframe.
For those who come home from work, all you have to do to switch off is to walk inside your home, while taking a deep breath through your nose as you do so, say inside your head - "I'm home!" When you have to do work from home in the evenings, use the same technique described above.
If you receive a work phone call at home, head to that office or sit in that chair to answer it.
We once had clear delineation between work and home, those lines have now been blurred. Introducing a few boundaries can be very effective in bringing balance back to our busy lives.
Let's talk!
Switiching Off After Work.