Lessons with Leasha – SPARCing New Routines
While many of us are still primarily working from home and supervising our kids’ virtual school experience from home, it can sometimes feel like there is no end to our workday. We often work sporadically throughout the day between breaks in the kids’ Zoom schedules, or we find ourselves constantly checking emails round the clock simply because our laptop is right there in front of us at all times. It’s important to take some time away from the virtual work/school scene and simply give ourselves a break.Gone are the days when I could use the car ride home from work as the alone time I needed so much before getting into the dinner prep, homework, and bath/bedtime routine. Now, at the “end” of my workday, what would normally be a 30-minute commute from my office to my home has been replaced by a 30-second walk from my upstairs office to my downstairs kitchen to start preparing dinner. There is just no clear divide between my “outside of the home” work and my “inside the home” work.
So, over the last few months, I’ve realized that I have to be intentional about separating work from home. It can be done! Here are some things that I encourage you to implement into your day as much as possible if you are still working from home:
1) Start and stop your workday at a set time each day just as you would if you were going into the office (9am-5pm, 8am-4pm, etc.)
2) Be sure to give yourself a lunch break just as you would if you were working at the office (30 minutes, 1 hour, etc.)
3) Remember that what someone else deems “urgent and important” is not necessarily “urgent and important” for you. If someone calls/emails you with a request at 4:59pm, and your workday is scheduled to end at 5pm, address that need the next business day. (Assuming that it’s not an emergency of course!) Your work will still be there waiting for you tomorrow!
4) Give yourself a break before going into your evening routine of dinner, bath time and bedtime. Try to get some fresh air during this time or at least a change of scenery. Take a walk or find a different room in your house to go into instead of leaving one workspace and going directly into another workspace.
This time last year, so many of us were excited about the idea of working remotely. Sure, it’s proven that we can be productive without being confined to an office Monday through Friday, but it’s also revealed the truths that socializing with others and having the freedom to move about the community as we wish are so crucial to our well-being. Remote work, which we thought would be the perfect solution to our work-life balance woes, can still lead to burnout if we do not go about it with an intentional plan.
Learn to give yourself a break. You’ve got to carve out time for yourself, whether you use that time to meditate, take a nap, go on a drive, or read a book. In the midst of doing the great work that you do and caring for all your loved ones, don’t forget to care for YOU!
Love & Light,
Leasha