

Ellen Ernst Kossek, who studies work-life balance at Purdue University’s Krannert School of Management, writes in Organizational Dynamics that “effectively managing boundaries can help you not only effectively balance your career with your personal life demands, but can also help you be more effective as a leader who manages others.” If you’re not careful, a home office could mean you never leave work. Working from home can make achieving work-life balance even more difficult. Productivity expert Cal Newport says in his book Deep Work that every time you turn your attention from one thing to another-even just a quick glance at your phone-it saps productivity. Log out of social media and, when possible, put your phone on airplane mode. There are likely more distractions while working from home-from the cuddly cat to a talkative roommate or partner-and using one of these techniques can help to focus on heads-down work. Whether you’re a fan of the Pomodoro technique or prefer to plant trees with the Forest app, find a digital tool that helps you complete uninterrupted bursts of work (about 20 minutes) punctuated by short breaks (about five minutes), with a longer break after several work sessions. If all else fails, a pair of headphones-noise-canceling ones, if possible-can do wonders.
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Stack books or use plants to create artificial borders between your home office and your at-home (and perhaps unruly) coworkers. If not, try turning your desk toward a wall or a window to block out the distractions from the rest of the apartment. If you’re lucky enough to have an office with a door, use it. Juggling kids who are homeschooling or roommates on conference calls makes having a dedicated workspace difficult but essential for being productive at home. Notice: JavaScript is required for this content.įor many, it’s not working from home that’s difficult-it’s that everybody’s working from home. If you’re lucky enough to be working from home at the moment (only 33 percent of Americans are working remotely full-time), here are actions you can take right now to improve your work life while we keep one another safe.

Still, only about 5 percent of workers were actually full-time work from home in pre-pandemic America, which means a lot of people had to adjust to working remotely in 2020. for years, with the number of workers doing so having tripled in 15 years. Overcommunicate work has been increasing in the U.S. Use technology for more than just work 7.
