Creating a Work Life Balance When You Work from Home

Working from home is awesome. There's no travel involved, you usually can set your own hours, you can wear 'home clothes' and you don't need to worry about things such as what to do if the kids are sick. But there is one significant pitfall and that is that the line between work time and home time can become blurred. It's easy to happen and it's often not something we recognise is happening. So today we're sharing with you seven things you can do to create a great work life balance when working from home.

7 Actions to Improve Your Work Life Balance When Working from Home

Here are seven things you can do today to improve your work life balance working from home:

• Create a dedicated workspace - are you working in your lounge or bedroom, surrounded by chores which need doing and constant demands from the kids? Set yourself up a dedicated workspace. It doesn't have to be a separate room, although that would be ideal. Instead you could use a corner of a room or even your dining room table as your headquarters.
• Get dressed - while you can certainly work in your pyjamas at home, getting dressed for work gives your brain (and your family) the message that it's work time now.
• Schedule your work and family time - sounds simple but booking time for work and time for family is a great way to ensure you achieve both!
• Take breaks - it's easy to get on a roll with a task and keep working at it, regardless of where you're working. But just like you'd take breaks if you worked elsewhere, it's vital you have coffee and lunch breaks at home too! Move away from your workstation and relax!
• Minimise distractions - once again this isn't isolated to working from home: it's easy to get distracted anywhere! Keep your desk facing away from others, keep your workspace tidy and organised and turn off any devices or accounts that aren't related to your work for the day.
• Get social - spend time catching up with friends outside of work hours. Take time to walk to the cafe for a coffee like you would if you worked elsewhere. Also keep socially engaged with others who also work from home. A great way to do that is to network online through an online business networking group.
• Fake a commute - often a commute to work is when we'd catch up on the latest news on the radio, listen to a podcast or psych ourselves up or wind down for the day. Even though you work from home, fake a commute by taking a walk around the blog before and after work to help enter or exit your work mindset.

Self-Care When Working from Home

When you work for a boss, it's part of their responsibility to notice when you're getting burnt out, that you take breaks and to send you home if you're sick. When you work for yourself, you're the one who needs to notice these things! Self-care involves:

• ensuring you get enough sleep
• take regular meal breaks
• use equipment safely
• socialise with others regularly
• go outside for breaks
• create an attractive workspace
• take sick days
• make and track your own goals

Self-care needs to be a vital part of your everyday routine when working at home. As mentioned above, it's so easy to blur the boundaries between work and family life. Self-care can help you see those boundaries clearly and feel better. When you feel better, you're more productive, making it a total win-win! It's now time to act - what's going to be your first step?