7 Steps to Overcome Challenges of Working from Home

Are you missing the key components of office life? Are you missing home which used to be 100% home? Do you find it difficult to transition into work mode and then switch off for the day?

The good news is that you are not alone. 

While for many people working from home is a new experience, there are some tried and true strategies that make it possible to create our own personal model of work-life balance. 

With challenges arising from working away from our colleagues and managers, but with a comfortable couch and TV available 24/7, we need to find the ways to help our “work part” and “home-and-leisure part” coexist and cooperate.

Step #1: Understand challenges your work-oriented part and home-and-leisure part face

Understand your parts. There is a part of you that for many years has been trained to focus on the task in hand, ignore distractors related to private life, postpone pleasant activities until you come back home or until the weekend. This part of you is confused now. It was accustomed to a daily routine of clocking in and out, open office exposure to prying eyes, coffee machine or water cooler chat, to name but a few. There is also your home and leisure part which takes it for granted that the smell of your favourite candles, big soft cushions and a remote control on the coffee table can mean only one thing – end of business day, chill mode on. It doesn’t understand why you are still hunched over the laptop at 7pm instead of watching your favourite TV series. Now that you understand why there is a conflict, make sure that each of your parts can see the bigger picture too. Tell them the situation has changed and together you need to find the best way to deal with the new reality.

Step #2:  Recognize your needs and values 

Everyone is different. We have different skills, different needs, different priorities. Although there was a myth that the perfect work-life balance ratio is 50-50, now we know that real work-life balance can only be achieved when we feel fulfilled both at work and in our private life. For everyone, though, it means something different. How to make your “work part” satisfied? How to make your “home-and-leisure part” happy? What values are important to each of them? How could you make them feel fulfilled? Make a list of these values. Next, how do you know each part feels fulfilled? Make a list of signs that tell you your “work part” and “home and leisure part” are satisfied.

Step #3: Acknowledge the benefits

Now that you know the values and needs, think about all the ways your “home-and-leisure part” benefits from what the “work part” does. What in your private life wouldn’t be possible without it? Which activities and things in your private life are there thanks to your work? Now, think about the ways the “work part” benefits from the activity of your “home-and-leisure part”. How would your professional life be different if your “home-and leisure-part” couldn’t fulfil its needs? 

Step #4: Define your transition rituals

While some people switch between work mode and leisure mode without even thinking about it, for many, it is a never-ending fight with distractors, procrastination, avoidance and many habits that make the day difficult. If this is the case, marking transitions with rituals that inform your brain that it is time to switch can make all the difference. Whether you take a walk, drink coffee, make a to-do list, or meditate to mark the beginning of your working day, if you make it a habit, it is a clear message to your “work part” that it is time to focus on your professional goals. Similarly, mark the moment work is switched off for the day with something that invites your home-and-leisure part in. 

Step #5: Identify potential difficulties and plan in advance

Is there anything that is likely to make your work time inefficient? Social media notifications? A call from a friend who doesn’t work now but loves to speak to you? Colourful magazines on the coffee table two metres away from you? Identify such things and plan how to act proactively to prevent unwanted situations from happening to you. Ask your friend to call you only after 5pm, put all the magazines in a different room, switch off notifications until what needs to be done is done. Obviously, you need to protect your leisure part too. What can you do to let your home-and-leisure part focus fully on spending time with your loved ones, reading a book, or watching your favorite TV series? Identify some options and implement your ideas.  

Step #6: Check in regularly 

Do you remember the values and needs of your “work part” and “home-and-leisure part”? Check in regularly with them to make sure they are fine. Monitor the situation and make tweaks to your daily routine if necessary.

Step #7: Be flexible and experiment

These days success has everything to do with flexibility. As the situation in the world is dynamic, employers will switch between office-only work, working from home and unlimited versions of hybrid systems, we need to remain flexible. Instead of a routine, we need routines. It is good to build some habits for our working-from-home days, but we may still need some routines for office-only days, business trip days, special event days, night shift days, etc. Experiment with structuring your time in different ways, improve your system if necessary and see what works best for you.