Ways To Improve Work-Life Balance During COVID-19

Ways To Improve Work-Life Balance During COVID-19 Ways To Improve Work-Life Balance During COVID-198 min read Read ­ing Time: 7 min ­utesThe unprece ­dent ­ed times have brought all of us humans to adapt the work from home pol ­i ­cy. As coro ­n ­avirus spreads rapid ­ly all across the globe, peo ­ple are stay ­ing inside to assure their safe ­ty. This in return has brought the offices at home too. Things changed overnight, there ­by also chang ­ing the way of life. In fact, most of the peo ­ple have nev ­er even stayed at home for such long hours. Work-life bal ­ance has become the most impor ­tant facet that peo ­ple are unable to obtain these days. Being at home at all hours of the day, and your office being inside the same four walls as your house. These fac ­tors have made it near ­ly impos ­si ­ble and dif ­fi ­cult to sep ­a ­rate work life from per ­son ­al life. The inabil ­i ­ty to main ­tain a work-life bal ­ance has been an issue since many years. But with the ongo ­ing pan ­dem ­ic, the prob ­lem has increased fur ­ther. And it is impor ­tant to find the bal ­ance at this hour, giv ­en that the sit ­u ­a ­tion is uncer ­tain and dif ­fi ­cult for the whole world. So how can one find a bal ­ance between work and the day-to-day rou ­tine of life amid the eco ­nom ­ic unbal ­ance and a dan ­ger to life pre ­vail ­ing all around? How To Maintain A Work-Life Balance Plan Your Activities For The Day Set a time as to when you would like to do what. Ana ­lyz ­ing and divid ­ing the day into cer ­tain activ ­i ­ties that you want to com ­plete with ­in the day can be an effec ­tive way to main ­tain bal ­ance. One option could be to set your work ­ing hours the same as you would have dur ­ing reg ­u ­lar office days. This will give you a prop ­er rou ­tine to work with ­in the con ­fined hours on a reg ­u ­lar basis. Anoth ­er option can be to divide your work ­ing hours and per ­son ­al tasks even ­ly through ­out the day. Keep a track of time, not ­ing down what work-relat ­ed as well as per ­son ­al activ ­i ­ties would you want to pro ­ceed with for one week. As a result, you will be able to eval ­u ­ate where you spent extra time and where you need to invest more time. Office ­Timer and Tog ­gl are some of the soft ­wares that you can use to effec ­tive ­ly man ­age your tasks and time. Set Your Priorities If you have your pri ­or ­i ­ties set for both work as well as per ­son ­al life, a lot can be bal ­anced and planned accord ­ing ­ly. A dis ­ci ­plined set of pri ­or ­i ­ties makes it eas ­i ­er to have a bal ­anced day. The only task is to eval ­u ­ate what should be your pri ­or ­i ­ty and what not. Ask your ­self what is of utmost impor ­tance and there ­by decide where you lack. Start work ­ing on things where you feel you lack. Give less time to things that you feel like you are over ­do ­ing so that you can achieve a state of bal ­ance. If a pri ­or ­i ­ty task is not yield ­ing the desired results, try dif ­fer ­ent meth ­ods of approach ­ing it. Maintain Boundaries It is very impor ­tant to be hon ­est to your ­self and set real ­is ­tic lim ­its for work as well as per ­son ­al respon ­si ­bil ­i ­ties. If you set unachiev ­able goals, you will drown deep down in the pend ­ing work, with ­out even real ­iz ­ing. This will result in your work fol ­low ­ing you 24/7. Final ­ize your work lim ­its by dis ­cussing your tar ­gets with your super ­vi ­sor, col ­leagues or team mates. Set time lim ­its and work only in the pre-decid ­ed time brack ­et, until and unless a work emer ­gency calls in. When done with office hours, make it a point to not rush back to revert to your work emails or mes ­sages, unless impor ­tant ­ly need ­ed. Make Time For Health The impor ­tance of tak ­ing care of your health can ­not be empha ­sized enough. Espe ­cial ­ly now when we are all sur ­round ­ed by a dan ­ger to our health, it is vital to take care of our ­selves. More ­over, if you are not in a good state phys ­i ­cal ­ly, it will affect your work as well as peace of mind and you will not be able to give your best. Main ­tain a prop ­er sleep sched ­ule and fol ­low a reg ­u ­lar sleep pat ­tern. Exer ­cise at least 3 times per week. 24HourFitness and Born ­Fit ­ness are some of the sites where you can find per ­son ­al train ­ers, yoga instruc ­tors as well as diet plans to keep your ­self fit. If you work out reg ­u ­lar ­ly and sleep well, you will be able to increase your pro ­duc ­tiv ­i ­ty lev ­els as well. You can also read about 11 Healthy After Work Habits To Try Instead Of Sit ­ting On The Couch All Night Have A Designated Workspace The absence of an office premise can ham ­per your abil ­i ­ty to work whole-heart ­ed ­ly and in all seri ­ous ­ness. So it is impor ­tant to have a sep ­a ­rate work ­space, away from the com ­fort of your couch or bed. If you have a dis ­tinct work ­space, it will give you an idea of respon ­si ­bil ­i ­ty and work seri ­ous ­ness, ded ­i ­cat ­ing the pre ­scribed time to your work alone. Make it a point to sit alone while work ­ing, with ­out your con ­cen ­tra ­tion being ham ­pered by your fam ­i ­ly mem ­bers. Dis ­trac ­tion is an ene ­my of pro ­duc ­tiv ­i ­ty. All fam ­i ­ly mem ­bers must decide amongst them ­selves to respect each oth ­er’s time and space while work ­ing. Ditch all the dis ­trac ­tions by build ­ing a seclud ­ed work ­space. You can refer to the video Work ­ing from Home: How to Set Up Your Work ­space to get an idea about how to cre ­ate a work ­space of your own. Communicate Effectively Since more than half of the world is work ­ing from home amid Covid-19, com ­pa ­nies are try ­ing hard ­er and hard ­er to meet ends and make work from home as effec ­tive as pos ­si ­ble. Team mates do not meet every day to dis ­cuss the tasks and results. Every ­one is depen ­dent on tech ­nol ­o ­gy and that is why com ­mu ­ni ­ca ­tion can some ­times be dis ­turbed. While work ­ing from home, com ­pa ­nies can make use of var ­i ­ous com ­mu ­ni ­ca ­tion soft ­ware or tools to make sure that the employ ­ees of the com ­pa ­ny can com ­mu ­ni ­cate effec ­tive ­ly. Tag ­g ­box and Work ­place are tools which help in easy com ­mu ­ni ­ca ­tion for com ­pa ­nies work ­ing remote ­ly. Video con ­fer ­ences should also be held time-to-time to main ­tain a sense of work ­ing along with a team. This way you can also make out how a col ­league is cop ­ing with the work and if there is any bar ­ri ­er. Implement The Balance Week ­ends def ­i ­nite ­ly mean that work should not fol ­low you for the days you get off. Treat the week ­ends dif ­fer ­ent from how you treat the rest of the days of the week. And when your time is up for the day on week ­days, learn to switch off the work on time. When you had a reg ­u ­lar office, you used to trav ­el back home from the office at a fixed time. Make the same habit while work ­ing from home as well. If you do not cre ­ate the gap between pro ­fes ­sion ­al and per ­son ­al life, both sides of your life will be affect ­ed. Decide upon a spe ­cif ­ic time and get off from the screen by that time. Dis ­cuss with your col ­leagues and team mates about the time ­line and coor ­di ­nate accord ­ing ­ly. Social ­ize on calls or texts after your work is over. These are dif ­fi ­cult times when peo ­ple can ­not step out of their house and are stay ­ing inside to main ­tain safe ­ty. So con ­nect vir ­tu ­al ­ly with your fam ­i ­ly and friends. Plan your evenings dis ­tinct ­ly on some days. Because if you will have some ­thing to look for ­ward to after work, you will def ­i ­nite ­ly switch off from work on time. It was def ­i ­nite ­ly eas ­i ­er to unplug and end your work ­ing day in an office before Covid-19. If noth ­ing else, peo ­ple would look for ­ward to going home. But since almost all employ ­ees are work ­ing from home, main ­tain ­ing the cut off seems dif ­fi ­cult. More ­over, there are no plans to be made for an out ­ing either. The only safe place is inside the walls of your own house. Employ ­ees there ­fore find no com ­pelling rea ­son to shut off their lap ­tops and end up work ­ing all through the day. It has become impor ­tant for peo ­ple to learn that they are not sup ­posed to sway away with work. Oth ­er ­wise, peo ­ple will hurt them ­selves indef ­i ­nite ­ly phys ­i ­cal ­ly as well as men ­tal ­ly. The pan ­dem ­ic has tak ­en a lot of our brain’s space already. If you hoard work over it, you may be play ­ing with your men ­tal peace. You can refer to 30 Fun Things to Do at Home to get some cre ­ative ideas as well. Make Smarter Decisions It can cer ­tain ­ly be pos ­si ­ble that when employ ­ees feel over ­bur ­dened with work, it is because of their own ways of work ­ing. With ­out a prop ­er and effi ­cient work plan and strat ­e ­gy, the pres ­sure of com ­plet ­ing the tasks can be your own cre ­ation and not some ­thing ini ­ti ­at ­ed by the employ ­er. The main aim while work ­ing from home should be to work smart ­ly and more effi ­cient ­ly. The key is to not work for longer hours indef ­i ­nite ­ly, but to work smart ­ly. If we all adopt the right com ­bi ­na ­tion of time and man ­age ­ment, there will be a lot less to stress about. A sense of dis ­ci ­pline and struc ­ture can take you a long way. And if you tread on the path of bal ­ance, you will be able to make a pos ­i ­tive impact in all aspects. Health and qual ­i ­ty-life ben ­e ­fits are just a few to name. You only need to take con ­trol over your work. When you suc ­cess ­ful ­ly prac ­tice a bal ­ance rou ­tine, you will be able to enhance your orga ­ni ­za ­tion ­al per ­for ­mance as well as pro ­duc ­tiv ­i ­ty. More ­over, work ­ers who are suc ­cess ­ful in attain ­ing a work-life bal ­ance work smarter and hard ­er than oth ­er employ ­ees who tend to feel over ­worked due to an inabil ­i ­ty to main ­tain the bal ­ance. So if you still have not been able to find your work-life bal ­ance since this pan ­dem ­ic start ­ed, now is the time to start work ­ing on it. Set some bound ­aries and stick to them. They will not only ben ­e ­fit you but also your work pro ­duc ­tiv ­i ­ty. Improve Work-Life Balance During COVID-19