PART 2: TIME MANAGEMENT & BOUNDARIES
This is Part Two of a three-part series on Improving Wellness while Working Remotely. Click here to read Part One.
As mentioned in the first installment in this three-part series, it is no secret that there are benefits and challenges to working remotely. (If you haven’t read Pt. 1 yet, no worries! Go ahead then come on back here). At Rivvly, we believe that the good outweighs the bad, but that doesn’t mean that these dilemmas aren’t real. They CAN be overcome! The three most common obstacles are: Isolation, Time Management/Boundaries, and Workspace. Making little changes each day can make a massive impact on your work/life balance! This week, we are going to reflect and strategize in the area of Time Management/Boundaries… This is by far one of my favorite areas to flex my “say no” muscle. Because the decisions you make determine the schedule you keep. The schedule you keep determines the life you have!
When you work from home, you are not clocking in and out in the traditional sense. There is no “getting credit for just showing up.” You are the one who is in charge of how you spend time and you need to be careful. Two extremes are waiting to gobble you up and rob you of your livelihood: your motivation can majorly plummet OR work can take over your schedule and become your life. Learning how and when to say both YES and NO are the core of mental, emotional, and physical health. Some advice to keep things in check include:
People who work from home are either separators or and integrators. You can start at 9 and stop at 5 and separate your schedule, or you can integrate your work into evenings/weekends. But at the end of the day, it is still about routine. If you like to catch up on emails first thing in the morning (separator) or you like to do that while your husband watches football on Sunday (integrator), that is fine. But you better keep that time consistent and sacred.
It's okay to not be reachable 24/7. Although that sounds scary in our world of connectedness, it gives you a lot of peace and rest. Yes, emergencies happen at work. And it’s a compliment to be considered the go-to problem solver! But there is nothing more distracting from your child’s soccer game than an email titled: Urgent!!! Marketing Report Please Reply. The marketing report can wait, you don’t want to miss his first goal. You can address the fire first thing tomorrow morning with more care and efficiency than you can frantically be typing it out on your phone on the sidelines of a game. Handy tip: Slack notifications can be silenced outside of business hours. Gmail can be “turned off” right at 5:01 PM and “turned back on” at 9:00 AM.
Make sure that you schedule breaks for yourself where you can get MOVING. This is one where I challenge you to get creative! Channel your inner Jane Fonda or Richard Simmons. Set little alarms throughout the day to drink water and stand/stretch! Go for a brisk walk outside or a run if that’s your thing, shove your coffee table over and break out the yoga mat and weights, call a friend or family member and pace the house while you chat, do a household chore like catching up on laundry or breaking out the vacuum, or just go to the gym - no waiting for equipment, no one else to share the sauna with, and come back to work refreshed and tension-free after a great workout!
Coupling some of these practices with the tips from Part 1 of this series, will seriously alter your work life for the better. At Rivvly, we deeply encourage our Remote Associates (and other remote workers) to care and educate themselves about their mental and physical wellness. It truly goes a long way toward both empowering them and also keeping them healthy!
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