Creating Boundaries While Working from Home

With the world having experienced the pandemic for the last three years, chances are that you’ve experienced working from home. You’ll most likely have experienced how tempting it is to read that urgent work email while lounging from the bed and watching Netflix. And if you have kids, you can identify with that BBC commentator who had his kid walk in on his televised interview. For people who do work in a location other than the office, it’s crucial to know when to disconnect from business matters and create that delineation between work and personal life. To reiterate, it’s important now more than ever to create boundaries while working from home. 

Why Setting Boundaries While Working from Home is Crucial 

Most of our waking hours are spent making a living, and with working from home becoming the prevalent trend, it’s easy to fall into the pit of working at all hours of the day (and night).

Here are some good points on why setting boundaries while working from home is crucial:

1. Work-life balance rules: Without clear boundaries, it can be difficult to switch off from work and focus on personal responsibilities and self-care, leading to burnout and stress. It’s the small things that you do that creeps on your personal space, like installing Slack on your phone.
2. Burnout is real: Setting boundaries can help you avoid overworking and burning out, which can negatively impact both your physical and mental health. You may not be aware of it, but burnout creeps on you until you feel like you can’t face another long-winded email anymore.
3. Prioritize your mental health: You may not notice it, but you’re burning the candle on your mental health with every small business stuff that encroaches on your own time. Clear boundaries can help reduce stress and anxiety by allowing you to carve out time for self-care, hobbies, and social activities.
4. Increases productivity: Setting boundaries can help you structure your day and create a routine that maximizes productivity by prioritizing work tasks during set working hours. A routine that you do to start your workday serves as a mental girding up for the work that you’ll do for the day. It can be something as simple as putting on your noise-cancelling headset – a clear signal to family members or housemates that you’re in work-mode.
5. Enhances focus and creativity: Boundaries can help create a clear separation between work and personal life, allowing you to focus on work tasks during designated hours and freeing up mental space for creative thinking. That same headset that you put on, even if it’s just hanging on your neck, tells the people around you that you’re trying to earn a living and that these hours are paid for by the company.
6. Boosts job satisfaction: Creating boundaries while working from home leads to a better work-life balance. This in turn leads to a better mental health, thus, giving you more satisfaction with what you do for work.

Investing in Tools and Technology to Support Productivity and Well-being

Investing in tools and technology that support productivity and well-being can make a significant difference in the lives of remote workers as well as digital nomads. Companies might want to take a look into funding these equipment as it can help increase productivity, reduce distractions, and minimize the risk of injury or discomfort caused by prolonged computer use. This is especially true for workers who spend a significant amount of time on video calls, as high-quality webcams and noise-cancelling headsets can improve the quality of communication and minimize distractions. These same tools can also be a worthwhile investment for digital nomads because aside from being necessary for remote workers, they also lend you a more professional persona in remote business meet-ups.

Ergonomic equipment, such as ergonomic mouse and keyboards, can also help reduce the risk of repetitive strain injuries, wrist and hand injuries, and shoulder pain. Additionally, investing in mental health resources, such as meditation apps or counseling services, can help support employees in maintaining their mental health and managing stress, further enhancing their well-being and productivity. Other technologies that support remote collaboration and communication whilst maintaining data security (especially important for those handling personally identifiable information at home) is worth taking a look into.

Creating a dedicated workspace with equipment like noise-cancelling headsets, webcams, mouse and keyboard can help you boost your productivity and focus when working from home. This is crucial for people who don’t have the space or room all to themselves when working. It gives you a somewhat “physical” boundary that signals to housemates that you’re in the zone and are working. It’s a visual clue for others in the room that you’re in a meeting when you have your headset on and, with a dedicated webcam, they can see where not to go to avoid getting seen by others in your meeting.

Having the right computer peripherals and equipment can help create boundaries while working from home. Creating physical boundaries and communicating with your loved ones can go a long way towards segregating your business persona and you as a private person. Simply putting on your headset and taking it off at the end of your workday, while seemingly straightforward, can mean a lot in drawing a line between your work and your personal life.