Working From Home: How To Maintain A Healthy Work Life Balance

Whenever I tell anyone I work from home, the majority think it’s sitting around in PJ’s all day and watching This Morning, in reality I pretty much work day to night and rarely take a lunch break. In the job I do I’m always switched on, there’s no break in the evening for social media as social media comes with the job, if an email comes in late at night (more often than not) I’ll update that blog post or sign that contract. The main thing is I’m always working and always switched on to work.

When you work from home and more so for yourself it can be really hard to switch off and achieve a healthy work life balance. Most recently when I found myself turning around content within just 24 hours (not because of anything on my part) I really felt it take it’s toll and not only did I fall straight asleep on my mattress from complete burnout, but I needed to think how to have a better balance in general.

This week is National Work Life Week (7-11 Oct) so I thought would share the things I’m working on to achieve a balance when working at home that might help you too.

SLEEP

Sleep, probably the most obvious of them all. I’m pretty sure everything feels better after a good rest. Recently I realised how much I had been working consistently without properly resting, I was sitting up late at night working and not because I had deadlines as such but more that I couldn’t switch off. I am always wanting to keep working and achieve the best. Sometimes though things just have to wait and I’m going to start making sure there is more of a cut off between work and sleep.

RELAX

Now I’m in bed am I actually sleeping? I swear my brain starts to think about things from ten years ago the minute my head hits the pillow. So I like to use a sleep spray infused with lavender and spritz that all over my bedding which helps me relax. I’ve also just ordered a CBD oil to help with my anxiety, I know a lot of people have found it works for them so I am keen to try it.

ME TIME

As I previously mentioned for my type of job everything is a content opportunity. Whether it’s going for a meal, walking around London or simply shopping, there is always that part of me thinking ‘well this would be a good blog post/Instagram/Youtube video’ etc. Even on holiday I am always thinking about the next content creation or feeling guilty that this beautiful setting would make a good Instagram picture. I’m getting better at making a balance and going to focus on more time for myself without the work side.

GETTING PERSONAL

There is that old phrase ‘don’t bring your work home with you’, well for me I don’t have a choice as I work from home and yes I could do the whole Starbucks/café thing, but that’s just not me and I actually like working at home as I do find I get a lot more done than if I was to do the latter. So when it comes to home life and work life they do cross over, one minute I’m working away the next I’m tidying up the kitchen because I’ve been staring at it for the past twenty minutes.

But more importantly what is hard to manage is any online trolling, imagine someone bullying you at work, it’s not nice but maybe when you come home you forget about it a little, well what if it was happening whilst you were in the comfort of your own home. Yes, it’s through a screen but it doesn’t mean it’s not as hard to deal with. Luckily I don’t get as far as much as others do, but the comments I have had were bad enough.

My best advice for this is really just to ignore it, because I’m pretty sure they have forgotten their comment within a few seconds of writing it.

TAKE A BREAK

Something I am learning to do is a take a break. I’ve started trying to read more and have started reading Fearne Cotton’s Calm, staying off social media (here are 5 other things to do) and when it was Summer I was going for lots more walks which was good to clear my head. Even if it’s just watching your favourite programme in the evening, time out is so important.

Do you work from home? I would love to hear how you maintain balance.

This post is in conjunction with TEMPUR® but all thoughts are my own.