Draw clear boundaries
Home working is becoming more and more popular. Even permanent employees no longer want to work without regular days at home. But the workplace in your own four walls offers more than just advantages. In order not to make the home office a burden, a healthy separation of private life and work is important.
The home office is no longer only very popular with freelancers. Many permanent employees regularly take off-days from the stressful office routine and work from home. The advantages are obvious: no travel times with difficult commutes or travel times and controllable rest work without permanent distractions by colleagues, employees or co-workers.
However, it is due to the close spatial link between work and home that it is important to maintain clear boundaries and create a strict separation between working hours, relaxation periods and leisure time. The temptation is too great to wipe dust or do the laundry, even though you are sitting on an important task that requires absolute concentration. On the other hand, in many cases hardly any breaks are taken and the working hours are extremely stretched, because the computer is right next to lunch and the last e-mails are answered before falling asleep in bed.
The workplace in one’s own living space can therefore make the clear focus on the tasks difficult and prolong working hours in such a way that there is actually no more end of the workday. It is therefore important that in order to work efficiently and to create space, a few clear, individually tailored rules should be established and adhered to.
Rule 1: Consistent time management
In order to fully exploit the positive potential of the home office, it is generally important to ensure that a sensible, personally adapted time management and strict adherence to working hours are the aims and objectives. For Entrepreneurs and freelancers who work daily from home it’s also key to also communicate these times to the outside world. Not only for the customers, but more so to bind themselves to this time schedule and thus to create reliable routines. The communication of times and accessibility to the team or the boss are also important for the occasional home office days. A fixed time frame allows you to work after the personal energy high without sacrificing fixed working hours. This also has a direct impact on the work performance itself and enormously increases efficiency.
Rule 2: Spatial separation
Even if the work done naturally at home, it is still important to establish a spatial separation. The tools from computers to staplers should not conquer the entire household. This is not just about better organisation and overview, but also about the clear separation of job and private sector. Longer term, it is necessary to strictly avoid putting the computer to bed and getting up with it. Setting up to work at the kitchen table in your pyjamas is a poison for a healthy work-life balance in the home office. It is true that the door of the office is best closed. If a separate work area is not possible, the documents should at least be stored away for the evening so that the upcoming tasks are out of sight and thus out of mind.
Rule 3: Take breaks
Most typically in the home office, one tends to stop taking breaks at all. The fridge is right next door, so that even for lunch the desk is hardly left. The home office is particularly suitable for a healthy pause rhythm. The concentration phase of our brain should not be overused, otherwise after a few hours of intensive work we already feel tired and burned out. It is extremely important for the body to take a little break every 90 minutes and literally give the brain time to breathe: Take 20 minutes to get some fresh air and a few stretching exercises, such as neck and shoulder circles to release tension by sitting. For all breaks, the following applies: A small change of location is good. A short walk in the green immediately brings relaxation and new energy!
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