If you run your own business, or you freelance, it can be difficult to draw boundaries between work and home. However, a work-life balance is crucial to corporate wellness – not to mention your family’s wellbeing – so what can you do to relax, switch off and stick to healthy working hours? Get out of that RUT!
Routine – Many freelancers don’t stick to a schedule or routine, because freelancing allows you to work whatever hours you want. While this can be helpful if something comes up, more often that not you can end up over-working and forgetting to enjoy some time off. Create a strict schedule in which you begin and finish work at the same time every day, and make sure your clients are aware of these working hours so they know not to constantly bother you. During your scheduled time, sit in a room that’s devoid of distractions, and don’t go near them until your work day is done.
Unplug – Speaking of distractions, delete your Facebook and Twitter apps from your phone or tablet. If your business involves looking after clients’ or your own social media pages, the last thing you want is to be notified of something when you’re supposed to be getting ready for bed. Again, go on these sites during working hours, and log out at all other times. The same goes for your emails and texts. Get two email addresses and mobile phones – one for work and one for personal use. Log out of your work email and switch off your work phone when you’re out of work hours. That way, you won’t have to panic if you get an email or text on Saturday morning.
Talk – The first rule of non-work club is you don’t talk about work. Try to spend as much social time as possible with people who aren’t in your work environment, as this means you’ll be mentally separate from work. However, if you are friends with your clients or colleagues, then just establish a rule to never ‘talk shop’ outside of work. If you need to get some work stress of your chest, talk about it with your friends but then move on and don’t go back to it for the rest of the evening. Whatever the issue, it can almost always wait until Monday morning.