How to balance professional life and personal life: Quarantine Edition

Living in quarantine must have changed many aspects of your life. For instance, constantly washing your hands. Maybe even your work habits. For many companies, it meant moving to work through the home office. Naturally, this altered the routine of their employees, for better or for worse. How to balance professional life and personal life?

Of course, saturated working hours and the poor quality of free time affect the well-being of employees. The balance between personal and professional life has been hard for a long time. Now, because of the pandemic, it’s even worse.

Social events after work have been the hallmark of companies looking to raise employee morale and grow a sense of community. But as we all know very well, those days are over for now. So, companies interested in keeping workers happy and productive face new challenges. In fact, even for employers whose workers claim to have a good work-life balance, adapting to the world of home office has been a struggle.

Currently, you might start your day at 10 in the morning. It’s likely that by that time before the pandemic you were already in the office after having showered, bathed, and driven to work. Today, you probably join virtual meetings in pajamas and without bathing. You might even not have breakfast until noon. Perhaps it’s more than 8 in the evening, and you’re still working.

So, for your sake, this situation must stop.

The global Covid-19 pandemic has brought with it new challenges for the global economy. Even to the way we interact with each other. Because of this, many companies have implemented teleworking to maintain the continuity of their businesses and work teams. However, during quarantine, many people suffer from stress and anxiety. Of course, that negatively affects their relationships as well as their work performance.

Quarantine worldwide is leading us to change our daily habits and even our lifestyle. So, maintaining a balance between the different daily activities is key. Besides, productivity does not have to do only with the time we spend working or studying. Actually, it’s also related to personal life. This is because being at home can make us lose track of time without making the most of it.

Schedule all your activities

The first step to working or studying from home is to set up a routine. You should use some of your time to focus on yourself. While it’s not necessary to dress to impress, staying in pajamas is not something that can motivate you either. So you should choose a very casual outfit that will cheer you up for the day. 

Also, set up and organize your workspace. Customize it and make it comfortable however you need. Make sure it’s a quiet place so you can concentrate. Avoid working from the bed, keep lighting and/or ventilation constant and drink at least 2 liters of water to stay active.

Our brain likes to keep things neat. Routines improve decision-making during the day. Besides, anyone can benefit from having their own routine. However, to create a day-to-day agenda, we must consider activities that we didn’t plan in the days before the quarantine. For instance, household chores, cooking, and caring for children, who are also at home. Use the first 30 minutes after waking up to organize your day.

To manage our activities with an agenda it is necessary to set schedules and respect them. One tool to complete our tasks is to classify them by their importance. Balance professional life and personal life. For instance, differentiating between urgent and non-urgent tasks is a helpful way to organize. This way, you can have efficient time management, our most valuable resource.

It’s best to make a routine with established schedules that allow you to organize the activities of the day. It’s necessary to train our minds to continue working methodically and orderly. Ideally, you’ll use a part of your morning to organize your day. Additionally, you should do a stimulating activity like seeing the news, reading, or anything that calls for critical thinking.

Create boundaries

By eliminating the need to commute, the hours that were spent on transportation are probably being added to the working hours. That is why we feel like we work more than before. So, to avoid that, you must plan moments of rest so as not to spend more than four hours sitting.

Physical and temporal boundaries are recommended to be able to respect the time we devote to the rest of our personal needs. Motor activities should be interspersed with work every 90 minutes. For example, a stretching or breathing routine can help. In fact, the brain can process information better and be more productive with this method.

Also, choosing and arranging a workplace at home, even if it is small, can help. Specifically, the family is taught that while someone is in that space it means that they are working and should not be interrupted.

Define your work correctly

When it is determined that the working day is over, it is time to move on to other actions, preferably recreation or exercise. It’s important to have a personal activity to balance with the work. For example, physical exercise and other activities such as watching a movie or a concert, playing an instrument, board games, calling your friends, and the like. Having time for yourself is always recommended.

Free yourself from stress

Parents must be the guides of tranquility in this quarantine because they transmit to their children how to behave during an emergency. Stress causes many diseases because the immune system lowers its defenses when you feel bad.

Some ways to work on stressful situations are meditation, listening to relaxing music, and having periods of rest. It’s important to encourage good relationships at home. Stress is a time bomb and can explode while you are with your family, causing anger and resentment.

Another aspect that you should take care of in quarantine is to stay informed through reliable sources. On the other hand, avoid becoming saturated with information about the pandemic.

Avoid harsh or energy-intensive activities in the morning

Due to the physical and emotional wear that we generate when we are in the same environment, we must avoid performing activities that take away too much energy or that generate emotional fatigue at the beginning of the day. 

Using different environments to perform daily activities strengthens emotional health. Your brain recognizes and associates if a place is for work, exercise, reading, and more. Balance professional life and personal life. You must condition a place and dedicate it only to teleworking. This also prevents us from taking the laptop (work) to the bedroom.

Take breaks

It’s necessary to take some breaks so that the work does not become monotonous and rigorous. The point is not to generate more stress than that produced by the lockdown. Therefore, you should work as you would in the office, without neglecting the constant communication with the work team. Also, take some active breaks to clear the mind and perform some stretching exercises.

Measure the time you spend in front of a screen

Controlling the time you spend in front of a screen is highly recommended. It helps to have a balance between your time online and offline. Currently, people spend at least 8 hours of their day on their smartphones or computers. Fortunately, there are apps like Space, app Detox and Off the Grid, which show you the periods you spend on other apps. They help you set a limit by reducing your dependence.

Measure your news consumption

While these days it is good to follow the latest news about Covid-19, try not to devote too much time to this activity. The vast amount of information available on the internet about the pandemic can overwhelm us and cause panic. Additionally, that increases the chance of believing or sharing fake news. So, always check the source of each post you read and identify the channels through which it is spreading.

Caring for the children

Young students are spending more time at home than ever before. Because of this, it is important to balance the use of technology for their school and personal life. It’s recommended to encourage face-to-face conversations, self-regulation, and manage schedules to harmonize their individual development. Besides, the fact that they do not have a bell that marks the time of entry and exit does not mean that they do not need a schedule. Actually, having a daily routine helps them to balance the pace of their activities.

Respect your times

Limit your work or study hours and separate them from your personal activities. This will keep you healthy as well as productive. Similarly, it defines priorities in daily tasks, establishes and respects lunch and/or rest times. Remember it’s always good to take a few 10-minute breaks during the day.

Without a doubt, we live in a historical moment in which the balance between work, study, and personal life is one of the most important needs to maintain a healthy and productive lifestyle. Balance professional life and personal life. Therefore, with these tips, we can stay connected while taking care of our minds, health, and social interactions.