Separating Work and Home
Working from home can be both a blessing and a curse, as many learned during the work-at-home days of the pandemic. It may be wonderful to ditch the commute and work in your PJs, but it also means the workday never ends. While there are some great advantages to working from home, there’s also a real benefit to putting some space between your work life and home life.
Work at Home Stats
The pandemic has given us real insight into the stark differences between the 9-to-5 office life and working from home. Before COVID-19, 17% of people worked from home five days a week, but after COVID-19 that number more than doubled to 44%.
People appreciate the flexibility of working from home, but it also presents some challenges according to Pew Research:
65% say they feel disconnected from coworkers.
Half of parents say it’s been difficult to get work done with kids at home.
53% of younger workers (ages 18 to 29) say it’s been difficult for them to feel motivated to do their work.
There’s also the question of how much work is getting done. While some reports say productivity is up, others show a different story:
60% have taken a nap during work.
74% pretend to be working when they’re not.
45% worked for another company while on the clock.
Work/Home Separation
The reality is working from home is going to depend on how well you make it work. If you’re motivated and focused, it might work really well. But if you need some interaction with coworkers and to minimize distractions, an office environment might be a better fit.
A hybrid approach, such as a coworking space like Evolve, might be the best of both worlds. You can get a shorter commute time and more flexibility, while also getting that social interaction and the change of scenery that can make you more productive.
However you approach work, here are three tips to help you separate work and home:
Work happens at work: It’s helpful psychologically to have a dedicated space for work. That’s where you go to do your work, whether it’s into the office or at the kitchen table. But the key is to leave work at work. Do your work in that space, and don’t let it spill over to other areas. Your brain engages when you enter that space. So leave some spaces—say the couch in front of the TV—as places where your brain can always disengage.
Set expectations: The flexibility of working at home is great for a lot of people, but it’s still important to have set hours for working and time when you’re not working. It’s key to communicate these expectations to your family. One of the great joys of a flexible job is being able to attend your kids’ events during the day, but it often means making up for it by working at night. That’s OK, as long as everyone knows what to expect.
Shut off notifications: Work most often intrudes on the home life thanks to the constant barrage of notifications. You get emails in the evening that pull you away from family time. The solution? Shut off those notifications. It’s likely those emails can wait until the morning. It’s a good productivity practice to get into the habit of checking email at set times throughout the day as opposed to jumping into the inbox every time that notification chimes.
If you need to get out of the house to be more productive but still want some workplace flexibility, take a tour of Evolve to see if our coworking space can work for you.