Boundaries: Creating work/life balance in a remote world

"Home Office Closed!"

This is what's written on a sign taped to the door to my home office, which occupies one of the two bedrooms in my Queens, N.Y. apartment, and when that door is closed it serves as a reminder that I'm supposed to be living my life, as opposed to working (or thinking about work).

This is not easy to do, especially when you work from home, something I've been doing for the past six years as VP of Content for ECRM. When your office is ten steps away from every room in your apartment (New York City apartments are not very big), it can be a challenge to go "off-the-clock," knowing you are just a room away from sending that email or finishing that nearly-completed task. Like many of you, I'm guilty of jumping into the office off-hours to write a quick post or finish an expense report.

And for those who have been forced into a remote work environment for the first time due to the pandemic, it can be even more difficult to separate work life from personal life, especially if their home office is basically wherever their laptop happens to be. And during the early days of quarantining, there were fewer options available for personal activities, which compounded the situation.

But it was during this time that the importance of setting boundaries between work life and personal life was driven home to me, and I realized just how beneficial it was to health and well-being. I also discovered that, when done correctly, it can even boost your productivity during those hours that you are actually on the clock.

Why boundaries?

Nobody on his or her deathbed every said: "Gee, I really wish I had worked more." Instead, they regret those things they haven't fulfilled for themselves: never pursing that dream, not spending enough time with family or friends, not learning a skill or hobby. These are the activities that make us who we are as individuals, they are the reasons for living. They are often why we work in the first place.

There are many studies that show how taking time off to engage in personal activities can improve mental and physical health, as well as the health of relationships. Indeed, Google just last week gave employees a company-wide day off this past Friday -- extending their Labor Day weekend to provide an opportunity for them to rest and recharge.

Taking time off also helps boost productivity, as counter intuitive as that may sound. When you create a clear boundary between work life and personal life, you are more present in each, and therefore more focused. I myself have noticed this from my own experience. During the early months of the pandemic, with not much outside activities available on the weekends, I lapsed into doing some work in what I thought was an effort to "get a jump on the week ahead." Same went for evenings. As a result, my personal and work life became blurred.

So I made myself a rule not to do anything work-related on the weekends. That worked, but I noticed myself sneaking into my office during the evenings to finish up some tasks. To address this, I started giving myself a hard start at 8 am and a hard stop at 5 pm. That's when I created the sign for my home office door, and began shutting it (living alone, I really had no other reason to shut it).

Interestingly, what I noticed was that instead of accomplishing less work during the week, I started accomplishing more. Knowing that I'd be off-the-clock evenings and weekends led to greater focus during working hours and enhanced my ability to stay on task.

The mind's default network and creativity

Another benefit of downtime is that is when your mind tends to more frequently enter the default network state, often referred to as the "mind wandering" mode. This is a state in which your brain starts digesting what you've learned while doing focused work, making connections between ideas and strategies in the background and subconsciously working on solving problems for you. This activity is what often results in those "aha" moments, when an idea jumps into your consciousness while engaged in a mindless activity, such as showering or shaving.

I try to leverage this aspect of cognition when working on a story. I'll read through all of the notes from my reporting, then take a break from it, maybe walk around the block, or sleep on it, if it's toward the end of the day, and I often find that when I return my focus on the work my mind has made some connections between all of the random information that's been floating around in my head. I always say that I write my stories on my feet; I just type on the laptop.

Many entrepreneurs are also realizing the value of this downtime, and treat it as a tool to enhance their success. Long gone are the days of bragging about 24-7-365 burn-the-candle-at-both-ends; now founders brag about how much sleep they get, or about time spent with their family. Gary Vaynerchuk often talks about the value of getting 6 to 8 hours of sleep. Casey Neistat's morning runs and evening family times are non-negotiable, as he points out in a video he produced about how he plans his day. What both of them do in their non-work hours complements what they do while on the clock.

Two tips for productive downtime

There are two actions that I've found extremely helpful is achieving this balance between work time and downtime. One is referred to as time-blocking or time-boxing (depending on whether you read Gary Keller and Jay Papasan's The One Thing or Nir Eyal's Indistractable -- both amazing books on productivity and eliminating distraction). The other is an extension of that activity I developed for myself that I call, The Calendar Dump.

Time boxing is taking all of your activities -- both work and personal -- and assigning time to them on your calendar, and sticking to it. So for example, on a given work day, I'll block out from 5 am to 7:30 am for journaling, reading, and my workout. From 8 am to 9 am I typically have marketing meetings. Then from 9 to noon whenever possible I block out for content creation. I know for myself that I get the most done when I have three consecutive hours for writing, video editing, or any particular content I need to accomplish. Afternoons I schedule in my calls. Throughout the day I'll also enter some spaces on my calendar for sending/replying to emails and other administrative work I need to do.

Weekends are a little looser, but if there are specific personal tasks I need to accomplish like cleaning or other errands, I'll try and assign them some time too, but obviously it's nice to have a little spontaneity during your downtime, as well. Plus I leave a spot every day for my calendar dump.

Just as important as it is for me to keep out of my office during non-work time, I need to keep my office out of my head during my personal time. The calendar dump helps me to accomplish that. We all fall victim to this: once we're off the clock we suddenly remember a small, unfinished task such as an email to which we need to reply, or a meeting we need to schedule. So we either go and do it, or we don't and it just keeps nagging us. These pending tasks tend to linger in our minds until we do something about them.

So what I have recently started doing when one of these things pops up during an evening or weekend is I create an entry on my calendar and just list it in the subject line. And any other task that comes to mind I just add it to that entry or in its own entry if the task is large enough. This accomplishes two things: First, it's assigned a time on my calendar so I know it will get done. Plus, even more importantly, it allows my mind to completely forget about it during my downtime, which helps me to better focus on the present.

Of course, there will be exceptions to all of this; emergencies may come up at work, or a deadline may necessitate a late evening or weekend on occasion, but by ensuring you make the most from your downtime, you'll better be able to adapt to these things when they happen.

Sure, the sign on my office door is mostly symbolic; in fact, I'm sitting in my me office now as I write this because it's the only place where I have a desk. But writing is one of the things that I love to do on my downtime (writing columns like this, that is), and as I continue working on finding that balance between work time and personal time, you should start seeing a lot more of these!

#remotework #worklifebalance #personalgrowth #workfromhome #business #remoteoffice #wfh #productivity #entrepreneurship #leadership #virtualmeetings #wellness #wfhlife