How to Leave Work at Work, Even If Working From Home

In today’s world of technology where you have email, texting, inter office apps for texting and other ways to easily communicate it’s difficult to leave work at work. Even if we aren’t checking emails or text at the dinner table, we find ourselves thinking about an upcoming meeting, something we need to do or how to respond to an email we received earlier.

While some jobs have clear lines of when you are ‘at work’ or not, many don’t and those boundaries become easily blurred. The distraction factor due to technology can be huge, mentally and otherwise.

I can’t tell you how often at the dinner table my husband’s phone buzzes indicating he has an email, and he picks it up to look at it.  We don’t even eat till 7 or 7:30 so I’m unclear what he thinks is so important it can’t wait till later or better yet tomorrow. When I mention this his comment is “but I’m not responding, just looking”. I’m positive this is not just in our house but many if not most.

It’s hard enough to leave work at work when work is in an office that you leave and go home, but when your office is at home…in your bedroom or dining room table it becomes increasingly difficult. 

I have clients telling me that they check email before going to bed because their computer is in their bedroom. After dinner they go back to work for “just a few hours” instead of spending time with the family or handling the things that keep your life in order such as paying bills, tasks around the house or even enjoying your favorite hobby. Too many of them tell me they forget to eat lunch or take breaks. All habits we need to break.

With more people working from home than ever, and no clear boundaries physically separating work from home it’s increasingly important that you establish boundaries for yourself.

Here are tips to help you both physically and mentally leave work at work.

1. Define your work hours.  If your hours are defined by your employer it’s a bit easier. Just make sure you don’t let those hours expand at home. Once you start slipping and working just 15 more minutes, or starting 20 minutes early you’ll find your day expands easily and rapidly.

Even if your day isn’t defined by your employer, consider what your time in the office would be if you went to a physical office. Just because you aren’t commuting an hour each way doesn’t mean you should use that time to work more. If you would typically arrive at the office at 8 and leave by 5, keep this schedule. Use the extra time you aren’t commuting for things you would enjoy, or catch up on projects you have on your list or just relaxing. 

If you are like me, an independent or a free-lancer you still need to define your work day. I’m a morning person so I get up about 5:30, walk the dog and exercise 3 or 4 mornings a week. Then my routine starts with feeding the dog, making coffee etc. I’m usually working by 7:30 and shut down at 4:30, sometimes earlier. It’s rare that I respond to emails at night or weekends, even if I read them. I structure my day so that I have time to do things that I enjoy, are necessary and still get time in for work.

2. Set expectations with others.  As I mentioned I rarely respond to emails at night or on weekends, and my clients know not to expect me to. I don’t work on Fridays and my clients know that unless it’s an emergency I won’t respond to an email sent after hours on Thursday till Monday morning. If it’s critical (and it rarely is) they can text me. That tells me something is really important for them.

You can and should do the same with your colleagues. Let others know (including your boss) what to expect of you in terms of regular business hours, when you will turn off your email and phone and will no longer respond.   I had a client, who was in Europe who used to call or text me at 6 AM because they knew I was awake and walking the dog. The first time it happened I responded thinking it was essential. Then I realized it was them believing I should be available when they wanted me, even at 6 AM. Your colleagues and boss shouldn’t think that their needs matter more than your time. Let them know what to expect, of course being reasonable. And then hold to that standard.

If they email or text you at 9 PM and you repeatedly respond all you are doing is encouraging them to continue this behavior. I promise you that if there is a critical situation they will call.

3. Plan your day, do what you can and let the rest go.  It’s true that our work will always expand to the amount of time we allocate. There is truly never enough time in the day to get everything done that you want at work. Something new will come up, a problem will pop up that consumes your time…there will always be work to do.

Start your day with a plan, do what you can, adjust as necessary and let the rest go. If you focus on what is of highest priority, what is urgent and important that’s truly all that matters. Many years ago I had a boss who had us come to a meeting with a list of everything we had on our plan for the day. He had us label each of them as A-B-C. The As were the ones that absolutely positively had to be done that day or the world would end. The Bs would be ones that we needed to get done but nothing catastrophic would happen if they didn’t. The Cs were everything else.

Then he told us to tear up everything but the As, because those were the only ones that truly mattered and where we should spend our time and focus. Consider doing this same activity. It helps you realize what really matters, and what you can let go of.

4. Stop fretting.  There are distractions when working from home, and if you have children at home you can’t plop them in front of the TV for 8 hours while you work. Part of the success at working from home is recognizing there are distractions that don’t exist if you work in an office. However, there are many distractions at the office, we simply accept them as part of our day.

Don’t fret about what you can’t change or control. The dog barks, the grass cutters come and make noise, the children interrupt, your spouse or roommate or SO interrupts you or has the TV too loud. All this and more will distract you. Most of it you can’t change so you have to stop worrying about it.

The truth is whether you are in an office or working from home some days you are more productive than others, that’s true for all of us. Instead of being frustrated about what didn’t get done or worrying about being more productive, celebrate what you did achieve. Certainly if you have days and days where you aren’t focused or productive it’s time to examine what’s getting in the way. I suspect it’s more than the distractions, even if that is what you are blaming.

Working from home has its own set of challenges, just like working in an office. The biggest challenge though is not leaving work at work and letting work take over your life, even for just those few minutes you read email at 11 PM. Each of us struggles with managing ourselves, and our time.  

I’ve put together a checklist of Time Management Tips that have worked for my clients over the years.

CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR COPY!