Hey y’all!
My good friend Monika (hey girl hey) requested this post because of something I shared on my story the other day (if you’re not following @kandidlykait on IG, go ahead and pause and check it out)
We’ve been living in this WFH life since May of 2020 (hello fellow Corona Grads ) and in these few months, I’ve learned a lot about my own work habits, boundaries and limit which got me thinking about how hard balance is when your office / cubicle has become your kitchen table, couch, home office and bathroom (don’t act like you don’t do it LOL).
For context on what my day job— I work for a software company in business development. I do a lot of out reach, prospecting, aligning potential client problems to solutions my company has. So when I think about it, I’ve had days where I’ve worked 9, 10 or 11 hour days just to get stuff done.
The lack of an office creates so many new challenges, but the one I struggled the most with is turning off, stepping away and shutting down. I like being ambitious, working hard and always giving 110%. In an office setting, that might mean an extra hour before or after work, but ultimately someone’s there to look at you and direct you to go home. In these WFH silos, there’s no co-workers to walk to the parking garage with, no gentle nudges to shut down, no accountability to shut it down.
So what’s a xillenial to do? I realized that I would wake up, do my devotional, and before I took a shower I was scrolling through emails, slack and salesforce all on my phone. Here’s how I took my mornings and late afternoons back.
- Delete the apps. Delete Slack, Teams, Salesforce, Marketo off of your personal phone.
- You do not always have to be “on”. You’re not a bad employee for doing your job from 8-5:30pm (with breaks and a full lunch). Work hard, but do the work you get paid to do.
- Set working hours on your calendar.
- Especially if you work for a bi-costal company. Your West coast co-workers might set meetings for you at 8pm (it’s happened to me) and your East coast co-workers might set a meeting for you at 7am your time. Remember that setting your working hours is okay, time zones are a thing, and its important to block that out. I use clockwise and it works wonders
- Remember that it will all be there tomorrow.
- Unless its a client, a direct and time sensitive ask from your manager, it’ll be there tomorrow. Log off.
- Your mental health is wealth. Go outside and take a walk. Pet your dog. Drink some wine. Remember you’re more than your work.
I hope these tips helped you out!!
Leave a Reply