Challenge Tips

Mrs Sheena D Pracyk, RN‍ Fantastic tips!! Thank you! It definitely is a challenge when working from home to separate work/home life.

This I think is one of my main challenges. In a work from home environment, that natural break of a commute and the two separate work and home spaces don't really exist.  Working in PJ's is a real possibility and stress eating in the kitchen raiding everything in the pantry is all too easy. When the office is a laptop in the corner of the room or even a separate room designated as a "home office", there has to be a real effort to designate "work hours" and to "close down and leave the office" or you can find yourself back at the computer at all hours or work creeping out onto the laptop on the sofa, kitchen counter or bedroom. The home space and the work space merge. Some tips to help psychologically are: 1) Using the Calendar to Set specific work hours ...AND sticking to them, 2) Getting ready & dressing for work i.e. No PJs in the office, even if not on zoom calls just as if you were going in to an external workplace. 3) Closing down the office at the end of the calendared work day E.g Powering off the computer and lights AND not picking up work emails & notifications on the cell phone as an alternative. Leave things until the next work day. 4) Keeping work free weekend days - making plans to get out or do personal hobbies without feeling guilty about not tackling the "to do" items on the list until Monday. 5) Sharing work concerns with family & friends for support and suggestions may be necessary on occasion but shouldn't be a routine complain session over every evening meal. 
6) Be sensitive to more than one person working from home and respect boundaries and time. In our situation, a return to the physical workspace for my partner is not until 2022 and we have been sharing the home as both home & work spaces for over year making some major adjustment necessary. It's still a work in progress and definitely is imperfect but with consideration and patience we are both making the best of the situation.

I try very hard NOT to take my work home or log into anything work related after I get home.

I have learned to leave work at the door before I walk in.  No matter what happens I can't bring it home and dwell on negative events.