Separating work life from personal life increases creativity, productivity, growth and improves overall health and wellbeing.
Our world has changed greatly in the past two years. The workplace has also changed, as many businesses have transitioned into a hybrid workplace. Productivity Paranoia—the latest buzzword—illustrates that there is an even greater issue at hand. How can you ensure productivity thrives in tandem with your employees' mental health? "There's a recognition that employee wellbeing is important and a catalyst for productivity," says Barbie Stafford, marketing director of Microsoft 365.
By implementing the Employee Experience Platform (EXP) into your workplace, you can manage and oversee day-to-day HR tasks and provide features for your employees to enjoy! Specifically, the Leave app gives employees visibility to their vacation time, empowers them to make requests for time off, and receive approvals from managers all in Microsoft Teams! You can get a quick response from managers and get to your tasks immediately! Leave can help keep employee time off managed and well-organized.
Sometimes it is difficult to separate our work and personal life in a remote environment because it is in the same space. It has become easier to lose the separation and have that balance. This can affect your productivity during work hours and impact your mental health. A tip on how to create separation is to have one space in which you do work and a different place where you spend time during off-hours. “There’s a recognition that employee wellbeing is important and a catalyst for productivity,” says Barbie Stafford, marketing director of Microsoft 365.
It is important to separate work from your personal life for your mental health and to reduce burnout. Ever find yourself daydreaming because you are in the comfort of your own home? Do you find it impossible to focus on tasks for a full day? Don’t worry, we've all been there. Let’s dive into the reasons why you need to separate your work and personal life.
As an employee, when personal matters mix into your workday it takes time away from handling your work tasks. It should not be a race to complete work, but you should be able to focus on work during work designated time and it is an important habit to form. This does not mean breaks, where you can go on your phone, are not allowed, but creating a structure with set times you can break will help you focus on work without putting it on hold for personal matters. For someone to be able to enjoy personal time, it’s important to do work when scheduled so that they have time for family/friends. Remember to take breaks, when necessary, throughout the day instead of pushing through because it will lead to burnout. Ensuring that you have time to disconnect from work means completing what you need to in a day and allowing some time to rest to reduce the risk of burning out of energy.
What are some ways to spark creativity and stay productive? Keep on reading to find out! Saving your time and energy to focus on work can help someone be able to produce ideas and complete work faster. Being well-charged allows individuals to develop creative ideas because they are well-rested. Being productive is not about doing the most work but creating something with a purpose. Make sure the work you are doing is relevant and helpful to the business or project you are working on. Concentrating is necessary for you to complete tasks and produce new goals.
Separating your work life from your personal life affects your wellbeing. It is important to work hard but not to the point of losing sleep, increasing stress, and putting strain on one’s wellbeing. A great way to make sure employees are doing well mentally is to have some sort of check-in system to tell employees if they need a break, some time off, a vacation, or just some time to recharge. Any form of check-in on employees can help you prevent and identify issues that they deal with. Having dedicated care for employees’ wellbeing shows the people you employ that you are there for them. This increases their motivation to work and reach out when they need it.
When your work is done at the proper time you won’t have to miss out on memorable milestones occurring in your personal life! Being unproductive during work time means it can stop you from being able to attend family events. A way to prevent this from happening is to keep the separation so that you spend most of the workday being productive, maximizing your time for off-hours. That way, you will be able to experience all those special moments!
Doing your work productively during the day means that you can grow as a worker. This is because you can balance work and personal life, you are happier because of it, and thus, your growth rate increases. A worker will also have more time for themselves and find new hobbies that keep them feeling inspired. Because of this extra time in your personal life, you may feel even more energetic, motivated, and happy to do work when there is balance maintained in your life! This structure can open a door for someone to grow in their work and personal life!
When you enjoy your job, you can maintain a good and healthy work/life balance and spark a passion for your work! When you don’t like your job, that is when personal life can mix with work. Find a job or complete a task that you are passionate about and do work that can fulfill your wants. This can also enrich your personal life because you want to improve at work and for yourself.
By being able to separate your personal life from your home life, you can become more engaged and mindful of your work. When you are more interested in your work you will put in more effort and even go above and beyond expectations. Having separation in your work/personal life allows you to have more control and focus when completing tasks.
Did you know? “Companies with highly engaged employees had a near 52% gap in performance improvement in operating income.”
Are you struggling to detach yourself from your work life in your personal time? Don’t worry! Here are some tips that can help you out...
One of the best tips is to have a set workspace. This is a place where you do nothing else but work so that your brain tells you this is a space you are productive and do work in. Step away for breaks and meals to put yourself in a different headspace. When the workday is over, leave that workspace and do not go back until you need to be in work mode again.
A great tip to maintain that healthy work/life balance means having a schedule during your workday that gives time to complete work and considers necessary breaks. Stick to your schedule as closely as possible. Take note of the time you are to be online for work or offline for the day.
After creating a routine to follow, make sure you remember the following. Do not sign on right away when you get up, act as if you are going into the office and make sure you give yourself time to wake up before the workday begins. For example, get dressed, eat breakfast, relax a bit, then open your computer and start to work. Having this set as a routine helps form a structure in your day so that you start the day off right!
Never be afraid to speak up and let your manager know if an event or work task is seeping into your personal life. If an issue comes up with timing you must be online, reach out and try and find a solution. Understand that saying ‘no’ when work activities are impacting your personal life is okay.
On your off-hours make sure you aren’t seeing too many work-related things. There is no need for you to have unrelated people from your office on social media. Make sure when adding people on social media from work you see if the tagged images you are in are appropriate and professional. If they are not, don’t add coworkers to your personal social media profiles.
During the workday put your phone far away from your workspace! We all do it but know that your phone is one of the biggest distractions keeping you from completing work. When it is work time, your phone should be silent and far away from you.
This goes for after work too. If you have a work phone, turn that off when spending quality time with your family (unless expected not to for some reason). You don't always need to be online after work hours, everyone is allowed to disconnect and form separation from work and personal life.
With Viva Insights you can stop notifications from coming in and go into a ‘focus mode’ for a deeper focus when necessary. Manage your notifications in settings so that they do not distract you when you want to focus more and after work hours.
As mentioned, EXP has an application that can help you to ensure the separation of your work and personal life. Leave is an app embedded within Microsoft Teams that allows your employees to request any type of leave including vacation, sick time, etc. Implementing Leave allows for easy and simple management of leave requests on both the employee and manager end. Leave app allows you to see your own and your team's time off schedule. The Leave App interfaces with the user by showing them their used and allotted leave time and with managers to see their reports of time off. Reach out to us for more information on how EXP can benefit your organization!
The workplace is changing and with that, so must the people. Hybrid work is the future and as workers, we must learn to be productive, have a work/life balance, and do well mentally. “82% of managers surveyed expect to have more flexible work from home policies post-pandemic. More broadly, 71% of the employees and managers reported a desire to continue working from home at least part-time.” As the workplace evolves, we must also learn new tips, form new routines, and change our mindset on work itself so that we can enjoy our off time spent with loved ones.
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