Many people struggle with lack of balance – at work, at home, and most of all – with balance between work and personal life. As freelancers, we are even more at risk not to achieve work life balance because in most cases our office is at home.
So, how do we find the balance and separate home from office, work from personal life? Here are 4 proven tactics – I always use them and I am happy to report good work-life balance 😀
Have a break every day
Don’t feel obliged to work all day (or night) just because your office is at home or because you don’t have anything better to do. Find yourself a hobby. Call a friend and go out for a coffee. Go to the movies.
There are so many and interesting things to do besides working. Put an end to your work day at a normal hour and go play. Do it every working day.
Have a break every week
You may be thinking – how can I have a break every week if I am already doing it every day? Patience, my friend!
You stop working every day at 5? Good. Now let’s start skip working altogether every weekend!
I know there are plenty of workaholics out there – but they never achieve work life balance… Having a break is important for the work-life balance and if you ask me – to keep up the quality of our work, too!
If we work 24/7 for too long, we will realize soon enough that the fatigue accumulates and our social life suffers; so does our work. End of the day, we turn into very tired (and proud to be tough?) freelancers.
Stop! Take a break every week – you need the weekend to recharge your batteries. And remember that since you are a freelancer, your weekend should not necessarily be Saturday and Sunday 😉
If you like the quiet time of Saturday and Sunday to do some work – so be it; but make sure you set aside at least 2 days of the week when you are not working but having fun instead, preferably away from the computer. It’s for your own good 😉
And if you want to go one step further – start traveling more. Travel is the only purchase that makes us richer (I am sure you have heard this before – it’s true!) – explore the world and enjoy life in all is forms. If you want to travel for longer period of time and you must work while traveling, you are in luck – I just blogged on the topic 😉
Separate your office space from your home
Ideally, you have a big enough house or apartment to take over a separate room for your home office. If you don’t have that extra room to spare, you can just take over the couch in the living room, or the kitchen table, or the terrace (ehm, right! That one does work superbly 😉 )
It doesn’t matter what space you have set to be your office. The purpose is to work there and to leave there your work after the work day is over. Don’t bring your work problems in the bedroom, the kids’ room or whatever else room you go to at home!
Learn to finish work on time
There always will be more work than what we can do today. Don’t lose sleep over the fact there are some outstanding to-dos on your list. If they are not urgent – leave them for tomorrow. Prioritize. It is more important to have some rest today; to spend some quality time with your family; to have a good night sleep. So that you can continue working tomorrow…
Now may be a good time to remind you about the concept of freelance working hours…
Hey Diana,
I have a problem with being able to do all of these, lol! I separate my office space from everything else, it’s my place to get work done, and I usually take breaks each day, but I just can’t seem to be able to take a break each week or finish my work by a certain time at the end of the day… I end up working at some point every single day of the week, and I end up working late into the night most nights, then sleeping in the next morning, then working late into the night again, and the vicious cycle continues, lol! But I also realized that when I give myself a limit, like I can’t work past 8:30pm, and I have more work to do, I end up getting really stressed out that I have so much more to do and I was not able to get work completed “on time”. So for me right now I just need to be okay with whatever happens, simply because that lessens my stress 🙂
I am like this sometimes, Lisha – i hate it when i stress out the way you describe. I am better now at just “letting go” but it still sneaks in when i put more stuff on my plate than i can handle in “normal hours”. Hm, maybe i should blog about that – learning to let go hahaha. Thanks for stopping by and for the wonderful blog post idea 🙂
Boy howdy this one, Diana. My great challenge is knowing when to stop, put things down and let it go for a bit. When you love what you do, it’s hard to just keep going, like the ever-ready battery. Nevertheless, it’s still important the take breaks and set proper boundaries.
hah, your comment validates what i just replied to Lisha (the previous comment) – it makes for a great blog post topic – “learning to let go” – thanks for the addition, Susan!
I do have a separate home office, and once I go there for the day, I don’t let myself get distracted and tend to make good use of my time. My problem is being able to consistently finish on time. The cycle of working late has set in because I get started later in the day. I’m hoping now that I’m doing taking college credits to renew my teaching license that the extra time will allow me to find a better pace that allows my work day to end at dinner (even if dinner is at 7 or 8 pm). It’s at least better than working until midnight 😉
Hi Jeri, I have also tried the ending-at-dinner thing. If I really aim for that, it seems to work 🙂 I think if I stay really focused and only do what I really absolutely need to do each day then I can finish on time, but if I decide to learn things, search for inspiration, go above and beyond on a project, or go read blogs and comment, etc, then all those little things add up and end up taking more of my time, so then all the things I really have to do end up getting pushed to the end of the day (so I eat dinner and end up back at my computer for a few hours afterward). Good luck with your college courses, Jeri 🙂
Jeri, i see Lisha has also given her 2 cents to your “problem” but wanted to add something… You say you start off your day late and for that reason, it also ends later than you’d like. I had that problem, too.
I am NOT a morning person. I always have resented the sound of an alarm clock, ever since i was at school and had to get up early… However, recently i found out that getting up early in the morning isn’t that bad.
For a week now i am getting up at 8 am (well, waking up, alright), at 9 i am already at my computer, writing and/or doing other creative non-paid work for myself… then lunch, and then in the afternoon i work on the paid jobs (for clients, i mean).
And i usually fill up my day with productive work (paid or not) and feel exhausted about 6 -7 pm and want it or not, i stop. I sure hope this week’s schedule will extend into a new routine because i promise you – i have done more things during this week than the past month. (or at least ti feels that way)
Give a chance to early start of the day, is what i am saying 😀
Good luck with renewing your teaching license!
I have a hard time knowing when to stop. I’ll give your advice a try. Muchas Gracias. Blessings.
de nada, Johhny, de nada 😀 Glad i could help – come back and tell us how it went putting the tips into practice 😉
Diana- It took a long time to finally realize that I needed to walk away from my business hence the computer. I take a power lunch everyday during the week. I have accepted that if I do not get it done in one day, there is always tomorrow. I no longer work on the weekends. Those days are for me and give me a chance to do dog trials with my dog.What I am finding is that I accomplish just as much as I did when I was on the computer late into the night with no breaks. Also when you stare at the same thing over and over again, it is hard to see the forest from the trees. Very good article.
Thanks for your feedback, Arleen – glad you liked the post 🙂
Funny you should mention that you accomplish just as much when you take regular breaks as you would have accomplished if you stayed at your computer longer hours… I observe the same thing! Thanks for the addition 😀
Hi Diana,
Thanks for the wonderful tips.
I must say I really need to learn how to finish work on time and not get distracted while working!
I guess separating my work area from the home will do the trick!
~Unaiza
hah, separating your work area may help you finish work on time but it alone would not be enough. You know what I did back in the day when I was working too much? I made sure I ALWAYS have something planned “after work” – whether it is a gathering with friends out of home, or it’s just a movie night with my boyfriend at home, I always planned for it and put it on my calendar. This way I was kinda forced to finish work on time since I had to be somewhere and do something else. 😉
~Diana