Week 3: Separate Work and Home
KEY POINTS:
1. It’s important to make a clear distinction between work and home - especially when working from home.
2. To better create this distinction, simple tricks can be implemented such as setting designated work hours, blocking emails outside of work hours, and enforcing device-free time.
“Work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other four balls—family, health, friends, and integrity—are made of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered.”
This week is about creating boundaries between work and home life. It is important that you understand that when you are at work, you are expected to be fully at work. Conversely, when you are at home, you are fully at home.
If you are working from home, there should be a defined time that you work before engaging with your family. As more employers offer work-from-home options for employees, the clear distinction between work time and downtime is even more important.
Email policies, such as those outlined in the Work Mastery module, should be in place. Pick appropriate “work hours” and make sure you do not respond to emails outside of those times. If possible, set up auto-responses.
There should also be “device-free” times throughout the day. Expect a little bit of initial panic at this. You may say, “What if my children or my spouse or the teachers need to get hold of me?” But to soothe any concerns, provide a number for urgent matters that friends and family can call in the event of an emergency. Feeling like you always have to check your phone contributes to feelings of exhaustion and burnout, and we’re teaching our children that this level of connectivity and anxiety is acceptable.
Technology is not the problem - we are. The idea of FOMO - i.e. “the fear of missing out” - is unfortunately widespread among many of us. Data has shown that being separated from your smartphone for more than 24 hours can produce withdrawal symptoms not unlike many other addictions. Despite technological innovation helping us work more efficiently than ever before, technology also carries with it massive potential for distraction, which is increasingly taking a toll on our personal lives. In turn, this negatively impacts our work lives. It is common practice nowadays to be checking personal messages at work, and work messages at home.
We have created a culture where those around us, whether it be family or friends, are always accessible to us, whether by email or by phone. The more we remain accessible to everyone at all times, the more this notion of connectivity to others is perpetuated. It is important to break this cycle, and be able to draw boundaries between you and your devices. At first, you may find this to be out of our comfort zone, but with consistency, you will quickly learn that you are in charge, not the devices or your email.
By introducing these simple rules to follow, you will begin to be more fully engaged in work at work, and can enjoy your time with friends and family when you’re at home.
This week’s exercise is about separating work from home. See pages 21 - 22 of The Focus Effect Workbook or click Here to download the exercise. Separating work from home comes down to setting healthy boundaries. In this exercise, you’ll be defining when during the day your work time is, and then implementing a few different strategies to better delineate work time from non-work time, including creating transition routines and implementing device-free time. You’ll also be challenged to think of something specific to your life that’ll help you create this boundary.
Watch this video of Greg and Bruce discussing this topic further.
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