Work from home, ladies? Maintain your Work Life Balance with These Tips!

By Ruchi Sharma

Do you feel you are married to your work? Don’t worry you aren’t alone. With offices shifting to remote working or hybrid mode the line differentiating between personal and official work has totally blurred. Work life balance for women is particularly even more important than ever. If you feel totally spent managing your home and work, and are seriously thinking about taking a step back from your career, WAIT! Don’t do it just yet. Work life balance for working mothers or even other women, is difficult to achieve but not impossible. Yes, you need to take care of your child and women indulge in a lot of unpaid work but today’s women are made for much more than doing only household duties. We need to make our own identity and carve our niche in the world out there. The first step towards it is building our career, so don’t sacrifice it. Here’s some realistic yet simple tips with which you can easily achieve balance. Yes, it will take some time to reach there but trust us life will become super easy to manage! So, without further ado, here you go.

Setting Boundaries is the First Step

You may be a perfectionist and believe in finishing all your tasks irrespective of if it’s too much for a single day. But that’s really not the correct approach. Set boundaries, when it is time for your family or weekends, you need to manage and preferably make a time table. Dedicate time for all things in balance. Most importantly define the work hours and stick to them. If your work hours are till 6 PM, don’t stretch that 6 PM to 11 PM and similarly between that time don’t try to multitask with household work.

Make a Dedicated Workspace

When the office has come to your home, it’s time to create an office like environment. Make a dedicated space, just like you have your own cabin or cubicle in the office, this little place or desk would be strictly work. Start working at the slotted time and during work hours be dedicated not thinking about personal chores but once you are done with work, leave your work and focus on your personal life. It’s exactly similar to how you leave work in the office when you return back home!

Work on Realistic Aims

It’s always a dream to think of completing just everything today so that you may get some extra time to yourself tomorrow. Being ambitious is great but being realistic is what will make you succeed in life. You need to give your body and mind adequate rest. Don’t exhaust yourself. Your aims can be ambitious but if it isn’t achievable then it will just leave you frustrated. Work life balance work from home should be synonymous to each other. If there is a lot of work, set priorities and work on them accordingly. 

Unplug and Enjoy

Thinking 24x7 about work is not healthy at all. Yes, we all want to achieve great heights but this will just jeopardize the whole balance of your life and you would be scrambling to finish your household work, personal commitments and then eventually you won’t be able to give 100% to anything. So, no answering even simple work emails when it's family time. Weekends and after work hours are for you strictly. If you are on a vacation, then it’s even more important to unplug.

Care for Yourself

While juggling between work and home, don’t forget to take care of yourself. Eating your meals on time and adequate sleep is a must. The burden of caregiving and household responsibilities fall more on women, and that added with work pressure might make the matters worse. Your health and mental well-being is the first priority and everything comes after it. 

Learn to Delegate and say ‘No’ too

Be it work or home, there may be quite a few things which you can delegate. At home, you can seek help for minor things from your kids, husband or even in-laws. While at work don’t hesitate to take help from your colleagues if needed. You are NOT a SUPERWOMAN. Sharing responsibilities will make things easier for you and others too. When things get really overwhelming, learn to say ‘NO’ it might be difficult but when you know it’s the right thing to do, then go ahead. Trust yourself!

Planning is the Key

Last but not the least, make a checklist. If you plan your day carefully, you will be prepared for the day and your office tasks would be completed in time and it would be the same case for your household duties too. So, make a timetable (it’s not only for kids!), and try to stick to it, but don’t stress over it too. Be flexible for any urgent task that may require your attention. When you plan well, not having enough time would never be a problem.

We all know why work life balance is important, so just follow this guide and you will love your life as it will be super balanced! If it goes out of balance, fatigue, bad health and bad mood will become your best friends, so come out of this never-ending web. The women's career solution about work from home is not in quitting but rather balancing.