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Smart Habits For Working From Home

Smart Habits For Working From Home

While, for many, working from home can be like a dream come true,  yet it comes with it's own stresses and complexities into our already busy lives! One of the greatest challenges in our personal and professional lives can literally be balancing both, and if  your business is a work from home model or you're now noticing that your lounge is becoming your office, you probably also know first hand the difficulties of parenting while working from home, or the logistics of keeping a team and business functional. It seems the commute times and terrible traffic have been replaced with keeping the kids occupied or trying to avoid conflict with our nearest and dearest!

"Life has changed: Some people are sitting at the kitchen bench where they eat breakfast, lunch and dinner to do their work.   This is different from going to work,  coming home from the office to enjoy that space.   We can have different stresses and pressures and our emotions become reactive, and it's not nice for anyone. There's a concept which I call setting up locational anchors. Athletes do it. Performers do it when they put on a certain piece of clothing or they pick up their instrument, or take a particular breath and look at the audience. They switch themselves onto a particular mindset which is known as anchoring a state. We can do that at home even if we are in a small space. It helps to differentiate between your workspace and work time, and downtime. If you've managed your state well, you are more productive, less reactive and can close off your work, as you've worked out what you need to do tomorrow. It is vitally important to do this, to give our brain space to rejig itself."

​- Catherine Connolly

If this sounds all too familiar, it's important to remember that change starts with you.  Create clear delineation around where you sit to work from where you go to relax.  Allow yourself to create a ritual of walking into the workspace and switching your attention onto what you intend to do and let go of your attention on home based activities.  Let others around you know when you are in work mode and when you will be available for other things.  It helps everyone be clear and unless it is an emergency, you are able to focus fully rather than being constantly distracted by juggling too much.    Consciously leave work mindset behind as you finish it and create a trigger to help yourself to switch out of that mode and be able to be fully present when it is time to be with family or friends.  It can be as simple as associating walking into the 'work' space and imagining stepping into your professional mode, or sitting in the seat you have chosen as the work one and bring full attention to that space and when you leave it and have finished work, consciously imagine leaving it all behind or close the door and step into your relaxed self. Consider how to disconnect from 'work mode' and transition into 'home mode' with a few simple habits worth trying.  I'm sure you will find it easy to come up with your own way of disconnecting and reconnecting.  Often it is more the issue of not having thought about the need to do so. Not only will this conscious behavioural practice enhance your productivity, it will also allow you to have space to not always be thinking about work, giving your brain the ability to process information more efficiently, reduce stress levels and give you the confidence of knowing that everything is sorted and under control. Give it a try and notice what works best for you.

Consider the following important key points:

• Do you 'disconnect' consciously from the end of your work day?
• Do you find your stress levels have risen ?
• Is your 'work mode' taking over your personal time?
• Have you noticed changes in your behaviour towards others in your home?
• Are you ready to learn powerful practices to change this, and obtain better outcomes in both your personal and professional life?

If you're finding yourself resonating with these questions, then you may want to reach out and let us help you with tools to get on top of your stress so you can enjoy your life much more.

"Now it's vitally important to get the balance right, to maximise how our brain can more effectively work. Sometimes people may spend hours, upon hours, upon hours working with no break and yes, they're busy, but the level of productivity is probably far less effective and efficient as if they did it in that increments where your brain's more 'on'. Repetition of new habits creates better results."

• Ready to defrag?
• Ready to unplug?
• Ready to leave 'work mode' and be 'present' at home?

  Useful Links

• Connect with Rex Urwin on LinkedIn
• Connect with Catherine Connolly on LinkedIn
• Get in touch

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