In the present pandemic situation, when many of us are
working from home, the physical boundaries between the work place and home has
virtually disappeared. The change in the work environment might have led to
difficulties in managing your work targets as well as family responsibilities
at same space and pace. It is a challenge to maintain a balance between
professional and personal front currently. Such a challenge has increased
concerns over health, fitness, occupational stress and the difficulties in
combining work and childcare among employees. However, the current situation
has given us an opportunity to spend more time with our personal relationships
and family and we all are united today, with a common situation of working from
home.
It can be said that problems and difficulties are similar
among all of us but it depends upon our attitude, mind- set, adaptability and
commitment towards dealing with individuals and situation. The current
situation has given us an opportunity to think differently. All of us need to
understand that no one is alone. We are opportune to fulfil our targets in more
dedicated way with more focus now. Following are few of the tips that can be
followed to maintain balance between work and home, even while working from
home:
1. Space management: Keep a corner completely for your
official work. The space will help you to maintain distance from house hold
matters.
2. Time Management:
While working from home, you need to distribute your time, so that you can
devote enough time to your work as well as your family members in a fair and
just manner.
3. Health Management: Being at home there is an ample
chance, to get yourself involved in binge eating. You need to understand the
relevance of maintaining your physical health with proper exercise and balanced
diet even while working from home. This will help you to remain active
throughout the day. Always remember morning and evening walk can also be done
within the house premises or at your balcony.
4. Self- Management: Earlier researches have indicated that
proper dressing and self-presentation while doing the official work leads to a mind-set,
readiness to work and productivity. So, you need to manage yourself accordingly
while working at home.
5. Taking Breaks: You
need to give yourself a break even between the time span of working. Too much
involvement in work might produce a feeling of being stuck at your own home.
You need to understand when to “stop” yourself, to prevent from taking much
stress. Even giving a gap of five to ten minutes of unplanned time between the
official work and home related work might refresh and energize you
Being positive and satisfied is the need of the hour in the
present time. Hence we need to have a clear demarcation between our home and
work responsibilities while staying at home itself. A clear schedule regarding
this will help us build up an appropriate mindset, facilitating work-life
balance and accepting the present situation positively.
Dr. Smita Gupta, Discipline of Psychology, IGNOU
