July 6, 2020

Maintaining Work-Life Balance

As we enter a “new-norm,” many people are wondering how to keep organized and balance work and home (especially if you’re still working from home!) As a Service Manager and mom, I can definitely say this is an area I’ve had to work on since daycare closed in March and has yet to resume. I wanted to share some tricks that have worked for myself in hopes it may help others.

First of all, what is work-life balance and does it truly exist? In all honesty, the balance will be different for all. Each individual has different needs and beliefs when it comes to allocating time for work and other aspects of life. When people feel they have a good balance, it makes for harder-working employees and greater job loyalty, commitment and motivation.

So what’s been helping me achieve this balance?

Keeping my schedule up to date. Each week, I make a list of everything I need to achieve and I block off my Outlook calendar (both work-related and home-related items) so I have reminders of what I should be working on. For me, there are tons of little tasks that come up throughout the day and I can get derailed on bigger tasks if I don’t prioritize my time.
Establish transition times. In the beginning of working from home and not having to rush the kids off to school and daycare, I took advantage of laying in bed a little bit longer. However, I quickly noticed that my brain wasn’t switching over to work mode when I just rolled out of bed. I set my alarm clock and tried to get up before the kids to grab some coffee and take the dog for a walk. Something to signal my brain to start focusing!
Communicate! This has been huge not only for my co-workers but for my family as well. If I have an appointment or have something I need to focus on for the kids during the day, I need to let my team know. My husband and I would often have meetings at the same time and we quickly learned how important it was to lay out our plans at the beginning of the day to make sure to limit kid-interruptions. Although, who doesn’t like 4-year old pop-ins during client Zoom calls?
Use apps to keep yourself organized. There were a few apps that have made such a difference during this time to keep me organized.
1. Teams - obviously, here at Stamm, Microsoft Teams has been a huge role in helping us work remotely. Scheduling check-ins with the team and being able to video chat with Teams helps us remain connected.
2. Asana - for all my personal to-dos and projects, I love using the free version of Asana to keep track of everything. Its interface is easy to use and I can have the app on my phone for if I’m on the go.
3. Marinara: Pomodoro Assistant: I found this Chrome plugin that helps me “time” my focus and break times throughout the day. I have it set to 25 minutes of focus time and a 5-minute break between. Every 4th break, I get 15 minutes to step away. I’ve noticed with using this plugin, I avoid burnout a lot more than before I used it.