Council Post: 15 Critical Ways To Manage Work And Home Life Boundaries (2024)

Workplace boundaries can be a critical part of a business owner's lifestyle. In many situations, business owners have been taking their work home with them for years, usually resulting in overwork and higher stress levels. Managing the boundary between work and home will help an entrepreneur juggle the demands of their enterprise and family life more efficiently. Additionally, a better work-life balance means lower stress and fewer health problems over the long term.

Balance only happens when a professional puts in the effort to make it happen. When individuals set up healthy workplace boundaries, their stress drops, while their productivity and motivation skyrocket. Here, 15 members of Forbes Business Council delve into how a business owner can better manage their work and home boundaries.

1. Set Clear Expectations

Leaders should set clear expectations for their teams and their work-life balance. For example, as leaders, we may send an email after work hours. Does your team know the expectations for response time? If not, there will be miscommunication. Setting expectations, such as turning off Slack notifications when not working, is a great way to keep people on the same page and allow for balance. - Jay Johnson, Coeus Creative Group

2. Have A Clear Routine

Having a routine is now more important than ever, so a clear schedule has to be set that includes standup meetings that replace coming to work, coffee break offers, small talk enablement, etc. Allow no communication on work emails and cell phones after working hours. Always remember that calling a cell phone these days is the same as just going into an office without knocking beforehand. - Liudas Kanapienis, Ondato

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3. Have The Right ‘M.I.N.D.S.E.T’

Make sure you have the right "M.I.N.D.S.E.T" Manage—establish a routine of work time and play time. Isolation—know how to identify cabin fever. Neat—have wardrobes for working, working at home and home. Deliverables—have SMART work targets. Space—have a separate space for work and home; not the same one. Emotions—be able to articulate how you really feel. Technology—know how to be influential over Zoom. - Darren A. Smith, Making Business Matter

4. Book Some 'Me Time'

Make sure to book some “me time” on your calendar to unwind. As a business owner, it's very easy to get in the routine of working around the clock. However, it is also important to allot time to take care of your personal well-being and make sure your family’s needs are also being met. This is an approach that allows me to achieve a great work-life balance. - Kelley Higney, Bug Bite Thing

5. Respect Time Off

Respecting time off would be my No. 1 advice to leaders, and I would urge them to lead this initiative by setting an example themselves. It won't make any sense if leaders work 24/7 while talking about work-life balance. Policies such as "protected Sundays/special days" can go a long way. Also, setting expectations that no one has to respond to an email after a specific time could help. - Biju Chandrasekharan, ByteWave Digital Inc.

6. Focus On Self-Care

Self-care is paramount, especially in a work-from-home environment. The risk with remote work is that we get burnt out from back-to-back Zoom calls. Take breaks during the work day to go outside and get some fresh air. It's also extremely important to take time after work and do something that's not work. Make dinner, spend it with loved ones and get rest. You'll be better if you rest. - Huw Edwards, CyberFortress

7. Wear Work Clothes

Wearing work clothes to signal work mode is key. Since work and personal life happen in the same physical place, it is harder to separate the two. Leaders can create a psychological distance between work and life by wearing work clothes at the beginning of the work day and changing into home clothes at the end of it. This routine signals to ourselves when we're switching from work mode to life mode. - Ranjan Jagannathan, Synapse Inc (Daywise)

8. Have A Dedicated Work Room

Leaders must ensure that their employees recreate the physical boundaries between their work lives and their personal lives as much as possible. The easiest way is to require a dedicated room for work only. If this is not possible, then at the very least a leader should require partitions or zoning so that the space in question is for “work only.” - Salvador Ordorica, The Spanish Group LLC

9. Put Electronic Devices Away

Pick a time when electronic devices are put away. As someone who feels like they constantly need to be “on,” I know how challenging this can be. However, put the phone or tablet away at dinner and maybe an hour before bed. Your family and health will thank you for it. - Gordon Lawson, RangeForce

10. Turn Off All Your Notifications

Turn off all your notifications to avoid the possibility of diving back into work with every new incoming message or email. It would be even better if you could leave your laptop and mobile phone outside of your home. Once that is done, make sure you get enough sleep. - Sergej Derzap, Amasty

11. Apply The Same Office Rules

Working from home and working from an office is no different, with the exception of the location. You must therefore reconstruct the same rules that you would apply if you were at an office location at your home. Standardize hours, schedule tasks and meetings, reduce distractions, etc. Leaders need to minimize distractions and run a tightly coordinated schedule. - Doug C. Brown, Business Success Factors

12. Consider Your Ultradian Rhythms

Manage your day according to your ultradian rhythms, which dictate your energy level. Focus on an activity for 60-90 minutes and then relax for 20-30 minutes. When we ignore these rhythms and try to maintain constant activity all day with no breaks, our next ultradian performance peak will be significantly lower and will cut all our energy to enjoy our home life! Work with your energy to excel! - Andreea Vanacker, SPARKX5

13. Aim To Energize Employees

You never really know what your employees are going through in their personal lives. Strive to energize and help your team feel accomplished so that they can bring that positive energy to their friends and family when they are offline. - Beth Trejo, Chatterkick

14. Prioritize Results, Not Schedule

Leaders should be in the process of learning via the trials and hardships of the pandemic that some lines for adjustment are needed. Quality of work should be at the forefront of the balance. People are dealing with a lot and managing home and work life the best they can. As long as work quality doesn't suffer, give your teams autonomy and most will follow the moral guidelines to do the right thing. - Paul L. Gunn, KUOG Corporation

15. Build A Different Culture

When the office is only steps away from laundry and bath time and homework, it's easy for any of us to forget when we should be working versus taking time off to attend to life's other important matters. Leaders need to build a culture where employees are expected to NOT be at work. Establishing work schedules (even for ourselves) is one of the most effective ways to set these boundaries. - Kim Troy, Civilis Consulting

Council Post: 15 Critical Ways To Manage Work And Home Life Boundaries (2024)
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