Don't make this work-from-home mistake

Even remote workers need breaks from time to time.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
This week, we're talking about strategies for making remote work
efficient and effective. Today's tip is about setting boundaries when
you work from home. Disconnecting can be hard when your

(00:25):
work is right where you live, but breaks make us
more productive and are definitely worth taking. So I've found
over the years that when managers have concerns about employees
working from home, they're often worrying that people will spend
their entire work days watching old episodes of Game of Thrones.
But when these same managers wind up at organizations where
lots of people work from home, they learned that the

(00:47):
biggest problem is entirely different. People who work from home
often have trouble disconnecting. Then they wind up getting burned
out and their performance suffers, or they quit. Neither of
these are good outcomes. Here's what winds up happening. People
who work from home want to show their managers and
teammates that they're responsive, but then they wind up on

(01:10):
email or slack constantly. They don't take breaks because they
don't want their managers to think they're watching TV. One
woman who works from home told me that she'd hired
a dog walker because she didn't think she could step
away from her desk for ten minutes twice a day
to take the dog outside. Needless to say, if she
didn't think ten minute breaks were feasible, she was dealing

(01:31):
with a lot of stress. Then there's this problem. Commutes
can be terrible, but they provide a very clear line
between work time and non work time. When your office
is right next to your kitchen or bedroom, it can
be very easy to just keep going back in all
evening or all weekend long. I know this has happened

(01:54):
to me. I have a confession here. Because I work
from a home office and working is almost always an option,
I used to just leave my laptop on. I literally
never shut it down. Then one day last summer, the
laptop simply stopped working, which is understandable. I managed to
get it going again, but I realized I needed to

(02:16):
stop overwhelming it. My laptop could use some time when
work was not an option, and I probably could too,
So I've gotten much better about turning it off at night.
Once it's off, I can turn it back on if
I really need something, and I have my phone too,
so it's not like I'm unplugged from the world, but
it raises the bar on answering an email that can

(02:38):
really wait until the next morning. If you struggle with
these boundaries, you might try creating some sort of break
to indicate that the day is done. Indeed, you might
create a fake commute, walk around the block, or run
a quick errand to buy milk or put gas in
your car when you come home. Then you can be

(02:58):
a non work mode. Most things can wait until tomorrow.
We may think the world will stop spinning without our input,
but you know what, it's probably not the case. What
kind of boundaries will you set if you work remotely?
Take some time today to think about this, and in
the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's

(03:18):
to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd
love to hear from you. You can send me your tips,
your questions, or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod that's b E the

(03:40):
number four then breakfast p o D. You can also
shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeart
media dot com That before Breakfast is spelled out with
all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward to
staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I

(04:02):
heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit
the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.