All you need to know about striking a perfect work-life balance

The Covid-19 has changed workplace dynamics like never before. However, as remote work protocols remain in place for what could be several weeks of professional distancing, it is imperative for employees across the globe to strike a healthy work-life balance. Cynthia-Helena Rif, co-founder and director of operations at Dubai-based WitWork shares simple tips on maintaining a perfect balance. 

During remote work protocols, how can one maintain a proper work-life balance?

• Reorganise your house, get your space clean and decluttered
• Create physical boundaries: have dedicated spaces for work/schoolwork, exercise and downtime
• Get dressed: it makes a big difference when one gets dressed when working from home as it sets the work mindset
• Schedule, schedule, schedule: agree to a practical and fair daily schedule together with your family
• Work normal office hours and take breaks: a common technique in virtual co-working is pomodoro technique (the Tabata of time management) created in the 80’s.  The method uses a timer of 25 minutes of work and five minutes break.
• Learn something new; take a course
• Exercise, most gyms are providing their members with home workouts otherwise there are plenty out there
• Stay in touch with family and friends
• Commute to your work: while commuting to work was the solo time one had to kick off a productive day, working from home takes that away. However, make sure you have a daily trigger to start a good working day

How should one prioritise his/her tasks?

• Make your to-do list: Listing on paper what one wants to accomplish for the day is an effective way to remember things that need to be done. It can be a weekly to-do list, but daily ones are more effective
• Rank your to-do list: After writing down your tasks, rank them from the most important to the least
• Set realistic deadlines: When you’re working and a deadline was set by your employer, set your own ahead of the assigned deadline. However, set realistic ones. Take everything one step at a time and don’t set yourself up for failure.
• Put away distractions: In this modern world, a lot of things can distract us from doing our work. These include camera phones, mobile devices, gadgets, Facebook, Twitter, and many more. Don’t check your inbox every minute; you can do this during work breaks or schedule time slots in your day to check.

The key to productivity is good time management. Prioritising is difficult but is also essential if you want to get things done. Besides being more efficient and productive, it will also help alleviate stress.

How is one supposed to maintain productivity while simultaneously managing distance learning programmes of children?

Plan a schedule that makes sense to the whole family. Just be assertive and consistent enough in following the schedule. Like meetings, calls are scheduled ahead of time, therefore gives you enough time to plan your children’s day accordingly.

What is the best way to stay motivated while working from home?

• Make sure you take breaks
• Be inspired, listen to podcasts. Make sure to register to the webinars available now
• Stay in touch with colleagues and friends
• Use the pomodoro technique and implement it with friends and colleagues, like virtual co-working