How do you personally manage work-life balance?
I’m not sure I do. 😉 But that’s not a characteristic of remote work, necessarily; I blurred those lines at my last job, which was co-located. The most I can offer is that there are “zones” in my house where I don’t bring … much … work, like the bedroom. I say “much,” because the mobile phone still comes with me.
I try to keep to a schedule. I get up and get out of the house and bring my kids to school, then I “go to work” which also happens to be my home office or maybe a local coffee shop and I close it out at the end of the day before I pick-up my kids. On particularly busy days or weeks, I will get back online in the evening once the kids are asleep, just like I use to do when I was in a typical office job.
I work in the office for the majority of the time. I do work remotely as needed. I do set boundaries for after office hours and handle only things that cannot wait until the next day. When I am specifically working remote for the day, I can do all of my work functions remote. You must have a life outside of work to be healthy.
Being part of a remote team has made work-life balance a much easier thing to accomplish. I make sure that my down time is preserved as much as possible, and also that my fellow colleagues and I can cover for each other whenever a personal need arises. My daughter is currently attending college across the country and I am able to visit her without sacrificing my daily job necessities or adding an extra workload on my colleagues.
I find that I need to set “hard stops” for myself at the end of the workday when working from home. At a certain time of the day, unless something is extremely urgent, I sign off and begin my personal time. We have a very flexible environment that allows me to manage my own schedule so if I need to step out for a personal appointment, I have the ability to do so. I simply manage my work outputs instead of hours worked.
Since I have three boys, I really need my own work space… So I make sure I have a quiet space outside of my home to work in!
I’m not very good at it (my company is my baby), but I try.
One of our employees (Leon) has a nice trick he does: in the morning, he gets dressed, gets out of the house, walks around the block clockwise, then gets back in and goes to work. At 5pm, when work is done, he gets out of the house, walks around the block counter-clockwise, then gets back in and is “home”. Awesome! 🙂
I set aside separate space for work. When work is over, I shut my laptop and put it out of sight in an effort to disconnect work from my family life. I also put my cell phone in a kitchen drawer until my kids go to bed. I may check it once or twice but I’ve found that an “out of sight, out of mind” strategy helps me check it less and spend quality time with my family.
I make it a goal to stick to set hours, understanding there will be times and days I work outside those hours but my set hours are my “norm.”
I try to get out of the house 1-2 times per week. For me, this means working at my local coffee shop or maybe grabbing lunch out of the house. It breaks up my week and helps keep me focused.
I set clear boundaries regarding work and personal time. This lifestyle means that they are always intertwined, but I do my best to try and make sure that every bucket gets quality time … i.e. family, self, work etc.
I have a home routine with plants and animals, so I schedule in such a way that I can accommodate my need to stretch and get my head out of the computer space for a bit. Working from home can be difficult for those who are prone to being more active, so the best thing you can do is make a schedule, map out activities, and stick with it.
Personally, I don’t take too much time off as I’m following our communication channels and emails at all times. However, since we’re a distributed company, I often work from a coffee shop or a hookah bar in order to allocate some time for myself, review RFPs, draft specifications, plan content production, perform code reviews or other activities that require less distractions.
It’s difficult since I am very passionate about the work we are doing and I could spend all my time on it. Nevertheless, as the CEO, it’s important that I don’t set an example of being a workaholic or connected all the time.
I try to work for about 8 to 10 hours per day and, in my free time, I enjoy reading, learning, surfing, watching movies, and playing soccer.
I prefer to maintain a distinct separation between my work life and my personal life – it makes it easier to focus when I’m working and to get out of that headspace when I’m not! While a lot of my teammates love working from home, I go to a coworking space every day, because keeping those physical spaces separate is important to me. I don’t check my work email during off hours – I don’t even use the same browser for personal stuff that I use for work! Keeping strict boundaries like these makes it a lot easier for me to maintain a healthy work/life balance for myself.
I usually work Thursdays from home which allows me to take my kids to school, coach my kids basketball team and feel more connected with my community. It really is one of the highlights of my week and doesn’t affect my output at all. The time I would usually spend commuting is spent contributing to my family. Win-Win!
In a results-oriented culture, no matter what kind it is, you’ve got to work in balance, inspiration, and humanness. This is as much responsive artfulness as it is planned. But, again, at our core: we want people to walk away and have amazing families and be whole people. There’s some fun things we do — but at a simplistic level, we just encourage depth of friendships and balance of life.
It is a real challenge. Every day. I am learning to compartmentalize, to chunk my work into smaller pieces, and to set more realistic daily tasks (both for work and home). I am trying very hard to stop the addictive behavior of looking at my email every time my phone is in my hand, or responding to email in lieu of tackling an important project. While it is important to be responsive, looking at and responding to email coming in can be a huge distraction, time suck, and drain on productivity.
Every day is about choices. There are always things that I’m giving up. It might be the opportunity to finish a project before 5pm or having lunch with one of my kids. I don’t pressure myself by looking for the perfect balance. I recognize that I can’t give everything in my life the full time and attention I might want to give, but I do give my best to my career and my family. If I’m being honest, I need to work on doing things for myself a little more often.
When I started working from home, 12 years ago, I was told I wasn’t going to work at home but rather live in the office. I’ve tried to avoid that by having a dedicated office with a locking door (my kids were young when I started working at home). They had to learn when it was OK to interrupt me, and when I had to be left alone.
I try to make sure that when I’m at work, I’m at work, and when I’m at home, I’m at home. I don’t have my work email or Slack on my phone, and I don’t read my personal email during the day.
For the most part, I still work a pretty routing 8-5 day. That said, I obviously do some work outside those hours sometimes, and when I travel, it’s usually an 8-10 day each day. But as long as I’m not traveling, I try to limit my hours to a normal 40-esque unless a big project is going on.
When you work in a normal job, your daily commute enforces routine on your day and makes the mental jump between your personal environment and your professional environment really clear. When you work from home though, you have to find other substitutes for that process, so some of the things that I’ve found help the most are keeping a regular schedule, and using environmental cues to trigger the mental transition between personal time and work time.
I try hard to achieve balance between my personal and professional life. As a business owner, I know that I have to commit more than the typical 40-hour week in order to be successful, and my family knows and understands this. I try my best to stop working at 5pm every day and spend at least 5-8pm with the wife and kids. Many nights I need to jump online and work for several hours, but I try to do that on a laptop alongside my wife.
On weekends and vacations, I try to slip away and get work done when it doesn’t affect family time. So if I need to put our youngest down for a nap, I’ll work during that time. Or I’ll wake up early or go to sleep late so I can work while everyone else is sleeping.
I also commit time to make sure I’m healthy. It sounds cheesy, but it is important for me to go to the gym ~5 times a week and eat really healthy meals. This does take some time, but in the long run it means I (hopefully) won’t be dealing with health issues or not able to keep up with my kids. It also sets a good example for my kids to follow (my wife has a similar regimen).
I’m not the greatest at balancing it all, but I try to have a clear approach to balancing work and personal life so that I have a solid framework to operate within.
I keep normal working hours in my home office so I have dedicated work time. Then transitioning to family time at the end of the day is as easy as logging off and walking into the living room.
My husband and I run Greenback together and we have three small children (ages 5, 2 and 11 months), so it’s always a bit of a juggling act. I have a few rules that I try to follow: I don’t work on weekends unless its required (i.e. I take weekend days off to spend with my family unless there is a genuine business emergency); we take family vacations (so many entrepreneurs and small business owners skip that important ability to take a step back!); and I never miss a school play/sporting event/etc. regardless of the business need. I recently started using a co-working space in Bali and it’s been really helpful in completely separating work and life, even though I also have an office in a separate building in our house as well. It really just helps to keep the work and family parts of my life separate by being in completely separate places when working.
Speaking for myself, my work and life are seamlessly integrated. Writing is as much a part of my life as it is my work. However, I do have hobbies and activities that I do regularly. I exercise every day, go snowboarding in the winter, and around 8 pm I hang out with my friends. But for the most part, reading and writing is something I do the moment I wake up and sometimes it’s what puts me to sleep.
My home office is awesome and I don’t have a problem living where I work because I set designated spaces for each task (eating, reading, working, sleeping, and exercise).
I try to make sure I get at least 5 solid hours of productive work in every day. Outside of that I’m lucky to have friends, colleagues and family who are all available to hang out, work out, eat out, etc. so I’m not at a loss for human interaction.
I set my calendar each and every week, making sure I integrate social activities and exercise. On Sunday evenings, I review my week and block out times to head to the gym, do groceries, grab dinner with friends and other activities. I find it is very important to ‘shut off’ and allow yourself time to re-charge throughout your week.
With everyone being constantly connected I think it’s important to make sure you get enough downtime from work — even more so in a remote setting where your coworkers might be in the middle of their workday when it’s actually evening for you. I personally make sure to spend the hours around dinner with my family and not look at my phone. When the kids are in bed, I might do some work sometimes, but I’m very deliberate about not letting that become a habit.
Several times a week I will take a few hours during the regular work day to go do something fun – usually the gym, tennis with friends, or a run. I’ll then usually make up for this by catching up for a few hours during an evening or on the weekends.
I also have developed a group of friends that work remotely for different companies. We try and meetup regularly to work and have lunch.
Not really good, I’m always available, so many times I don’t completely separate between work and life. But if I really want to, I do and switch everything off and enjoy quality time with friends and family.
I like to write out my schedule weekly. Keep a running list of to-dos and integrating personal activities throughout the day (i.e. grocery shopping, grabbing lunch with a friend, doctors appt, etc)
I surround myself with strong, accomplished leaders – you can’t go it alone. That’s the big thing, and I am incredibly grateful for my business partners and colleagues. But every day I try to appreciate my own vulnerability, and accept the fact I can’t do it all. I have to be honest with myself, know my limits, acknowledge openly my weaknesses while confidently embracing my strengths, approach life and work with humility, and ask for help when I need it. Approach things holistically – there isn’t a different “work person” and “life person” – my goal is to bring my whole self courageously to work and to life, and I encourage our staff to do the same.
In the beginning I used to work a lot. Too much—past the point of being productive. Now I a maintain a good schedule. I always try to wake up before 7 a.m. Then I do a workout, eat breakfast, and head to a coworking space in whatever city I am in. I usually work from about 8 a.m. – 6 p.m. with a lunch break thrown in there. I also made the rule (OK, maybe more like a loose guideline) that I don’t work after dinner—I try and make a point to separate the evenings from work. Having good habits like this come in handy, and sometimes it doesn’t always go to plan, but for the most part it keeps a strong work-life balance.
I’m both an author and a business owner. I do my writing in the morning, then transition into work in the afternoon, which is when U.S. business hours begin for me.
I take opportunities as they come and try to balance priority initiatives with “low-hanging fruit.” Because I’m a remote worker and I work flexibly, I don’t limit myself to a 9-to-5 lifestyle. I find that taking a more flexible approach to work enables me to see the bigger LiquidSpace picture.
For me, the ability to work remotely and flexibly lets me be there for all the important moments for my family. I can volunteer at school and attend special daytime presentations. The flip side is that I often am doing part of my work at night or on weekends, but it is well worth it to me to be able to prioritize my time the way that is best for me.
Working from home can make it a challenge to balance things because there is always work; there are always household chores and family obligations, too. I never fully close the door on any of those things. However, I enjoy having a lot going on, so it works well for me!
I take breaks and spend time with family at times throughout the day, but I also will turn off email etc. notifications on my phone at times as well when I want to make sure I’m not distracted. I have a day light basement office, so at the end of my work day I get to go upstairs and shut the door on the office. At times I go for walks after work to have a segway between work and home.
I try to do a core set of hours daily to help people with predictability of where I will be, both at work and at home. I have a separate office space out of which I try not to take my laptop unless necessary. If I have a late call or have something that needs doing during the day, I will just try to shift around my hours to make it fit and let people know if they are going to be affected.
Working from home it is easy to work when I need to and do other things as I wish. I often combine work and exercise – lots of people really enjoy walking meetings. Truth is human beings were designed to move and many of us think better when we are moving!
Worst location where you’ve worked remotely? Best? Worst location is probably a noisy crowded airport with bad connection. Best- so many great places! On a beach – in my garden – in the mountains!
I absolutely do not check email (personal or work) or Slack messages on the weekend. I’ve found this to be immensely powerful for balance.
Every couple of months I like getting away from home and working from a completely new city for a few days. I find it really stimulating to take these mini retreats in new environments, and it becomes a good way to balance things you want to do in life (like visiting a new city) whilst staying on top of work. It’s also important for me to make time for maintaining a healthy social life, exercise, (non work-related) reading, and personal hobbies like producing music.
As a co-founder, poorly at times. But as our team has grown and we’ve had a family, we are pretty good about balance now. As for individual team members, it is entirely common and encouraged to put life first. Senior engineers commonly break midday or late afternoon to pick kids up from school or run them to soccer game or whatnot. Have a doctor’s appointment? Cool. Prefer to do your banking and grocery shopping 11 a.m. on a Wednesday when the store is empty? A+ life hack right there.
Having a dedicated, consistent workspace is huge. I’m fortunate enough to have a home office, but even a specific desk or space in your dwelling makes a big difference in making the shift of work vs. home life.
I take off during the day. I do a variant of the Pomodoro Technique, where I work for 45 minutes, followed by 15 minutes off the desk. During the day, I often take three to five hours off to do sports, socialize, or read. I also enjoy working on Sundays. No one else is working, and I have no distractions. On the other hand, I might be off on Wednesdays. I have all the freedom I could dream of, and do my utmost to get the most out of it. Tomorrow, I’ll start working at 11 a.m. as I meet with some friends in the morning to play padel tennis. Tonight, I’m working late as I have a lot on my plate. Similarly, I flex depending on my motivation. Right now, it’s high, and I might work 60 hours per week. Other times it’s low, and I work 20 hours in a week.
![/Simple [A]](https://remoteco.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Logo_Eggplant-100x100.png){kind=logo}
This question is well-phrased because it uses the word “integration” instead of “balance.”
I used to find myself carrying a lot of guilt and stress when I thought of work and life as completely separate entities which needed to somehow be balanced precariously while walking on a tightrope over a giant pit where the remains of workaholics or work avoiders were strewn.
But when it started to dawn on me that work and life are actually an integrated continuum that requires care and cultivation, I felt better about both spheres.
Personally, I find that having a workspace that is distinct and separate from the home space is helpful. I also find it helpful to maintain strong routines, patterns, and rituals at both home and work. I’m getting better at curating my own attention in order to be more present in each moment. When I’m in a work conversation, I need to be able to be fully present and focused on that, not distracted by something at home. And likewise, when I’m at home, I need to be able to be fully present as a dad and spouse.
It’s certainly not perfect, and often the worlds end up blending into one another, but being conscious about where my attention is helps improve the experience all around. There are lots of other tips, tricks, and lifehacks that distributed workers learn, but the guiding Greek maxims remain relevant in the digital present:
“Know thyself.”
“Nothing to excess.”
I’ve worked from home for many years, even before SitePen. Some things I’ve learned over the years: have a designated office with a door you can shut, move around the house periodically for a change of scenery, and know when to close the laptop and go outside and do something else! We have a flexible schedule, so sometimes I’ll break up my hours just for the heck of it. If my brain is burning out, I’ll shut down and come back later in the evening when I have good ideas again.
I have a separate room to work in, where I have installed a lock. 🙂 My family (wife and 3 kids) are used to the idea of minimizing disturbance while I am at work, so that is not a problem.
I tend to follow a work hard play hard philosophy. I can’t say if this is really the ideal thing for people to do but it’s been working for me. I work a lot, but if an interesting social opportunity presents itself I try not to turn it down.
I work all day everyday! One of my big ways to refocus myself is to do Yoga or workout, which I try to do 5 days a week.
Sometimes I like to go on hikes, overnight camping trips or if it’s winter, skiing! The great thing about being remote is that I can work from a cabin all week without any decrease in productivity.
Poorly 🙂 Just joking, as I’m working at 9 p.m. on this blog post submission! I love the fact that although we have core hours when we are expected to be available for meetings, to chat online, etc., if we have family commitments, school events, etc. we are able to make provisions to attend to other priorities. I think of it as a give/take scenario. Once you’ve established a level of trust with your manager and team, and they have confidence that you will get the job done, the actual schedule of your work day has room for variance. I love that benefit.
With a work culture that we have and the option to work remotely allows me to stay on top of my things and deliver the results as per a work schedule that is suitable to my personal life as well. This helps a lot to balance out my personal and work life and give importance and priority to both at the same time.
That’s a huge thing for us here at TeamGantt. We encourage the team to not work more than 40 hours a week. Everyone has things outside of work (family, church, hobbies, etc.) and it’s really important for everyone to have time for those things.
We also encourage a good routine. I work from 8:30 – 5:00 pm. This way I know what time I need to be downstairs and in my office by each day. My wife and kids also know my schedule and respect it. Then at 5:00 pm, if I’m not out of the office, my wife starts letting the kids in to help remind me to stop working. And I’m totally fine with that. Family is really important and I want to make sure that they have my full attention after 5:00. And by having a strict schedule, it works both ways. My family knows that I need to be focused on work from 8:30 to 5:00 so that I can have time on the evenings and weekends to be with them. So we recommend this type of work day to others at TeamGantt. They may shift their hours earlier or later, but the important thing is that they have structure to their day.
Both my husband and I have made a series of changes to flex our work, and to even work reduced hours when our children were very young. By doing this, we both had plenty of time and energy to care for our children and our relationship with each other. This year my youngest child graduates from high school, but my husband and I are still both committed to creating time for other things besides work. Tune in next year and we’ll let you know how things are going.
Boundaries are important. Over the years I’ve learned that to do my best work tomorrow, I need to close down my laptop at a reasonable time tonight, so that I’m rested and ready to do my “deep thinking” work (writing and reviewing) in the morning before my meetings start. I savor my weekends with friends, family, and pursuing interests outside of work and education. And when I take vacation I sign offline completely so I can truly recharge.
Work/life integration is not too complicated, as luckily all the family members are out at work/school/kindergarten during the day. What’s complicated, are the evenings, as quite often I find myself drifted behind the computer, attention away from the family. So yes, it takes special effort to set up time with my close ones.
When you’re traveling all the time and planning these really exciting things all over the world that are often work-related, the work/life lines tend to blur, and you never really get burned out. Aside from that, I’ve found it’s important to specifically carve out time where I’m away from work. I play a lot of polo, so I rely on that to achieve this. Also, simple things like deliberately putting your phone down and making time to focus on the people around you is important.
I try to be as productive as possible at work, and when work is over, I try not to think about it. Too many people have a hard time relaxing or doing other activities when working from home, which research shows, hampers productivity. I’m a big fan of data- and the data clearly shows that there are diminishing returns to productivity.
It isn’t easy from an owner’s perspective. And as a single mother, it takes a lot of juggling. I’ve been in this business for 21 years and my clients are extremely demanding on my team. Administrative support is absolutely necessary to maintain some free time.
You have to be very disciplined; when you are done with your day, I need to walk away from my office and not go in there unless I really need something! In the summer it is more challenging since I have a young daughter; I break up my day so I can spend time with her and try not to check email while we are together. Sometimes I have to remind myself to stop working!
It’s not easy. Even though working remotely affords complete freedom, I’ve learned that I work best on a schedule. My most productive time is in the morning, so I typically start my day around 6:30am. Starting early also allows for a couple of extra hours of family time in the afternoon.
To unplug I run and I mountain bike. I’ve found that exercise is absolutely critical, especially as a software engineer, exec and entrepreneur, to keeping your sanity. I used to spend a lot of time at the gym, but I find that getting outside into the mountains or putting a few miles behind me on the road is a great way to keep energized and create some separation. (Even in the rain – we live just outside of Seattle). I also have an Australian Cattle dog who is a great company-keeper. There’s nothing better than stepping away from your desk and wrestling with your dog for a few minutes. I highly recommend dogs for remote-workers.
I tend to start at 7am in the mornings and get my meetings done early. Then I’ll focus on work that requires quiet time like coding, operations or writing.
As a founder it’s difficult to unplug. Our team works regular office hours and they almost never work late. Once they’re done for the day they’re usually completely offline until the next day. We don’t work weekends – I think one Saturday I was online and three of our team showed up on slack and I was a little startled – I think they were startled to see each other. They have weekends and evenings off and that gives them a good work-life balance.
It’s really cool to run a company that is able to provide that kind of balance and quality of life for our team.
I maintain a “regular” work schedule as much as possible and go to my home office much like I would otherwise. My family knows not to disturb me if they come home while I’m working, but they also know I have the flexibility to adjust my schedule and be there for them when needed.
I’m currently living, working and traveling as a digital nomad with my wife. I’ve never been more productive, creative and satisfied in everything I do thanks to this lifestyle.
The key is working in 3-hour shifts throughout the day, which is incredibly liberating compared to the traditional, grinding 8-hours-straight day. It allows you to eat better, stay fit, see and do new things during the day, and more. It’s also a benefit for work as it allows you to meet a lot more people who can inspire your business (or even become a customer) than you would cooped up in an office.
