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If you’re thinking about your life admin to-do list while you’re working from home, or thinking about work when spending time with your loved ones at home, then it might be time you create (or re-create) some boundaries. Here’s how:

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Physical boundaries

Set up a designated space for you to work from at home – whether that’s an office or a corner of your bedroom. Make sure you have the essentials: desk, monitors, keyboard and mouse. Close the door, or maybe pop on some headphones to drown out any distracting noises and to remind the people around you that you’re working.

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Set hours and stick to them

It’s easy to start working early and even easier to work well past the end of the work day when at home. You may even find yourself not keeping track of the time. If you don’t have set work hours from your employer, set your own. Put it in your calendar and even set an alarm on your phone for the end of the work day so you know when you need to start wrapping things up to stop you from working into the night.

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Let the people around you know when you’ll be working

Once you have those set hours, let your family, housemate or partner know when not to disturb you and when it’s okay. Similarly, let you manager and colleagues know as well. This should help them not contact you once you’ve finished work and have started to relax for the night.

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Have routines

We all have a routine we follow when we get to the office in the morning. That might look like turning on your laptop, making yourself a coffee, checking emails, and catching up with your colleagues. Whatever that routine is, or used to be, you can adapt it to working from home. This will signify to yourself that it’s the start of the work day.

Similarly, having a routine to signify the end of the day is likely to help you switch off and start to enjoy your night. This doesn’t have to be anything drastic, it can simply be turning off your laptop, packing up your desk and removing anything work related from sight. This will likely also assist you in creating your morning routine.

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Creating boundaries between your work life and personal life is extremely important, especially while working from home. With these tips, we hope you affectively switch off from work once the clock hits 5pm and spend the night relaxing with loved ones.