How To Achieve Better Work-Life Balance in 2021

There’s no doubt that the pandemic has changed the way we work and live — families that used to spend the day apart with parents at work, children at school — are often crushed together in the same space trying to manage all their same responsibilities. And outlets that many people had to available to work off stress, from gyms to nightclubs to museums, are often closed or limiting the number of customers.

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With so many working from home, the boundaries between work and life can grow very murky. As you stride into 2021, now is the time to take a good look at how you work and how you spend your downtime (if you do) and make adjustments accordingly. Here are six tips to achieve a better work-life balance.

Don’t Wait To Take Time Off

COVID-19-related travel limitations can be a real downer on vacation plans, but that doesn’t mean you should give up your time off just because you can’t go where you’d like. According to Forbes, it’s possibly more important than before to take time off because the challenges of the pandemic — from the monotony to fears about your job security — are adding stress. And to be a productive employee, you need to de-stress and reset. Consider staycations where you disconnect from technology and pamper yourself, outdoor trips to the beach or the forest, Airbnb or hotel stays in locations with low COVID-19 numbers or an RV trip with limited contact with others. What matters is that you take a conscious break from work.

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Manage Zoom Fatigue

With more people using Zoom than ever before for meetings and classes — and even socializing — that can not be safely held in person, Zoom fatigue may set in. This is a real condition where you feel excessively tired, irritated or agitated during and after a Zoom call. According to the Harvard Business Review, part of this comes from having to pay focused, often visual attention, for far longer than you would in person. When possible, try not to stare too hard at the screen. Look around, take visual breaks. Alternately, ask if you can turn the video off and just do an audio call. Take breaks to get outside, away from your computer in between meetings and calls.

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Set Work-From-Home Boundaries

While working from home has many advantages, such as spending the day in your pajamas and the shortest commute ever, it can also allow work to bleed over into your downtime if you’re not careful. If you work from home in 2021, it’s important to set boundaries. According to Fast Company, this can include things like setting working hours and then leaving your desk or shutting your computer at the end of the day just like you would at work, taking breaks, putting up a sign on your door or workspace to alert other family members or roommates that you are working, and getting ahead of your distractions by making an effort to remove them from your work life before they interfere.

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Connect With Others

Working from home during a pandemic can begin to feel incredibly isolating. Though you may not be able to get together with friends like you used to, arrange to call, video or text with good friends throughout the day, or at scheduled intervals for longer socializing. If it’s safe, with social distancing and masks in place, consider meeting up for an outdoor walk or bike ride.

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Include Exercise

Don’t forget about your body as you spend more and more time indoors. If you’re sitting more than before, this has a negative impact on posture and health in general — excessive sitting has been compared by researchers to obesity and smoking in its negative effects, according to the Mayo Clinic. Make sure you get some form of exercise, from simple walking to heart-pumping cardio, as many days of the week as you can.

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Delegate

Depending on the demands of your job, if you have the opportunity to delegate work, Fast Company recommends you take it. There’s no benefit to burning yourself out by doing everything yourself when you could ask others to help.

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About the Author

Jordan Rosenfeld

Jordan Rosenfeld is a freelance writer and author of nine books. She holds a B.A. from Sonoma State University and an MFA from Bennington College. Her articles and essays about finances and other topics has appeared in a wide range of publications and clients, including The Atlantic, The Billfold, Good Magazine, GoBanking Rates, Daily Worth, Quartz, Medical Economics, The New York Times, Ozy, Paypal, The Washington Post and for numerous business clients. As someone who had to learn many of her lessons about money the hard way, she enjoys writing about personal finance to empower and educate people on how to make the most of what they have and live a better quality of life.

 

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