It’s hard to differentiate between work days and personal days when you’re working and living in the same space, but taking self-care days for yourself will help keep your work at peak productivity and efficiency. You know how people say, “you can’t pour from an empty cup” all the time? Well it’s true. Taking care of yourself directly relates to work success, so here’s how I handle the balance.
Pick Days
I started taking Wednesdays and Sundays off because I wanted to only ever be unavailable for one day if a client needed to reach out to me. I know this isn’t doable for everyone, but the point is that I have dedicated time that I can look forward to throughout the week.
Be Strict
I’ve set up my days off that I’m actually not allowed to work. Not even checking emails. No work whatsoever for a full day. This is a form of self-care for me because it makes me slow down, and it has drastically improved the days that I do work. Having that block of no-work-allowed time makes me focus on deadlines in a new way because I can no longer let my work bleed into my days off if I’m behind. Having hard deadlines takes discipline, and it’ll be hard at first, but it will overall improve your work days.
Do the Opposite of Your Work
My work days consists of the following:
- writing for clients (active creation)
- blogging for this site
- being on my computer/phone
- being inside
On my days off, I purposefully strive to do the opposite of these, which looks like:
- reading for pleasure (passive consumption)
- spending time on personal projects
- limiting screen time
- being outside (weather permitting)
Having these “opposite days” is another form of self-care because it lets my brain rest without just sleeping all day. I’m using my other talents and skills so that I can feel like a well-rounded human instead of a writing machine, and it lets me spend time doing things I actually enjoy instead of simply “not working”.
The Short Version
Working from home is very freeing, but it’s also too easy to let your personal and work days bleed together. We all need the opportunity to be at rest, truly at rest, and so treating your work as a headspace to punch in and out of makes it so that you can enjoy your time off and be a happier and more well-rounded human. Let yourself recover so that you can come back to work refreshed and ready to be productive.
What do you think? What does self-care look like for you in the context of working from home? Do you break your week up like I do, or do you take a full weekend off? Why? Let me know in the comments!
-Katy
Author Rescue 