Stuff that worked for me, maybe not everything is possible for everyone:
Don't feel guilty for working at home (I did)
Allow yourself to take breaks (as you would in the office)
Use a different laptop for private and work
Have a "ritual" to get off work (shutdown and put away laptop, leave the room)
Don't work in the living room (then you live in the office)
Set clear boundaries with other people (at work and at home)
Don't be half working / half at home
Long:
I work from home 2 to 3 days a week now. I've been doing it for years. I've found it got easier over time.
I'm pretty strict in my work-life balance separation. I can imagine people that run their own company, or are independant freelancers may find this more difficult than an employee.
In the beginning I always forgot to take lunch breaks or take them in 5 minutes. There was a feeling of guilt that was not there when taking breaks at the office and it took a while before I was confident to take breaks of equal length. Or even to quickly get out of the house to get some food.
The same "guilt" make me work late, or get back to work in the evening. This was increasing stress.
I don't know where the guilt came from. Maybe the fear of being accused of "slacking off".
Anyway: allow yourself to take breaks. Step away from the home office during those times. Take out the trash, empty the dishwasher, walk around a bit.
I have always used a seperate laptop for work and home. It helps to fully shut down and put away the work laptop at the end of the day.
I think this ritual can help to put you in a different mental state.
I also have my laptop on a desk in a seperate room where I don't hang out if I'm not working. So it takes some effort to get "back to work".
If you live with other people, it's important to have a clear agreement: when I'm working I'll be working and I should not be disturbed (within reason). But also: when I'm done working I'm all yours. Don't be half present at home and half working. Nobody benefits from that.
It's become easier with kids, since frequently you have no choice but to stop working on a tight schedule.
Only recently, I have learned that it helps me to have fixed work-at-home days and work-at-the-office days. But that's not really related to your question anymore.
Can you elaborate a little? Are you referring to my remark that kids enforce and en-of-day or that I can't mix being with the family and working?
The original point I was trying to make was: you can't work excessive long days when you have kids to get from school, babies from day-care or older kids to soccer practice or wherever. These obligations enforce an end of the work-day.
In that regard I don't think babies or kids are different.
I get your point how they mark the end of the work-day when they return home. By babies, actually I tried to mean 0-1 age, pre day-care babies. How to approach this when the baby is always at home?
Asking because I liked your point about not being half present at home and half working. And with our first child, 6 months old now, my work transitioned to half present at home and half working most of the time as mother needs quite a bit of support.
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TL;DR:
Stuff that worked for me, maybe not everything is possible for everyone:
Long:
I work from home 2 to 3 days a week now. I've been doing it for years. I've found it got easier over time.
I'm pretty strict in my work-life balance separation. I can imagine people that run their own company, or are independant freelancers may find this more difficult than an employee.
In the beginning I always forgot to take lunch breaks or take them in 5 minutes. There was a feeling of guilt that was not there when taking breaks at the office and it took a while before I was confident to take breaks of equal length. Or even to quickly get out of the house to get some food.
The same "guilt" make me work late, or get back to work in the evening. This was increasing stress.
I don't know where the guilt came from. Maybe the fear of being accused of "slacking off".
Anyway: allow yourself to take breaks. Step away from the home office during those times. Take out the trash, empty the dishwasher, walk around a bit.
I have always used a seperate laptop for work and home. It helps to fully shut down and put away the work laptop at the end of the day.
I think this ritual can help to put you in a different mental state.
I also have my laptop on a desk in a seperate room where I don't hang out if I'm not working. So it takes some effort to get "back to work".
If you live with other people, it's important to have a clear agreement: when I'm working I'll be working and I should not be disturbed (within reason). But also: when I'm done working I'm all yours. Don't be half present at home and half working. Nobody benefits from that.
It's become easier with kids, since frequently you have no choice but to stop working on a tight schedule.
Only recently, I have learned that it helps me to have fixed work-at-home days and work-at-the-office days. But that's not really related to your question anymore.
Kids ok, but how about babies?
Can you elaborate a little? Are you referring to my remark that kids enforce and en-of-day or that I can't mix being with the family and working?
The original point I was trying to make was: you can't work excessive long days when you have kids to get from school, babies from day-care or older kids to soccer practice or wherever. These obligations enforce an end of the work-day.
In that regard I don't think babies or kids are different.
Sorry, that was a pretty vague point that I made.
I get your point how they mark the end of the work-day when they return home. By babies, actually I tried to mean 0-1 age, pre day-care babies. How to approach this when the baby is always at home?
Asking because I liked your point about not being half present at home and half working. And with our first child, 6 months old now, my work transitioned to half present at home and half working most of the time as mother needs quite a bit of support.