How to manage the new 'work-life blend'

Our lives, how we manage our time, has changed dramatically

BY Emily Douglas 29 Sep. 2020

As we navigate the unmitigated and murky waters of COVID-19, we’re finding the line between home life and work life increasingly blurred.

Our lives, how we manage our time, has changed dramatically – meaning we’re ‘switched on’ much more than we used to be.

With that in mind, how should employees manage this new work-life blend reality?

“Balancing work and life requirements will require attending to both physical and mental boundaries,” added Dr Melanie Peacock, associate professor of HR at Mount Royal University and recent winner of HRD Canada’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

“Physical boundaries can best be set by allocating specific space at home for work activities. This helps to separate personal from professional time and provides cues to employees, and those they live with, when focus should be on work and as importantly, when it should not.

“As important is the ability to turn one’s thoughts away from work. It is too easy to be drawn back to a workspace, continuously think of work issues and check emails or texts on an ongoing basis. (Note, these were issues that needed to be addressed even prior to the changed landscape caused by COVID-19).

“Setting a work pattern, shutting the door (literally and figuratively) to a workspace and training oneself to turn off work communication is critical. Asking friends and family to provide reminders to step away from work and learning to set, and then keep, personal commitments also helps to ensure that professional duties to not overwhelm one’s time.