balance work and family

January 11, 2021

7 Ways To Start Your Workweek Right

After the weekend comes and goes it can be difficult to find the motivation to get back to work. We’ve put together our top tips to help kickstart your workweek right.

Eat Right

It’s important to eat properly throughout your workday. All too often we tend to reach for the sugar-laden snacks and drinks for a quick energy fix only to find ourselves in an energy slump by midday. It’s important to have healthy snacks and meals on hand to keep your body and mind healthy and full of energy for improved concentration and overall work productivity.

Take Set Breaks

It’s easy to get caught up with your daily to-dos but if you aren’t taking any time to regroup, you can lose steam quickly, make mistakes more frequently, and be at risk for burnout. Common workplace practices are two 15-minute and one 30-minute lunch break per 8-hour shift. If you’re putting in full days, these suggested break increments are put in place for a reason and are backed with plenty of research on the benefits.

Get Outside

Some people find working from home to be isolating which can also lead to feeling “cooped” up or trapped inside. When the weather is nice, get outside and take your breaks with some fresh air. You can go for a walk or have tea on your patio for example. Whatever you choose to do, as long as you’re getting away from your home office, it will help change up the environment you see every day.

Set The Mood To Work

When you work from home, it’s important to have a good environment to work in. Setting the right mood can make you more productive and efficient. Paying attention to the little details is the key – from music to decor to furniture and organization aids. Adding your personal touches will make your home office feel more welcoming and inviting and easier to perform your work in.

Create a To-Do List

When you work from home, it can be very easy to lose track of your workday. Before you know it, you could be faced with tight deadlines, overlapping projects, and inefficient use of time if you’re not careful. A great way to start the day off right is to have a to-do list. This should be done the night before each workday. Having a sense of what needs to get done from the start sets you on the right path plus it’s gratifying when you’re crossing those to-do’s off and seeing your progress.

Utilize Time Increments

Complimenting the to-do list suggestion, time increments can help you stay focused and on task, plus, it breaks up the workday so it doesn’t seem so long and drawn out. Setting your time increments the night before can help you determine your work start time, stop time, and checkpoints in between.

Use Daily Affirmations

There’s a reason why motivational videos and phrases are some of the most shared on social media. Inspiration and motivation go hand in hand and can help set the tone for each day. You can find mugs, posters, pens, and notebooks with motivational phrases on them or, you can sign up to an inspirational blog site where you will receive positive messages in your inbox daily.

How do you kick off your workweek? We would love to hear from you. Visit our Facebook Group for more information and to share your tips with us.

Written by Jessica Nicklos

April 24, 2017 0 Comments

5 Tips for Better Work-Life Balance

We all hear about the elusive “work-life balance” concept. It’s the place where our careers and personal lives become balanced. We don’t feel overworked, we have enough time for friends and family, and so on. While this is a great concept in theory, and one we should strive for, it can be quite difficult to make it happen.

Since reducing stress and making more time for those things that are important to you is truly crucial, read along for some of our best tips in increasing your work-life balance, and hopefully, your quality of life.

Declare your priorities

When you figure out what’s most important in your life, it becomes easier to figure out where to place your time. If you’re working very hard to advance your career, perhaps that’s your priority for the next six months. On the other hand, if you’ve been pulling 60 hour weeks and your priority is family time, you may have to re-evaluate a bit. Everyone will have different priorities, and they will often change depending on the season of your life.

To start to create that feeling of satisfaction and balance in your life, start by examining priorities and place more of your time there.

Take time for yourself

It’s important to unplug when you aren’t in “work” mode! And it should be noted that work mode should not be 24/7. This can be difficult as work from home moms, but it’s a necessity in gaining balance.

Take time for yourself: schedule something exciting, keep weekends for friends, family, errands, and fun, and generally create space for the good things in life. Yes, work is important and a huge part of our lives, but if that’s all you do, you’ll quickly feel out of balance. Don’t feel guilty about making yourself a priority; you’ll be a better mom, friend, and employee for it!

Manage your time

Are you spending more time than you thought on work tasks? Keep track of your time for a while – both business and personal. Once you see some patterns forming, create a solid schedule. This will allow you to keep things in order and allow you to see where your free time is. WHen you know where you’re spending too much (or not enough) time, you can readjust.

A lot of the work of establishing a solid work-life balance is in seeing where your time is going. If you don’t keep track for a while, how will you know? Put in some of the effort in the beginning and you can truly see where your time is being spent.

Make time for fun

For most people, a large part of work-life balance will include relaxation, family and friends. You still have to have fun, even if your current priority is work or career advancement. It’s crucial to stay social, especially if you work from home. Keep those social appointments and work them into your busy schedule whenever possible!

Take breaks

It’s important to stick to your guns regarding vacations, time off, and breaks. Vacations and breaks don’t need to be elaborate, but there needs to be a definitive break from work on a consistent basis.

In our current culture, it’s easy to put these things off because so much needs to be done. Fortunately, these things will still be there when you return! This isn’t to say that a great work ethic isn’t a wonderful thing, but too much of anything isn’t useful.

Work towards a balanced sense of work and life by following the tips above. When you see where your time is going, focus on your priorities, and stay committed to what’s best for you, you’ll find these things are much more balanced in your life.

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