Introducing a New Tool to Discover Your Work-life Wellness

By Rebecca Como and Dr. Laura Hambley

How would your life improve if you understood the ways your work is impacting your personal life? COVID-19 has shone a light on the challenges some of us encounter in connecting our personal and work lives while working from home. Are you experiencing household distractions and feelings of isolation? Are you having trouble switching between your work and life roles? Work-life wellness is the ability to be well in different aspects of your life, and feel well about the connection between work and home. Work-life wellness is something you can attain by implementing different methods.

One of these methods is boundary keeping. This involves setting clear boundaries between your work and personal life. Below are some practical ways that you can improve your boundary keeping when working remotely:

• Set-up a pretend commute to mark transitions between roles. This commute could mean going for a walk outside at the beginning/end of your workday, or perhaps practicing a meditation or a deep breathing routine to signify starting/finishing work.
• Wear a special hat or put a sign on your office or bedroom door while you are working to let children/spouse/dog know you are in work mode.
• Make a place in your home that is solely dedicated to working, and symbolically close that place when you are done working. If you do not have a door, put a sign over your computer or barricade the area with a portable, decorative divider.
• Turn off work alerts during personal time.

Another method is integration. Some people are integrators versus boundary setters, so if you work better with integration these tips may apply. Integration involves continuously moving between work and personal life, without establishing clear boundaries between the two:

• Do your most important or high focus work during your most productive time of the day, saving the less mindful tasks for your lower energy times.
• Let your team know when you are available and when your hours will look different based on shifting your time between work and home.
• Make sure to build in self-care time to prevent burn-out. Integrators may go to work early or stay late to enjoy working out or taking a walk during their workday.

Regardless of your preferred style, you can understand your work-life wellness by taking our new complimentary Work-Life Wellness Assessment. This scale was developed and validated through a recent research project at the University of Calgary. The assessment will ask you to reflect on how your work interacts with your life, and your scores will be analyzed to provide instant results.

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Work EvOHlution has been a world leader in remote work success since our launch in 2014. We are a Calgary-based team of Organizational Psychologists committed to enhancing engagement and performance in distributed workplaces. We offer innovative assessment tools for leaders, teams, and employees based on research conducted since 2003, as well as consulting, coaching, and training solutions. Work EvOHlution specializes in supporting organizations both locally and internationally.

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www.workevohlution.com