Inventive Tips for Separating Your Job From Your Life When You Work From Home

For all the advantages of working from home, the blurring of lines between work and leisure time is a real drawback. Without clear boundaries and rituals to mark the workday’s start and end, it’s all too easy for remote workers to always be on the clock—or to feel guilty that they should be.

The writer Nicole Cliffe recently queried her followers on Twitter about how those who work primarily from home distinguish their business hours from personal ones.

For people who work largely from home, do you have any kind of ritual to separate work time from home/family/you time? I noticed that after I put my last kid to bed I immediately take down my ponytail and shake my hair out like a sexy librarian in an adult film.

— Nicole Cliffe (@Nicole_Cliffe) June 6, 2018

The responses she received are a collection of triggers and tricks for kickstarting productivity when the work day begins, and for unplugging when the day is done.

Costume change

Mr. Rogers changed into a sweater and sneakers as soon as he entered his on-set home, to give the children who watched him the security of a predictable routine. You can be your own Mr. Rogers!

I put on my glasses and my work robe, which I can’t believe I’m admitting exists.

— Elle (@ElleSacc) June 6, 2018

Change of scenery

One of the best resources a home-based worker can have is designated work space. An office with a door is the gold standard, but any workstation you can literally walk away from signals to you, and anyone you share a home with, when you’re on the clock. (If space is really at a premium, this desk folds up at the end of a shift and hides all your papers.)

Oddly, I create a barricade between my desk and the rest of the house, largely made up of my 7 month old's various chairs and seats.

Somehow, that little barrier actually helps.

— DrunkOnMystery (@DrunkOnMystery) June 6, 2018

Sensory shift

Several respondents had the intriguing idea to mark work time with a specific scent—a cost-effective way of transforming a space from home to work.

I'm always changing rituals hoping the new one will work better, but one thing I do when it's time to settle down & write is put on perfume.

— Dana Stevens (@thehighsign) June 6, 2018

Rituals

If you have children or pets, you have an immediate excuse to turn your attention elsewhere when work is finished (and, often, even when it’s not). If external obligations don’t already create a hard stop to your day, find some that do. Scheduling a workout class or other activity at the time you want to stop working is a great motivator to wrap things up.

I have to leave on time every day (mostly) to walk and pick up the kids from various locations in the neighborhood. The walk is the separation for me.

— Medusa sans Frontières (@OpheliaInWaders) June 6, 2018

Turn off

There’s no more effective way to unplug from the workday than by literally powering down.

End of workday: Turn off my work laptop. I used to stand at the patio door and watch the commuters on the main road and do a little dance of gratitude that I work from home.

— Zennui (@Zenkitty714) June 6, 2018