Boundary Rituals When You Work From Home
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We've talked before about rituals for work-life boundaries — those little habits you create that help you set boundaries between work and life. Even before I knew what they were called, I advised readers to change into jeans when getting home from work, even if you aren't going anywhere, so you have a bit of “me” time between your work clothes and your pajamas.
As I think a lot of us have found, boundary rituals are even more difficult when you work from home, so I thought it might be a good thing to discuss. What habits have you created that help you compartmentalize work and life when you work at home? What boundary rituals are you following as you work from home?
The ONE thing I do that is a helpful little boundary ritual is an easy one: shutting down my computer. It means tabs have to be closed (if you are bonkers about tabs like I am, the Chrome plugin OneTab is amazing for “saving” tabs), and it gives you a moment of peace before you leave your workspace.
(If you're really interested in setting up a great habit, try writing your FIRST THREE TASKS on a post-it note and leaving it on your desk for tomorrow.)
Even if you end up using your computer for something else later that night, like watching a movie in bed, shutting down everything means your workday has ended — and you've got a fresh start the next day.
The computer shutdown works for me, but some other ideas here might include:
- taking a shower
- going for a walk or otherwise exercising
- having a cocktail, mocktail (unicorn juice, anyone?), or tea
- even just saying “goodnight” or “see you tomorrow” on Slack (or manually setting your notifications to “do not disturb”)
Readers, have you felt the need to create boundary rituals when you work from home? In addition to shutdown rituals, what are you doing?
I always hear people talk about how WFH is a problem because you lose boundaries between work and home, but that’s never been an issue for me (and we live in a small apartment). When the work day is done, it’s done – I don’t check email or continue to think about work and don’t really need any “rituals” to make that happen. I seem to be an outlier though.
I think the kind of job you have and corporate culture are huge factors here. My employer never sends emails outside of business hours so I can easily close my laptop, turn off my work phone, and not stress.
I kind of agree with this. My job is mostly problem-solving, so if I don’t have a physical indicator that work is done, I will ruminate on problems, sometimes all night (even when I’m trying to sleep). When I WFH, I shut down my computer, put it away (I work at the breakfast table) and either go for a walk or do my HIIT workout. On Fridays, I have a drink outside with DH.
I had a harder time with this before work-from-home became the norm. Now that I work from home every day, it is so much easier to just turn off my work laptop and be done with work. I think some of that is a shift in thinking. There are so many bigger things to stress out about now! Work is like barely a blip on my radar. I’m not saving lives.
When I was still commuting to the office, the first thing I did when I got home was walk the dog. I still use the evening dog walk as my way to wrap up work for the day. On an unrelated note, how cute is the model’s blouse in the photo? Love the chambray.
Same here. I take the dog for a walk. It’s my signal to start in the morning – dog walked, open the computer. And in the evening, shut down the computer and take the dog from a walk, as if I just got home and she needed to go out.
When I finish my work for the day, I leave the house and walk around the block. This gives me the feeling of “leaving work” and “coming home.” It makes a huge difference for me.
I go for a long bike ride. Occasionally, I answer the phone or an email while riding (probably not safe at that speed, but I’m in the park, not on the street), but pretty much it’s just me riding 18 miles.
My issue is more that I find it difficult to start work in the morning because I do not have the physical reminder that I am “at work” now”. Even in college I always studied in the library because I needed to go somehwere to start work. Or a cafe.
I start my work day by making sure I’m completely dressed (not necessarily “fine” work clothes), and just before I begin my day, I make sure to put on my shoes. I consider myself dressed for work then. The end of the day is a little harder. Some of my colleagues tend to check emails late into the evening. I don’t do a “hard” stop at 5pm, but I do walk away from the computer and start prepping dinner or check in with my wife about her day. I’ll walk by the computer for the next hour just to make sure no one really needs an answer for a problem. If I’ve seen no new emails by 6pm, I turn OFF my work computer. Totally OFF until the next morning … when I’ve put on my shoes and I’m ready to work!
My work day has no bounds. This is not new; it never has. I am not suggesting I work all of my waking hours. I certainly do not. But I get texts and calls from my partners all through the night, sometimes after midnight, and there is always something to respond to — a client, a partner, opposing counsel, a judge — by the time I get home from the gym, often before I get up.