Hi Becky! The tip I would always give my team at my previous role, and try to live by myself, is to physically separate your work responsibilities and personal responsibilities as much as possible, rather than just relying on your willpower. I very strictly work on my work computer, work email account, work phone, and so forth, and don’t cross the streams - my work phone is turned off after work hours and I don’t use my work devices for anything personal and vice versa. And while my work phone does forward calls to my personal one, that’s something I can sever if I’m away long-term and reinstate on my return.

The main reason this works is that I also expect the same of the people I work with, who know what I should be contacted for and what not. For the teams I’ve managed, that means understanding what kind of thing I’m happy for them to handle themselves (more than they think!), what needs informing on an asynchronous medium like email, and what kind of thing constitutes something that’s worth contact out of hours (absolute emergencies). My commitment is that I’ll only contact them under the same circumstances.

The rest is expectations setting. I’m not going to be able to monitor our community reports all the time - so I’ve shown my managers at what the risk of that is, various options to mitigate it, and we choose the right option for us from what I’ve presented - all of which have been chosen to be acceptable in terms of a team’s work-life balance.

All of that means that on the occasions where I do check in when off the clock - and of course I do, every now and again - that they stay the exception, rather than the expectation, and I’m doing it as a choice rather than feeling like I’m pressured to.

• How do you maintain a work-life balance?
  • I try to bring humor and fun into meetings since working remotely doesn’t usually inspire those organic conversations.
  • My dogs help with this because I have to take them outside, whenever I come back inside, I’m reminded of how important it is to step away from time to time throughout the day to feel more energized.
  • I removed push notifications from Slack on my phone, that way when I’m logged off for the day I don’t have the temptation to be pulled back into the workday
  • I also make sure that for the team I manage I don’t ping them outside of typical work hours. It’s important that everyone respects that boundary, otherwise it can lead to confusion around expectations, and of course burnout would come soon thereafter.
• What are some tips you have for disconnecting after a long day?
  • ​​​​​​​I step away from my laptop at the end of the day and make sure it’s out of my reach, I’m lucky to be in a space where I’m able to sleep in a different room than where I work. When I worked from my bedroom, a tip from that would be to move your laptop into another out of sight spot so it doesn’t interfere with disconnecting.
  • A routine is great - some activity that signals the workday has ended and personal time has begun! Maybe it’s going for a short walk is the signal that it’s no longer a work day, or listening to music - getting a routine in place helps to keep up with the habit of disconnecting. For me, sometimes it’s a run, sometimes it’s walking/running around with my dogs.
• Do you have any self-care tips?
  • ​​​​​​​Don’t take things too seriously - if you had a less than perfect meeting/presentation, remind yourself to focus on the learnings and don’t beat yourself up about, that’s not productive! Focusing on the negative can also spill over into your personal time and negatively impact your mental health.
  • There will always be more work to be done! Make sure that you MAKE the time to take care of yourself - consciously stopping for healthy food, going to the gym, laughing, meditating (blocking off specific time on your calendar also helps to hold you accountable) - whatever it is that makes you feel rejuvenated, make sure you make the time, otherwise the stress of not taking time for yourself will catch up with you in one way or another! 
  • A quote that I remind myself of time and time again is “you run the day, or else the day will run you...over” - make boundaries and stick to them!

I hope these tips help others on their self care journeys! 

~Chloe

@wtempleton setting boundaries is so important! @cstrange, yes! The “hot girl walks” as the kids say are such a help for a boost of energy. Would love to include both of your tips in a feature on inSided’s blog if that is alright with you all.