The COVID-19 pandemic has affected everyone’s lives, especially people in the IT sector. After the pandemic, it has become mandatory for employees to work from home, which completely disturbed their work-life balance. Whether working in an IT firm or any other sector, it is crucial to maintain a work-life balance to have a healthy life.
Most people quickly achieve this goal while working from an office, but working from home has made everyone challenging. Staying up-to-date with your team members while keeping the house environment in mind is not that simple as it looks. Moreover, people are working more than ever after the pandemic, which has even worsened the condition.
According to Forbes, it is noticed that small business owners work more than 50+ hours per week, while more than 80% of individuals work on weekends as well. Though there is nothing wrong with being passionate about your work, maintaining the work-life balance is crucial for nourishing life. As a business owner, you can change things for your employees to maintain a work-life balance.
Challenges of Working from Home
- Work from home does provide many advantages, but many challenges make it more complicated.
- Difficulty in monitoring employees’ performance and activities
- Lack of communication among team members, which decreases the team efforts
- Increase in telecommunication costs, as you will have to spend more on the internet connection
- House distractions due to family members, kids, phone calls, pets, etc.
Tips for Better Work-Life Balance
We have created a list of some of the best tips to manage your work-life balance effectively.
- Set SMART Goals
Without having a goal in mind, it is often impossible to finish your tasks daily. If you organise yourself and understand what needs to be done when? It will become more comfortable for you. Thus, it would help if you had SMART goals every day – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Bound (SMART).
If you start keeping SMART goals for every day, then you will be able to execute your tasks timely while keeping track of your activities.
- Set Deadlines for Specific Tasks
Every organisation uses project management tools to manage its tasks and projects while working remotely or from the office. Thus, setting specific deadlines for your projects will help you understand how your employees are performing. You can even assign a deadline for each project to stay on track, but make sure it does not affect your employees’ life.
If you are using any project management tool, you should opt for one, which can be immensely helpful. You can even get a project management tool with your Microsoft 365 Subscription.
- Understand Your Priorities
Every day take out some time to analyse what is most important to you in your life. For instance, you can even make a list of top priorities at work and at home. After making a list, create a timetable to execute those tasks accordingly. This way, you will be able to make the most of your time and focus on your projects.
- Use Spreadsheet to Automate Tasks
As a team manager, you might need to run reports for clients or other projects, which often takes a lot of time. However, you can easily automate your data entry operations by creating macros in spreadsheets. Macros allow you to automate data entry operations effectively. Besides, it even allows you to automate canned responses for emails, quote marks, etc.
- Use Effective Communication Channels
Most employees find it challenging to communicate with their team members due to the lack of communication channels. Effective communication is critical to lead your business to success. Using practical communication tools like Microsoft Teams, you can collaborate with employees and other team members effectively. MS Teams is an excellent application that even allows you to schedule meetings and share information with others.
- Batch Small Tasks
One of the best ways to recover productivity in your team members is to keep the day flowing. If you have multiple small tasks to execute, find a specific time for them and execute them all at once. For example, if you must respond to emails, schedule meetings, update social media, order supplies, etc., then work on them at a specific period. This will help you prevent task switching and improve productivity while focusing on projects.
- Use Cloud Management Tools
While working remotely, it is challenging to keep track of employees’ activities and collaborate effectively. However, all this can be managed if you use a cloud platform like Microsoft 365. Though moving to the cloud is a big decision and the migration process is not one day task. But moving to Microsoft 365 will not affect any of your existing operations.
You can move to Microsoft 365 even when your employees are working from home. The migration process will not disturb any of the existing operations in your organisation. However, if you find it challenging to move to Microsoft 365, you can always contact Server Consultancy to help you with the migration process.
Apart from the above tips, it is recommended to take breaks during work hours no matter where you are working. For example, you can take a lunch break, tea break, a walk, or any other activity that keeps you productive. This way, you can keep yourself healthy and focus on your work with more confidence and energy.
All-in-All
Maintaining work-life balance is not a new thing; most people struggle with it. But the pandemic has made it even more complicated and stimulating for individuals. We have become so lazy in working from home that we have forgotten to focus on our health, affecting our productivity and work life. This article has covered some of the most useful tips that can be used to maintain work-life balance for the upcoming years.
