If you are in thought work, management, etc, chances are that on or around the middle of March you woke up and found yourself working from home. For some of you this may have been routine, and for others this may have been a completely new development.

I get it, I’ve played at working from home for the past few years, grabbing a day here and there, mostly retreating to this space when someone was sick, I was needed at home, or I had a really difficult project that had to be completed with focus.

However, now that all of our kids are at home too (not to mention the cats, neighbors, and our significant others) working from home has changed from novelty to necessity and for those of you who are high achievers it could threaten to blur the lines between home and work life even further.

For me, I’ve found that this is a huge problem. I wake up, and if I’m not careful work can creep into every moment of my day. And by work, I don’t always mean the tasks that we set for ourselves but instead the email we read while rolling out of bed that nags at us while we are eating breakfast, reading God’s word or praying. There have been many many times when I’ve made this mistake and have had my peaceful morning completely upended (note if you manage people don’t send them a strongly worded email late at night or early in the morning… It never has the desired effect).

So, what do we do in order to create distance between work and home especially when work is now at home? We set boundaries.

First, you need to make a conscious decision to not check your phone before you are ready to deal with the inputs. For me this means after I’ve read scripture, prayed, journaled, read the newspaper, eaten breakfast and gotten dressed. Your mileage may vary, but get yourself set up to receive the day. Your company expects your mind to be fully at work when you are ready to work. Ensure that you are ready before you dive in.

Second, you need to come up with a way to convince your mind that you are now in “work” mode. I’ve read about this idea for years but not really done it well until recently. For me, the first thing I do to remind myself that I’m at work is to get my tools ready. I open my day planner and review the appointments I have for the day, I open my task manager and look at the stuff I have scheduled to accomplish during the day and I review in a lightening fast way, the couple of things I must get accomplished in the day ahead (my big three). Often, I’ll also review the top two or three things I have to get accomplished in the week, and the two of three goals that I need to get accomplished in the quarter.

I’m trying to stir up momentum for the day ahead, get my mind spinning on the things that need to get done today rather than the many things that will flow in once I’ve opened the flood gate of slack (or Teams) and my email.

Once I’ve completed this quick 10 minute process I’m ready. Then I throw open the doors and quickly review my email from the prior evening and morning (is there anything so important that it rearranges my priorities?), then I might also peak at social media, Teams, etc and make sure that I’m still aiming at the correct goals. Once that is completed I’m focused and ready for the day ahead.

And… 5 or 6 pm rolls around. Whew! Another day is done. I’ve worked hard, checked a bunch off of my list and am ready to call it a day. But how should I shut things down in such a way that I’m finished (and I mean really finished) with work? How do I fully log off so that I’m not tempted to check one more thing or allow my ever curious brain to delve into any additional email?

First, I systematically close all the open programs on my computer leaving Teams and email for last. Then I clear out any unread texts and transfer action items to my todo list. Then I clear Teams in the same way (letting those folks with whom I am in active conversation know that I’m logging off) and lastly I spend some time emptying my inbox. If I have something that I can respond to I do. If it can wait I move it into a folder that says tomorrow, note these actionable email on my todo list, and then switch over to my calendar. From there I spend some time writing down my appointments for the next day in my planner. Not a ton of detail but I want to make sure that I’ve captured the rocks that will define my next day.

From there, I clear out my todo list, making sure that all of the tasks that I’ve captured throughout the day are in their correct bucket.

And finally, I decide on the couple of things I’m going to accomplish the next day, leaving my planner open on my desk to those pages, signaling my brain that it is time to move on, today is over and work is complete.

As a last step, I turn off my computer and put it away, dock my phone, iPad, keyboard and mouse and wipe down my workspace. I’m finished for the day, my tools are away and I’m ready for whatever fun we can get into that evening. This might mean you go jump on the trampoline with your kids, go prepare dinner, go for a family walk or just sit outside and enjoy the weather. The point here is to reward yourself. The day is done, work is away and you are in a new phase.

Life is too short to let work consume you. Frankly, you can’t work all the time and be effective, so, we all need to shut down, log off and distance ourselves. Boundaries are good. And if we are going to stay sane during this time, it is really important to put up some walls to separate our personal and professional lives.

Until next time… Thanks for reading.