Knowing when to stop as a remote worker

But not having a strict working schedule can be confusing for some, creating a feeling of impostor, and not knowing if the work done during the day is enough or not.

This is a quite common feeling, especially for new digital nomads or remote workers. The fact that the working hours are not set throughout the day and that you can choose to take breaks to watch movies, play video games, go outside, meet some friends, or do any other thing than working at any time during the day, can make you feel like you are not working hard enough.

But, being able to work at any time of the day also means that work threatens to merge with life until they are so overlapping that you end up working all the time, which can lead to stress, anxiety, and even, burnout. This is why we recommend setting boundaries between your working environment and your private life or even creating a well-organized routine with clearly determined working hours. But even with such a clearly defined mechanism, it can still be hard to stop working after your day is finished to fully enjoy the rest of it. This is usually caused by different small tasks or alerts that can cause you to get back into what you were doing.

Usually receiving important emails, Slack, Discord, or any other shared app messages or even thinking about tasks you are supposed to complete the next day can make you feel like you never stop working, and create a vicious circle in which you get caught.

What you could do to get rid of this feeling is:

Analyse those moments:

For a full week, after your workday is done, analyze what causes you to think about work and note it down on a piece of paper.

Once you’ve analyzed all the events that can disturb your private life start thinking about ways of making them stop.

Do something to make them stop:

If the main problem is work notification, there are a lot of different solutions, from dedicating special devices to work, such as an old phone, tablet, or computer, to creating different profiles for work and private life or even setting a time where work notification from various app would be disabled.

The goal is to make sure that nothing can disturb you, while still letting some room for your co-workers to contact you in case of an extreme emergency.

You can also choose to take some time at the end of your day to create a to-do list of all the tasks you’ll have to complete the next day so you stop thinking about them during your free time.

Mark the transition from work to the rest of the day:

Chose an activity that marks the transition between your working time and the rest of the day. You can choose a small thing such as turning off all your devices and cleaning your office or workspace. Or a more intense activity such as going for a run, going to the gym, or any other activity that can help you take your head off work.

The goal is to set a habit where once you’ve started your activity you know that your working day is over until the next morning.

Working from home should not mean working forever. Of course, there are still small things that you can do outside of your working hours as long as they do not take too much time. But knowing to transition from work to private life and when to stop is also essential to stay healthy.

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Always on duty,

Duty Team