As a company that has always been able to work remotely, we usually celebrate the opportunity to get out of the office and really crush things. However, with all the calls we’ve been doing, we’ve noticed that we’re not alone in battling “work from home guilt!” It’s tough to balance life and work. It’s even harder when it’s in the same space. Since this seems to be a common theme in a bunch of companies right now, we thought we’d dive a little deeper into why we’re all feeling this way and what you can do to combat it.
Why Do We Feel So Guilty?
Work from home guilt is when you feel like you should be working all the time. A big part of this comes from the fact that your day is missing the part of it that used to give you a start and end to your workday. You used to arrive at the office at the start of your day and leave at the end. Instead, it becomes waking up at your house, hopping right into your workday, and then…stopping at some point in the future?
Another reason there is a level of guilt is because we’re able to accomplish things for our lives and homes while we’re working remotely. Instead of feeling guilty we should be rejoicing. You just took that half hour discussion where you tried to understand how some people don’t think in sentences (this really happened in our office) and replaced it with getting a load of laundry started or putting away your Shipt order that just got delivered.
Focus on Productivity, Not Time
Part of the reason we love working remotely is because we feel like we can get more done with less distractions. Guess what? It’s true. We really can and do get a lot more done at home (unless you have children, then scratch that). It’s amazing how much of our days are spent collaborating and sometimes just goofing off with our coworkers. In a standard 8-hour day in an office, there’s realistically only 6 hours of actual work happening. When we have constant access to our team members, it’s easy to go and start a conversation because you have a question about something. That conversation just made that task take you 15 more minutes to complete. Remote meetings are way faster. When you’re on a Zoom meeting, it’s hard to talk over each other. That stops the side conversations and makes meetings take less time. What we’re trying to say is that you’re getting more done now. Stop being so hard on yourself! Break up your day a little! Work will still be there when you come back.
Stop It Already
Give yourself and your coworkers some grace. If you’re experiencing some work from home guilt, try some of the following:
- Create some boundaries. Identify a work schedule that works best for you and designate your “on” and “off” hours.
- Focus on accomplishing your to-do list for each day.
- Try not to procrastinate. It can cause unnecessary guilt.
- Create something to look forward to everyday and reward yourself when you achieve it.
- Take a walk or just take a break for a little while. Don’t feel like you need to be glued to your computer.
We’re looking forward to getting back to our new normal. If anything, this has taught us that we work hard, we love what we do, and we need to be prudent about making our personal self synonymous with our work self.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed with your marketing workload, reach out to us today. We’d love to chat!
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