The Importance of Setting Personal Business Hours
Recently while I was chatting with a friend, my favourite topic came up: work-life balance. During our talk, we discussed how the pressures of work, bills, and personal projects can put a strain on yourself and your relationships. Back in January, after my burnout, I decided to put many measures in place to help improve my relationship with work.
Alongside the changes I put in place for work, I had to start making some personal changes that would help create more healthy boundaries in my life. One of my favourite things I put into practice is something I like to call “personal business hours”.
The concept of “personal business hours” is actually simple. I set myself a quitting time every day. After this time, I make sure not to talk about work projects, bills, or personal projects. By using this tactic, I create space to be more social, creative and present in conversations with people in my life. Instead of stressing out with my partner at 11:00 pm on a Wednesday night about a Telus bill, we were able to feel freer to laugh and have an engaging conversation about something else knowing we have time set aside during the day to talk about topics like that.
Not only has setting “personal business hours” been great for my relationships, but it’s also been really great for my mental health. Using this tactic really helps me focus on self-care and gives me space to do more things that I enjoy. When you work from home, it is very easy to have work bleed into every aspect of your life, especially when you work in social media as it’s so accessible at any time of the day.
I find giving myself space after work in the evening to enjoy activities like walking my dog or spending the evening with my partner, actually improves my work. When I wake up in the morning I am excited to dive into my work projects and feel like I can deliver quality work because I know I have given myself the time I deserve.
Interested in hearing more about work-life balance? Check out this post I wrote on workplace burnout!
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