How To Create A Designated Work Space In Your Home

Many of us are now beginning our second or third week of working from home, and it’s time to get serious about work-life balance.

If you don’t already have a work-from-home morning routine, for example, it might be time to ask yourself what an ideal morning would look like—for you, for your kids, for your pets, for the elderly family member you’re FaceTiming twice a day—and then put that structure into place.

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It’s also time to divide your living space into “home” and “a home office.” Some of us will be lucky enough to have an entire room to devote to work; for the rest of us, productivity expert Nicholas Bate suggests using masking tape to divide our workspace from the rest of our home:

Masking tape an area on the floor. Stay in it for 90 minute chunks of time, then take a break: get outside, rain or shine. Then back to the office.

This tip also works if you have multiple people trying to get work done from the same home, and I’d be interested to learn how well it works for families with kids (if you’d like to try it out and report back, tell us in the comments).

Essentially, by masking off an area of your home just for work, you’ll create a mental/physical/visual link between “I’m in my work space” and “it’s time to get work done.” You’ll also give everyone else in your home a solid visual reminder that you’re working right now, and that you’ll be available the next time you take a break—and I recommend following Bate’s advice on that one, too. Every 90 minutes (if possible), get up, stretch, drink some water, maybe connect with a family member or a friend. Go outside if you can. Have an indoor dance party if you need to.

Then, if there’s still remote work to be done, get back to it. In your designated “this is where I do my job these days” workspace.

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