After a busy week, I’m grateful to have a day at home to relax today.

Work was full-on last week, and a busy weekend followed. My body and mind are in desperate need of some R&R.

Settling into New Responsibilities 

For the first time in 3 years, work is starting to feel more settled. We’ve been through a lot of change over the last few years. Last year my manager asked me to manage a part of the business that was new to me. It’s been a tough ride. But, after 12 months of managing the team, I feel like I’ve made progress.

Overcoming Challenges

On top of that, I’ve been working with the team to get through an external assessment. Last week, we met with the assessors and submitted our final evidence. Through hard work and determination, this part of the business is now in a much better place than it was.

Learning to Prioritise

It has been hard putting other areas of my work on the back burner while I focused on the assessment.

But one of the biggest lessons I’ve learnt over recent months has been how to better prioritise my workload. The biggest challenge for me has been learning that it’s ok to say no sometimes. And the things I can’t say no to? I’m learning to give more realistic timescales to others when they ask me to do something.

The Impact of Working from Home

The other thing that has changed my working day recently is the ability to work from home more often. With a new boss in place, we’re trying to improve staff wellbeing. Working from home once a week has changed my working life AND my wellbeing.

Our office can be like a whirlwind at times. With phones ringing nonstop, constant queries and meetings, it has often been really difficult to get stuff done. Over the last 3 years, I’ve often ended up working 12-hour days and weekends, just to get stuff done.

But working from home has changed all that.

Maximizing Productivity When Working From Home

Having one day a week to work from home means I get one full admin day each week. There’s no getting away from phone calls, Teams calls and the occasional emergency to deal with. But because I have no other distractions at home, I can manage these situations better, and get my admin done.

Reflecting and Planning for Success

Working at home also gives me some much-needed reflection time. In one of my sessions with my work coach, we discussed the importance of finding time for me to reflect. This was reinforced on my Level 3 Award in Leadership and Management course. When I’m away from the office, I get much more time to think, albeit still not in a structured way. But I’m making progress.

Improving Work-Life Balance

Working from home also gives me the time and space to plan. Planning shouldn’t be a complicated process. But when you work in an open-plan office with constant distractions, it makes planning extremely difficult. Carving out time to plan when I’m working from home means I can focus better when I’m in the office. By being much more organised and less fraught, I can already see the difference in everyone around me.

I’ve now been working from home for a couple of months. It’s made such a difference to my wellbeing. Working from home, prioritising and finding time to reflect are all helping to improve my work-life balance.

My job is never going to be something I can do from Monday-Friday 9-5. However, 12-hour days and working weekends is now a distant memory. And that is something to celebrate.

What benefits have you discovered since you’ve been working from home?