Work life balance

Earlier this year when I moved my office & studio space in to Gore, creating a separation between work and home, it created a very different dynamic which has brought about some healthy changes for me. I'm talking about that elusive work/life balance thing you hear self-employed people talking about. 

With the new office space I had hopes I would only need 1-2 days a week in there for meetings and consults (and to use Gore's much faster broadband!) while still being able to get the bulk of my day-to-day computer work done at home. However within a month of being in the new office space I realised my two years of productive working from home life was vanishing. I could no longer get motivated to work at home, I suddenly craved the office environment where there were no distractions of domestic chores or homely comforts, where I could come in, sit down and power through my workload.

I'd always been so good at working from home that at first I found this sudden change in motivation alarming. But then I realised to look at this change as a good thing. I'd finally forced myself to draw a line between work and life. The office space was for getting the work done, then I could come home and switch off. I was actually gaining that elusive balance. 🙌

Sure there are days when I am required to work from home still and sometimes I do want to just edit from the couch rather than drive into the office, but there is a new joy of coming to work and then switching off the computer and going home to be present in my life. Instead of that awkward in-between where the laptop was always open as I flitted between work and home life constantly and at any hour of the day (or evening!).

I love what I get to do as a job. And I love the life I get to live because of my business. But the transition into an office space really opened my eyes to just how merged my work and life had been. At the time I had thought I had it pretty well sussed with work routines and good workflows, but really I still let the email inbox into every awake minute of my day. As a business owner there will always be a blurred line, work can never really ever be left at the office, but that doesn't mean we should just let it be a part of our life 24/7.

Here's to continuing to create the perfect work/life balance! 🥂