Achieve a good work-life balance: Buckinghamshire homebuilders provide top tips for national work-life week
Buckinghamshire homebuilder Barratt and David Wilson Homes are marking National Work Life Week by providing homeowners some top tips on how to achieve a good work-life balance.
National Work Life Week, an annual campaign by Working Families, takes place from Monday 12th October to Friday 16th October, and raises awareness for the importance of talking about wellbeing at work.
This year in particular has seen people have to adapt their working life to the ‘new normal’. Whether this be working from home or working in a socially distanced environment. Therefore, it is more important than ever to balance your time between work and your life.
In aid of the campaign, Barratt and David Wilson Homes are providing homeowners with some top tips to improve their work life balance.
The top tips include:
Create physical boundaries and make use of your spare room
The human brain is extremely responsive to patterns. In the same way that spending all day in a bedroom can affect sleep quality, working all day in a living room can ruin your relaxation time. Try to limit your work to one particular room. Many of Barratt and David Wilson Homes’ properties have dedicated studies or work spaces.
However, if you do not have a study at home, you could convert a lesser-used room in the house such as a dining room or a spare bedroom into a make-shift office to distinguish between work and leisure. If you’re fortunate enough to have a third floor, you could consider working from here. This can be an excellent way to shut off and create distance between your work and your social life.
It is important to ensure you’re happy with you’re working environment. Having a messy desk, for example, can result in messy work. Whether you’re in the office or at home, decluttering can help to give the mind a clear space to work.
Schedule in your downtime
Recognise your own productivity throughout the week and reward it. By picking some short relaxation activities and some longer ones, you can scatter them throughout your week. A short relaxation activity might include making a cup of tea and leaving your work space to drink it, while a long one might be baking some cookies or listening to a podcast. These can be scheduled into your evenings or lunch breaks and allows you to have full control and balance in your working week.
Let your family or colleagues know when you’re in the zone
Whether in an office environment or working from home, sometimes it can be hard to get into the working mode. It is important to balance the time you spend working and the time you spend communicating with those around you. If you’re working in a room with other people, you can signal that you’re currently in the zone by placing a flag on your desk, or putting on some headphones. If these signals are given, those around you will know that you do not want to be disturbed. Make sure you regularly leave time to leave the zone, as social interaction is excellent for mental wellbeing.
Find your own balance
Every individual’s ideal work life balance is going to be different. It’s important to remember that we are all human and balancing work, social and family life is not simple. You can help this with little changes to your day, such as placing your phone on do not disturb when you’re outside of working hours, or spending your lunch time away from your desk and with your family or colleagues.
Jason Hearn, Sales Director at Barratt and David Wilson Homes South Midlands, said: “National Work Life Week is an important reminder for everyone to consider whether their work is affecting their family and social life, and their own wellbeing.
“With many people continuing to work from home, finding this balance and shutting off from work is tougher than ever. Many of our homes have a dedicated study to help with this, or the potential to adapt a spare room into a working environment.
“Our properties are expertly designed to comply with energy efficiency regulations. They are built with superior insulation, ensuring the heat stays in your home and energy consumption is minimised, meaning modern living and working from home is easy and manageable.”
To find out more about National Work Life Week, please visit https://workingfamilies.org.uk/nationalworklifeweek/.
Barratt Homes is currently building properties at Brooklands in Milton Keynes, Fairfields in Stony Stratford and Eagles’ Rest in Milton Keynes.
David Wilson Homes is also currently building properties at Brooklands, Fairfields and Eagles’ Rest, as well as at Lavendon Fields in Lavendon and Brooklands Park in Milton Keynes.
For more information about Barratt Homes, please visit www.barratthomes.co.uk or call the sales team on 033 3355 8481. For more information about David Wilson Homes, please visit www.dwh.co.uk or call the sales team on 033 3355 8486.
