What You Wear Can Help You Manage Life Working from Home

We live in a crazy time, and more people are working from home than ever before. There are many benefits to working from home, like lack of a daily commute and a more flexible schedule, not to mention more time for yourself. However, working from home can also make it difficult to balance your work life with your personal life, especially when your bedroom has been turned into an office space. Before you know it, you could find yourself answering work emails during family time or taking calls while eating your morning bowl of cereal! One simple but effective secret to keeping balance in your life while working from home turns out to be your clothes. Choosing the right clothes to wear at the right times of day can significantly influence your mental and physical well-being. But before we get into that, let’s talk about why keeping your personal and professional life separate is so important.    

Even before the pandemic hit, it was difficult for a lot of people to keep their work and personal lives separate. We live in a culture that expects us to grind and work with little to no rest, but that’s not the way that our bodies are designed. We need a break from work the same way our bodies need to recover from exercise! But sleep isn’t enough; you also need some time during your waking hours to relax and unwind. Did you know that a better balance in your work and personal life can actually increase your productivity, lower your overall stress level, improve your physical health, and allow you to give your family the attention they need? It may seem counterintuitive, but finding ways to rest from work may actually help your quality of work improve.

Balance is all about boundaries. Regardless of whether you work from home or from an office, it’s important to define your working hours and your non-working hours so that they don’t bleed into each other. If you clock in at 8:00 a.m. and leave your office at 5:00 p.m., you have to make sure you aren’t working outside of those hours in order to maintain a healthy and balanced life. If you work from home, you can make similar boundaries with the space you work in and the clothes you wear!

Depending on how much space you have in your house, it can be hard to carve out a space dedicated solely to work. But you can turn any small table into a desk and pick a spot that you only use to work! The same can be done with clothes.

Most people have some kind of end-of-the-work-day routine to transition themselves out of their “work” mindset. Even if all that routine includes is the drive home, it matters. However, when you work from home and have no drive to make, you have to come up with a different kind of transition to mark the end of your day. One way you can do this is to wear work clothes while you work, and then when your workday is done, change into comfy clothes/pajamas! This is an easy, concrete way to transition from one mindset to another, and it will give you something to look forward to when the day is over.

Wearing “work” clothes while you work and pajamas or joggers when you’re off can also help signal to your family when you’re working and when you’re not, which can help alleviate stress from your relationships.

A lot of times, the stress that comes with working from home is due to the strain that it can put on your relationships with the people who live with you. Even if your job isn’t particularly high-stress, it can still take a toll on you, and having the “I’m working” boundaries up–including having set hours, a workspace, and a work wardrobe–can help your family know when to talk to you and when might not be the best time.