It isn’t news to anybody that the COVID-19 pandemic has completely upended the ways that many of us are doing our jobs, with millions of people working from home for the first time ever. Before the pandemic, even the most dedicated workaholic had one key way to enforce the boundary between their work and home life: By leaving the office. Without a commute and physical separation from the office, many have felt the boundary between work and home dissolve, finding themselves overstressed, hunched over their computer at odd hours, and answering slacks and emails into the dead of night. 

As the pandemic drags on and businesses continue asking for more and more from their employees, this foggy blur of work, life, and video-chat has led many people to experience burnout and intense work stress. If you find yourself asking whether you live at work, or work from home, it can be helpful to create clearer boundaries between your home and work life. It is important to note that setting work/life boundaries does not mean you want to do less work. Appropriate boundaries can alleviate your stress while actually increasing your productivity and ability to engage in work by making sure you are getting the time you need to recharge and approach your job with renewed dedication and energy. This is something that was likely a lot easier and more natural feeling to you before you quite literally lived at your office. 

The process of creating a firmer distinction between work and home activities during this difficult time begins with you. The following strategies can help you to establish structures and routines for yourself without necessarily involving others: 

1. Get Dressed: Clothing is an important marker of how you are spending your time and can help shift your mindset into whatever activity you are dressed for. You don’t need to wear a full three-piece suit or put on heels as you might if you were going into the office, but it can be a powerful gesture to get dressed at the start of your workday. Similarly, change your clothes in the evening to indicate to yourself (and perhaps your family) that you are now done with work. This can be as simple as changing from your work sweatpants into your home sweatpants! 

2. Designate a workspace: Our minds begin to associate physical spaces with the activities we habitually complete in them.  Try to avoid the temptation to work from bed, which can negatively affect your sleep and sex-life. While a designated office is ideal, a reality is that many people, New Yorkers in particular, do not have the option to designate an entire room for work. In this case, get creative: Set up a corner of your kitchen table for your workspace, use a room divider to hide your bed from view, or get a folding desk that you take down when you’re done with work. 

3. Set up a schedule: Without knowing when your work hours actually are, you can’t know if you’re working outside of them. Maybe you enjoy having a more open schedule now that you are working from home. Some people have found a freedom in being able to begin work later or take a break in the middle of the day. Feel free to embrace these aspects of working from home but be clear with yourself about what your work hours are and be consistent and stick to them, even if they are outside of the “typical workday.” 

Now it is time to consider setting boundaries with the other people involved in your work life. This may include your boss, your coworkers, your employees, and even your family (if they are home with you during working hours). Often people struggle with setting boundaries at work out of a desire to be responsive to the needs and expectations of their employers and coworkers. While this behavior is coming from the desire to be a “good employee,” it often comes at the expense of your own needs, leaving you taxed and ultimately unable to perform at the level you want to. The graphic below demonstrates how accommodating every request and working long hours outside of your job expectations may become a cycle you feel trapped in over time: 

Breaking out of this cycle allows you to reclaim your time and your control over the quality of your work and productivity. Here are a few ways to decide what you would like to change and begin setting stronger boundaries with others: 

1. Decide what you need to work best: Spend some time reflecting on what you need to do the best job you can. This involves asking yourself questions such as, What times of day do I work best? What do I need from others to do my job more efficiently? What has changed in my job since the pandemic began that I am having a hard time adjusting to? What has changed in me since the pandemic began that I am having a hard time integrating into my work life? 

   • Concrete steps some of my clients have taken to create better work/life boundaries include speaking to their boss about changing their hours, putting a do not disturb sign on their home office, pausing their inbox at the end of the day, and logging out of the team Slack at night. 

2. Communicate your schedule: Whether you are a person who has embraced the flexibility of a work from home schedule, or are sticking to the hours you had in the office (or at least trying to), it is important to communicate to your team when they should expect you to be available. Now that coworkers can’t walk by your desk and see if you’re there, it is important to explicitly communicate when it is okay for them to be in touch. This applies to your family too. If disruptions from your spouse or children make it difficult to remain in your workflow, make it clear what times are and are not okay for them to interrupt. 

   • Whatever schedule you choose, make sure you stick to it. This maintains clarity for yourself AND your team. If you say you need an hour for lunch don’t make an exception and email your colleague during that hour. Take your time off just as seriously as the time you are working. 

3. Once you set boundaries, ENFORCE them. After communicating these new guidelines, if somebody violates your boundary, reinforce it the moment it occurs. This can be done in a compassionate way that fits your personality. For instance, if you receive a work-related text message at 9PM after expressing that you’d prefer not to be contacted outside of working hours, some people may feel more comfortable waiting to reply until the morning, while others may prefer to reply in the moment saying something like, “Thanks for letting me know about this. I will respond tomorrow.” Both options send the message that you are protecting your time and are not always available to work. 

4. Frame the communication about your boundary setting in a way that highlights the good for the entire team: It is a lot easier for your boss and colleagues to hear “no” if they understand you are saying it to improve the work experience for everybody. It is helpful to think of boundaries in terms of “if/then.” For example, “if you can wait until the morning for me to answer this email, then I will be able to respond in a more thorough and helpful way.” By protecting your time and energy, you are ensuring that you will be able to be there for your team when they truly need you.  

At the end of the day, remember that we are living through an unprecedented crisis: Establishing boundaries between work and home is always an important part of living a balanced life. However, as the pandemic continues and working from home becomes more normalized, it is important to check in and remind ourselves that our bodies and minds are taxed from living in such a stressful and unusual time. Even if we aren’t always consciously thinking about COVID-19, we simply have less resources than usual, and taking time to decompress is especially important. Remind yourself that you are a better employee if you can take the time you need to recharge instead of feeling drained and resentful of the demands being placed on you by work.