Remembering to disconnect
Taking time to switch off and enjoy time away from your work is important
I've always been an advocate of making sure you take time away from your work to either spend time with your family or just not being at your work. 😉 And during current times with the pandemic is no different, in fact I think it might even be that much more important.
Our homes are now not just our homes, they are also our work place. I've been working from home for the past few years, although I've never been 100% a home worker, there's always been trips to customer offices or to team meetings or conferences. And I've never had my husband work at home before, so this whole experience over the last 4 or 5 months has been a challenge.
Going on holiday, abroad or within the UK hasn't quite been an option for us as it's just not a risk we're comfortable taking at the moment. So taking time off work to just spend it at home has felt a little pointless if truth be told. However, I took the decision at the start of July to take a long weekend at the end of the month, in the hopes of nice weather (at least in Scottish terms) and being able to enjoy some Scottish scenary and time in my garden without a computer.
I have two mobile phones, it helps to keep that work life balance however there are some things on my personal phone that straddle that boundary, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. So on the Wednesday night before signing off from work I turned off the notifications on my phone for Twitter (I turned off LinkedIn notifications back in December 2019). I didn't turn off YouTube as I didn't want to miss notifications to the channels I enjoy that are on farming and don't focus on tech. 😉
It was so liberating not having the notifications on my phone, if I am really honest. I checked in on Twitter every now and again but I didn't really interact to much. And I never even checked LinkedIn if I am honest.
Instead I spent the time in my garden, enjoying what actually turned out to be a few good days. Lots of chores got done (and lots of shopping - online) and I did a lot of sitting about enjoying not having to go to meetings etc. 😉
I love my job, but every now and again a break is needed. Whatever that may consist of and I don't think I'll ever turn those social media notifications back on.... 😊