Flexible hours: How to balance work and personal life

For many people, having flexible hours can be both a blessing and a curse. Everything will depend on the way you organize yourself and whether it is an effective method, especially when working in a home office model.

And speaking of home office, this work model was adopted during the pandemic and many companies allowed their workers to continue in this way. 

This is because it presents a series of benefits for both sides, but when done correctly.

How do flexible hours work?

Generally, those who work flexible hours work home office also, so it is no longer a controlled environment.

At home we have several distractions such as food on the fire, a child crying, a dog barking, a doorbell ringing and many other things.

What you should do is not let these things enter your professional routine and disrupt your schedule.

But now talking about flexible hours, they offer greater autonomy to employees over their hours worked. However, don't get it wrong, it doesn't have fewer hours, it just adapts to the employee's routine.

So, when a company offers flexible working hours, the employee no longer has a fixed start time such as 9am to 6pm. You can start and end whenever you prefer or alternate times.

Balancing work and personal life

Balancing your professional life with your personal life when you have flexible hours and work from home can end up becoming a juggling act if you're not careful.

And it can generally be complicated at first, but everything needs to be adapted, including your routine.

Start by understanding that the company's flexible schedule policy can be a benefit for you. Allowing you time to go to the doctor, pick up the children from school, go to a restaurant and do other things throughout the day.

Now let’s find out some tips to better balance your life in general:

Create a routine with limits

Even though having flexible hours means waking up whenever you want, human beings need a certain amount of constancy in their lives.

So start by creating your routine with times to wake up and start working, always set up your schedule on Sunday or Monday morning so that all times are in line with your commitments.

Much more important than creating a routine is following it, and this involves knowing how to establish and comply with the limits of a professional relationship.

So if you have already worked your quota for the day and are dedicating yourself to personal activities, notify the people who work with you so that they respect these limits and schedules.

Create a separate workspace

If you have the chance to create an office to work from home that isn't in your bedroom, do it! It's a way of separating what happens in the professional environment from what happens personally, that is, the rest of the house.

This means that you can concentrate when you are in that environment and when you are out of it you can relax without so many worries.

Knowing how to reconcile two things like this, personal and professional life, requires discipline and testing. What works in someone else's routine doesn't always work in yours, so keep trying until you find your best way to deal with flexible schedules.