How I Prevent Work from Home Burnout

 

Ever since 2020, I've been able to work my full time job from home.  It's amazing and I've been thriving but they aren't kidding when they say burnout can still happen even if you get to work from home.  For me it was because I stopped taking days off because I figured, why bother?  If I can be home anyways, I shouldn't need to take time off just to get a break from work, right? WRONG! Once I was towards the end of 2021 I realized I was burnt out.  And I knew exactly why.  I was no longer taking days off like I used to when we worked in the office.


So I decided to make a major change.  

 

See, I've been at my current job for almost 20 years so I have no problem accruing time off.  So I made it a point to go through my calendar for the year and select 2 days to take off each month.  

 

Now how do I choose these days? 

 

Well... sometimes it's obvious because it will be before a 3 day weekend (Holiday on Monday) or my birthday, but other times I just pick random days.  I also do things like plan a day off around a pet's birthday or even the anniversary of our house.  If I don't do these things I'll simply refuse to take time off because I have no justification. 

 

How do I spend my days off? 

 

That's the other thing...sometimes we feel we HAVE to do something on a day off.  That's not true.  If I just want to sit around and do nothing, I'm allowed to.  I just don't have to worry about being tethered to my computer.  On the other hand, there are days off where I get tons of stuff done like errands and house projects. 

 

So why do I choose Fridays? 

 

Well, there are a few reasons. Fridays are usually slower at work because people are beginning to think of the weekend.  So I can come back to work on Monday and not have tons of emails and urgent things to have to rush to take care of.  Also, Mondays are super productive work days for me and if I take a Monday off it throws me off for the week.  So Fridays are a great middle ground for me. I can get all my stuff done early for the week and enjoy the day off without worrying how much I'm coming back to next week. 

 

If you don't take days off like you used to, and you have the time accrued, I highly suggest trying this. The other fun thing is I basically end up taking off every other Friday and so I have two short weeks and 2 long weekends every month. And no, it shouldn't be a problem taking those days off repeatedly.  Your vacation time is yours.  I don't use mine to go on trips because I'm a homebody so I just spread it out throughout the year. 

 

What have you done to prevent work from home burnout? 

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