Create boundaries in remote work

Working from home is both the most freedom you can have, and the biggest prison.

When I started working remotely in 2017, I felt like nothing could stop me. I quickly realized that in reality, I couldn’t stop working. Always online, always connected - and after a few close calls with burnout, I figured out the solution.

I needed to shut down.

Back in the day

I wasn’t old enough to work “back in the day” before the world was always connected, but I saw it through my parents’ early careers: you went to work, you came back home, and the two were separate.

Sure, the work was tougher, you didn’t have Claude helping you through the day, and we likely get more done before lunch than an office worker did in a month. But from their perspective, work-life balance was probably healthier.

The balancing act

Even today, when you work in an office, there are barriers that clearly separate work life from life life.

You swipe a card to get in. You get up and leave.

These are portals (much like in Severance) delineating two different versions of you.

This gets blurred in remote work.

So what can you do?

Impose the same barriers. Have a ritual. Disconnect.

Do the thing that clearly tells yourself: the version of you that’s at work no longer exists.

Sure, you’ll always have that odd message you want to reply to sooner rather than later - but make it your decision. Otherwise you’re just at work 24/7.

Here’s what I did

It’s important to me to switch things up, so over the years I’ve tried a few things:

• Two computers - one for work, one for gaming. No Slack and Steam on the same machine.

• A folding table I physically put away when work time was done.

• Working from a different room entirely.

• Nowadays, I physically shut the lid of my laptop. That’s the ritual.

What you can do

Look around. Find what gets you in the mood for work — and more importantly, what gets you out of it. Put your own rituals in place.