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My simple technique for a better work/life balance
1.6k Plays1 year ago
I work from home, and with my home-office being the same place I use for my downtime, it can be a little tricky to make that separation at times. In this episode, I talk about how I use virtual desktops to help create a bit of a different environment for what tasks I'm doing, which I find has really helped me make that separation, and also avoid general distractions.
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Transcript
Introduction & Work-Life Balance Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello my friend and friends, and welcome to my podcast, General Musings. My name is Kevin and this podcast is an audio version of the introduction to my weekly Sunday newsletter. This week we're going to be talking about a simple trick that I use to help with my work-life balance that primarily can be an issue because I work from home and I use the same space for my work and for my
Personal Experiences & Avoiding Burnout
00:00:20
Speaker
downtime stuff.
00:00:20
Speaker
And sometimes that can make it a little bit tricky to turn off the work mode from time to time. Before we get to that though, last week I talked about losing motivation and avoiding burnout as I was going through a little bit of a malaise myself. I did take my own advice and slowed down a lot this week, spending more time with my family before my kids go back to school and just mucking about with things other than work.
00:00:41
Speaker
those who don't know I'm a home brewer meaning I make my own beer and not the software related stuff and I snuck in a Brudé this Friday and I've also been into sim racing for about a year now so I spent a lot more time than normal in my attempt to be a little bit less mediocre at it.
Virtual Desktops & Work-Life Separation Strategy
00:00:56
Speaker
Now one reason I could do those two things is because I do work from home and
00:00:59
Speaker
That does create a bit of an issue though because my home office is also my personal space and that can make it really easy to keep doing small work-related things when it should be downtime as I'm sure a lot of people who have or continue to work from home know all about
00:01:13
Speaker
Now I've come up with a really simple strategy that I try and use for this, and this might seem really silly, but the thing that I find has really helped me out is using virtual desktops. I actually use six different ones, which are distractions, music, work, email, recording, and simracing, which is sort of just a gaming one in general. But since all the gaming I'm doing recently has been simracing, I just called it that.
00:01:35
Speaker
I have distractions and my sim racing ones at opposite ends for no particular reason, but by keeping them at the extreme ends, I don't accidentally cycle through them and get distracted by them. Now, as for my distractions virtual desktop, that tends to be things like Discord and any social media stuff just that would get me distracted and off topic from what I'm trying to actually do.
00:01:54
Speaker
I also have a specific one just for music, and the only reason I do this is just so I don't have to search through my tabs or windows. I usually just set it and forget about it, and it also acts as a bit of a buffer before I get to the distraction desktop. The work email and recording ones are pretty straightforward, though I do like having a separate one for work and email because if not, email can become a distraction of its own.
00:02:17
Speaker
Now, it took me a little while to get used to using multiple desktops, and it was a habit that I did have to develop over time. To help, I set up a few custom shortcuts to make it easier to get to the one I wanted to go to at any given time. Another thing that really helped with this and my different desktops is having a different background for each one of them. That might seem really silly, but having that extra visual change that sort of helps set the tone and it separates the different environments since my physical environment doesn't change.
Personalization & Listener Advice
00:02:43
Speaker
And as I mentioned last week, this is my strategy, and it works for me. That doesn't mean it will work for everyone. Other people will have strategies that work for them, but if you do struggle with separating your work and life sometimes, it's definitely worth trying out different things to help make a clear separation between the two.
Conclusion & Resources
00:02:58
Speaker
Even if it's simple little things like I'm doing, it might help. And that's it for this week. If you'd prefer a written version, the link to my newsletter is in the description as well as links to all my socials, including my YouTube channel where I post three CSS-related videos every week.
00:03:11
Speaker
Thank you so much for listening, and until next time, don't forget to make your coin on the internet just a little bit more awesome.