Physically separating work and life devices
Since working from home full-time in March 2020, there have been various things I’ve changed about the way I work. I think the biggest thing was disconnecting after the work day. The most successful thing I did was remove all work apps from my iPhone.
This was triggered by my then 3 yr old telling me “dad get off your phone” and “no more meetings today daaaad”. She stayed at home with me throughout the pandemic which was both rewarding to be around her and also tough during meetings and presentations. She knew when I was in my office I was working, but outside of that I’m hers to play with. For the longest time, my office was our family room where she had over 10 different stations to keep her busy during the day.
Since I’ve done this, I’ve found I keep to my working hours and scheduled meetings. I find my work life balance much better. I’m fortunate that my role doesn’t require much out of hour escalations or on-call scenarios. It can all wait for the next working day. Folks can email/message me knowing I’ll get back to them the next working day.
The only two things that I noticed after disconnecting work apps were:
- My work calendar — I have a Office 365 E1 plan for my personal email and one great feature is that I can share my work calendar with this account. It shows on my iPhone calendar just fine with the title and description. It does not show attendees etc. but its enough to find out when my first meeting is the next morning.
- Joining calls — The only other inconvenience was when day care started up again and I needed to join a call on my commute to listen in mostly. Or if I was stuck in traffic to be able to notify the meeting I was running late.
I had an old phone that I set up through the Company Portal app and paired through the Hotspot feature of my iPhone. It feels great to physically keep these two worlds apart too. It stays on my office desk unless I know I’m going to use it during a commute.
Once the office opens back up, where it was common to jump on calls whilst driving to work, this will also be standard for me. T-Mobile also offers a great deal on a data only SIM for $10 more on top of my standard plan which guarantees instant on as often hotspot can be fiddly to get started.
Not everyone will need this of course. Android for instance, has profiles that can be turned on/off, but I really think the physical disconnect makes a big difference to me.
On another note, I’m finding more and more disconnecting in general from devices is amazing. My smart phone is not really that smart other than Messaging, FaceTime, Camera, Maps, Music and Podcasts.
I have not been on Facebook/Instagram now for over 3 years and do not miss it at all. I find the doom scrolling I witness with social apps story features an insane waste of time too.
I focus on communicating directly with my family & friends through calls and texts. I find the time much more valuable and focusing on the right people too.
I tend to use my iPad more for reading news, emails, shopping, journaling, and more.
I’d love to hear what you’ve learnt through the pandemic…
