Tips on how to keep your work life and home life separate

Whether you work remotely, with a hybrid model, or are a careerist who can’t help but mentally take your work home with you when you leave the office, it’s undeniable that the lines between work and personal life can easily blur.

With more than one-quarter of employees conducting at least some of their work from home, the imperative to create balance and boundaries between work and home life is more relevant than ever before.

As anyone who works from home can tell you, this is often easier said than done.

Perhaps you’re a believer in the statistics extolling the positive outcomes that remote work can have—but you’re deterred by the difficulties of maintaining work-life harmony when your commute to the office is a 30 second journey.

The good news is that there are a number of learnable skills, tricks, and techniques that can empower you in your lifestyle and help facilitate the healthy separation of work life and home life that you’re seeking.

Effective time management

Managing your time well is the bread and butter of work-life harmony.

But wait—what is the concept of work-life harmony?

It’s the notion that all elements of a person’s life, from their role as an employee to their personal lifestyle, should symbiotically support each other and promote positive well-being.

Naturally, this can only be a reality if you know how to manage your time effectively—and there are specific time management tips for medical sales representatives that IQVIA promotes.

Take the Eisenhower Matrix for example. This prioritisation model prompts you to start by making a list of your outstanding tasks and first rank them in terms of importance, then rank them by urgency. Those tasks that are both important and urgent are the ones you should tackle first.

Self care

Without a doubt, the pandemic impacted the medical world and beyond in profound ways. One positive change for many was the invitation to slow down and make a conscious effort to integrate self-care into their weekly routine.

Though it has become a somewhat contentious phrase, self care extends far beyond meditation and daily walks. For those struggling to maintain a boundary between their personal and work life, self-care might look like a commitment to turning your work computer off by a certain time or leaving your phone outside the bedroom.

All things considered, it comes as no surprise to hear that self-care is one of the most valued skills of successful medical sales professionals. 

Setting clear boundaries

Just as it is important to take a break during the day, setting boundaries between your personal and work life will support that separation you’re looking for. 

Establishing a clear start and end time for your workday is essential—finding a balance is all about knowing when to switch off from work.

When working in an office setting, it’s often easier to switch off once you leave your colleagues and begin your commute home. But when you’re working remotely, you’ll need to think of practices you can use to signal that the workday is over. These might be:

• Reviewing your day’s work
• Creating a checklist for the next day
• Finding your “third space”
  
  

Quality over quantity

Working in an environment that prioritises the standard and substance of your work over the number of hours clocked in is one helpful way to keep work and personal life separate.

In this scenario, you’re far more likely to find yourself focused on building quality relationships with healthcare professionals, thereby laying strong foundations to achieve your service and sales goals.

Flexibility

Being able to respond flexibly to schedule changes and other workplace demands can certainly help to maintain a healthy separation of work and personal life.

“How?”, you might ask:

Imagine finding yourself with a deadline for a marketing strategy fast approaching. Now say that you also have a day full of meetings with internal partners. Instead of developing a strategy that just skims the surface, consider what internal meetings and other deadlines can be pushed back. By shifting non critical work, you can protect the boundary of your home life.

Equally, if a scenario in your personal world is commanding your attention, flexibility in your working schedule might allow you to clock in at a more appropriate time, and facilitate you to be more present and efficient when you do.

Build your medical sales career with IQVIA

At IQVIA, we understand that work-life harmony is more important now than ever. We go the extra mile to create a positive working environment for our employees through flexible working schedules and contracts that empower our staff.

Though we work with major medical device and pharmaceutical companies and have employees distributed across over 100 countries, we take the time to consider the wellbeing of every employee.

Whatever area you need support in—whether it’s personal or professional development—we’ll be there. Find out more about who we are or take a look at our latest jobs.