The COVID-19 pandemic, which has been ongoing for more than a year now, has forced many companies around the world to take initiative in managing their work environment. This has been necessary to maintain a company’s business productivity, which must continue to function. Employees who previously relied on physical presence and activities in the office are now turning to ‘virtual work’ or ‘digital workplace’ systems.
Although the digital workplace has its benefits, the transition process can be complicated and it can be difficult to find work-life balance. The COVID-19 pandemic has made employees feel more easily tired, overworked and stressed.
This can lead to conflicts between work and personal life as employees are required to play two roles at once. This is inevitably the experience of many employees, whose only choice is to focus on work and neglect their personal life.
If family conflicts arise due to a lack of work-life balance, automatically job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and work performance will decrease. This can result in a higher rate of turnover and can cause employees to experience stress, poor mental & physical health, and increasing addictive trends. In addition, staff may experience a drop in life satisfaction and material satisfaction, and they may end up playing less of a role in the family.
However, there are, of course, ways to deal with conflicts between work and personal life, by integrating work time into your personal life.
Be Present and Give Your Full Attention
Based on research conducted by the Harvard Business Review, our brains cannot multitask. It takes approximately 15 minutes to reorient our focus after being distracted.
One reason to always focus is that the work efficiency of the brain decreases by 40 percent when a person is multitasking, and what’s worse, your ability to be creative and long-term memory decline.
In addition,
according to a 2009 Stanford University study, multitaskers have difficulties
working on two things at once and are unable to distinguish between relevant
and irrelevant tasks. A study from Bryan College also explains that
multitasking has the potential to decrease work performance and create losses
for companies.
The following steps explain how to refocus
Another way to stay focused while working is to take breaks between or after assignments. Complete tasks one at a time, and try not to multitask. Then, focus your thoughts on the present, don’t let your mind wander to the past or the future. As much as possible, get rid of distractions that could break your focus. Create a time schedule and limits. Recognize your own limits, and those of other people. After finishing a job, you can immediately proceed to the next task, or take a moment for some “me” time. However, you should always pay attention to where each task sits on your list of priorities.
To make it easier to determine the position of a task on your list of priorities, choose where it sits on the following priority scale table:
| Important | Not Important | |
| Urgent | I (Execute) | II (Delegate) |
| Not Urgent | III (Postpone/Plan) | IV (Forget) |
If you have two or more tasks that need to be completed, and you are confused where to start, you can refer to the above table. The priority scale table can be applied to both your work tasks and personal life.
If you have two or more tasks that need to be completed, and you are confused where to start, you can refer to the above table. The priority scale table can be applied to both your work tasks and personal life.
If a task is both important and urgent, it should immediately be carried out or executed. However, if it is not important, but urgent, it can be delegated. Meanwhile, if a task is important but not urgent, it can be postponed, and if a task is neither important nor urgent, it can be forgotten. From the above table, you can determine what should and should not be at the top of your list of priorities. Therefore, achieve the very best in life by starting to make the right choices and decisions.