Work-life balance doesn’t exist during pandemic times.

But shifting how we think can foster something better.

With most of us working from home during the global health pandemic, we’re trying to juggle our work and personal lives throughout the business day.

Just a few months ago, pre-pandemic, we were putting in our hours and then heading home. We strived to achieve work-life balance, a separation between professional and personal lives.

I don’t know about you, but now that I’m working from home every day, I feel like I don’t have any sense of balance. I’m now “balancing” by bringing my personal life into the home office.

But sometimes I feel that I am not performing the same at work. I’m trying to do it all, at the same time. But things are slipping; I’m breaking.

I am over committing, overstretching, and overdoing anything and everything, trying to make everyone around me happy.

By spreading myself thin and telling myself that I am multitasking, but I know I am being delusional. I’m far from being productive; I’m just burning out.

Ever have thoughts about quitting your job, feelings of not being good enough (as a parent/spouse, and so on), difficulties concentrating, or inexplicable headaches or stomach aches?

Yup, that could be burnout. Burnout can feel like perpetual exhaustion, annoyance, or unappreciation, at home and/or at work.

This is just the new way of life, right? It doesn’t have to be though.

With a slight shift in our paradigms, surely we can find some peace. We need to change how we think. It’s time to strive for work-life integration, a blend of professional and personal lives.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re taking off three hours of mid-business day to do home renovations or working on a client presentation at midnight.

Think on a smaller scale.

A long break is good, but several small ones are better. It’s time to be practical with what we do and when.

Micro-breaks can help you disconnect from work for a split second, all while feeling productive in your personal life.

Here are three of my faves:

1. Schedule a chore.

No need to save a list of chores to do back to back on the weekend. Take a few minutes to take out the trash/recycling, vacuum, prep some food, or wipe down the toilet.

2. Call your parents.

They’ll be elated to hear from you! And since you’re calling during ‘business hours’, you have an easy out to end the call. Something like, “My boss just walked in. I got to go, ma. Bye!” You’ll be long gone before it registers that you’re working from home so how could your boss walk in?

3. Do not work up a sweat.

Before you sit back at your desk, do a plank. Start with 30seconds, and add 5–10 seconds for each one thereafter. What an efficient way to get stronger without breaking a sweat.

PRO-TIP: Don’t forget to take your vacation days! Just because we don’t have an event to attend or a destination to travel to use our vacation days, we still earned the time off work. I’ve been taking random days off to explore locally or to have a me-day. I could get use to this way of spending my vacation days.