Articles on people-centric performance management | OpenBlend

Blend Insights: Organised at home — OpenBlend

Written by OpenBlend | Apr 23, 2020 8:21:00 AM

What drives you to do your best at work? At OpenBlend, we think that work/life balance is an outdated idea. It really takes a blend of elements from our professional and personal lives for us to feel fulfilled.

Today, as many of us adjust to working remotely, our personal performance objectives may change, or they might become clearer than ever. Either way, understanding what motivates us – and addressing how we can prioritise those things – is vital for us to thrive from home.

A good starting point is to discover your own personal blend. What elements do you need at home and at work to feel fulfilled, happy and productive – and how far off are you from achieving them? Use our blend insight tool to find your perfect blend. 

Here, Neal Abdool, Sales Development, OpenBlend, explains being organised at home is a vital part of his blend as he works remotely.

Blend element: Organised at home 

Why is a being organised at home most important to you?

“Now that I’m working from home indefinitely, it can be hard to separate my work from my home. Therefore, it’s extremely important that I treat my days as I would any normal working day; moving our kitchen table round, setting up my desk, planning my day ahead and cracking on. Then, once my day’s over, I shut down my laptop, clear the kitchen table and turn it back to the dinner table.”

What impact does this have on your work and personal life?

“Discussing this Blend element with my manager has given me ideas on how to separate the two and make necessary changes to achieve this balance. Being organised at home is now reflecting how I’m organised during my work day at home, instead of one being more organised than the other. This balance keeps each persona clear in my head so that I can give my all at work, then switch off and concentrate on my personal life in the same living space.”

Has this blend element changed for you since you started working remotely?

“It had never been in my blend until I started working from home indefinitely. It replaced a previous element because this quickly rose to the top of the list in terms of what’s important to me now. ”

Has this become harder or easier to achieve as you now work from home?  

“I’ve stuck to turning the kitchen table around each morning and evening, which mentally lets me close the door on work. But it has presented me with some challenges; my partner and I have both had to bring office equipment home that has taken up quite a bit of space in the flat. This sometimes makes it feel a little more like an office than a living room/kitchen. However, without OpenBlend, I probably wouldn’t have flagged this as being important to me or actively focused on changing the situation.”