work from home days tailored for your balanced lifestyle.

Has the idea to work from home been calling your name? You’ll be thrilled to hear that the current talent landscape is brimming with flexible opportunities right now. While you might occasionally stumble across a role that lets you stay home five days a week, the modern consensus is heavily skewed toward hybrid work.

However, stay briefed that while fully remote gigs, where you almost never cross paths with your colleagues in real life are still out there, the lion’s share of opportunities transitioned into hybrid ones. Even with this in-office requirement, you’re still walking away with an incredible level of flexibility that makes balancing your personal and professional life a breeze.

In this article, we offer you a deep-dive to help you hash out a schedule, showing you exactly how to block off your calendar to ensure you hit the ground running.

1. begin by marking your work from home days.

Before you fully settle into a new routine, the very first thing you need to figure out is your ideal weekly split. Many employers are already laying down the law, expecting you to show up at the corporate headquarters for a mandated two or three days a week.

Having said that, even if you’re handed a blank check to design your own schedule, it usually pays off to mix things up. Aiming to block out two or three days from home and rest for the office is a pragmatic rule of thumb.

Naturally, this cadence allows you to soak up the flexibility and quiet focus of working from your comfort space, home, while ensuring you don’t miss out on spontaneous brainstorms and essential face-to-face catch-ups with your team.

2. review your work responsibilities.

As you figure out how to balance your newfound flexibility from your work from home schedule, the first hurdle is to handle weigh up your in-office responsibilities. You need to identify which days genuinely demand your footprint at office.

For instance, consider if you’re required to kick-off the week with an in-person Monday huddle. Furthermore, set aside specific days for your out-of-the-office calendars. Letting these mandatory commitments organically shape your schedule is a total game-changer.

If a set day requires you to show up and clock in at the corporate hub for even just one meeting, it’s highly practical to just stick around for the entire eight hours. By doing so, you completely clear the decks for your work-from-home days, ensuring you aren’t constantly caught in transit.

3. cater your time for personal demands.

When deciding your remote work days, it’s crucial to zoom out and lock at the big picture of your personal life. Are you constantly trying to juggle mid-week meetings with evening emails? Do you prefer to block out a specific weekday to squeeze in personal admin tasks, like dental visits, haircuts or doctor appointments?

With all this doing the rounds, you will need a work schedule that suits your unique work needs. By intentionally mapping out your work-from-home days to coincide with your busiest personal days, you can take the edge off the daily grind.

Beyond the mid-week hustle, think about how you transition in and out of the weekend. If you frequently hit the road for weekend getaways, you might want to claim the last days of the weeks as your permanent work-from-home day to easily wrap up your tasks and take off early.

Alternatively, if your weekends are a whirlwind of activity that leave you needing a vacation from your days off, cutting out commute in the beginning of the week can be a lifesaver. Starting out your week from home allows you to catch your breath and ease back into work mode without the added stress of rush hour traffic. 

4. give your personal choice the attention it needs.

Once you factor in your work and personal demands, you can consider your own personal preferences. This factor depends on your personality and workload. For example, some people prefer to work at the office three days in a row, such as Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and then take the next two days to work from home. This is a good option if you don’t like changing your work setting every day or if you carry a lot of materials and supplies back and forth from work and you don’t want to pack them up every day.

On the other hand, you may prefer to break your workweek up by working at the office Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and working from home on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This is a good option for those who like the constant change in their work setting and who can quickly set up their workstation at their work or home office.

5. work from home gives you flexibility.

If you’re fortunate enough to have a remote job that doesn’t require you to have set days you come to the office and set days you work from home, you may want to leave some flexibility in your schedule. This method requires you to plan each week out based on your work schedule and personal demands. This is an ideal work option for some workers, but others prefer the consistency of a set schedule. Either way, it’s important to maintain frequent communication with your supervisor, so they always know where you’re working from on any given day.

When determining your work schedule, it makes sense to align commitments with what needs to be done at the office. After factoring in your job responsibilities, however, you should consider what type of hybrid schedule can boost your productivity, ensure you’re completing your work on time and help you maintain a healthy work-life balance.