When you work at home, the lines between your work life and home life can get blurred.

You must create healthy boundaries between your work and home life in order to succeed at your work while preserving your mental health.

I have been running Fiedler Editorial from home for more than seven years, and I’ve developed some strategies for separating work and home life which I would like to share with you.

A rule I used to violate regularly and have become much better at following: Don’t check your work email on the weekends or (especially) while you are on vacation. Someone might want you urgently and expect you to be at their every beck and call. Don’t let anyone treat you that way. When you go on vacation, set your vacation responder. And don’t answer email on weekends unless you are working that weekend.

If you work on weekends, don’t do it regularly. You would hate doing that at a staff job, so why do it at home? I work on the (very) occasional weekend if there is a deadline that must be met. However, I don’t do this on a regular basis. You need your weekends to recharge.

If I am doing a tedious verification task as part of my work, I might play some classical music to help me focus. However, I never play my favorite rock, pop, or dance tunes, for these would distract me terribly. Save those for when you are relaxing at home.

When you finish your work for the day, shut your laptop down and close it. Leaving it open and running increases the chances that you will start working again in the evening, when you should be taking care of yourself.

If you work at home, how do you create healthy boundaries between your work and home life?