{"id":8222,"date":"2020-04-22T13:37:17","date_gmt":"2020-04-22T13:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bridge.edu\/tefl\/blog\/?p=8222"},"modified":"2023-10-19T06:33:20","modified_gmt":"2023-10-19T12:33:20","slug":"work-life-balance-teaching-online-from-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bridge.edu\/tefl\/blog\/work-life-balance-teaching-online-from-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Maintaining Work-Life Balance While Teaching Online From Home"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Experienced EFL teacher, Coleen Monroe<\/a>, has been working at a language school in Fuzhou, China since 2018. Like so many other teachers worldwide, she’s now teaching her students via distance-learning, due to the coronavirus pandemic. We asked her to share her insights on maintaining work-life balance when teaching online from home. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you became an ESL teacher, either at home or abroad, you didn\u2019t expect that the coronavirus pandemic would make it impossible for your classes to happen in person. But it seems that working remotely is a defining characteristic of the year 2020. If you have found yourself a sudden online English teacher,<\/a> your living room may now be your classroom and your office, as well as where you do crafts, raise your kids, and watch your shows. When the fabric of work and life become so intertwined, what can you do to keep them from being completely enmeshed? Let\u2019s look at some of the ways to maintain work-life balance when teaching online from home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have a dedicated workspace, if possible<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This may be tough if you share space with a roommate or a family, but it can be possible to set aside space for work by changing the furniture slightly during work times or setting up a teacher\u2019s background behind you for your online classes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn ways to invest in your online teaching space.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jhonny,
Jhonny, an online English teacher<\/a>, working from home in Chile<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Some people even suggest \u201ccommuting\u201d across your apartment or house as a way to physically separate your work and personal lives. If you have a small apartment, that may not be possible, but you can still mentally switch from work to personal life by having a ritual at the start\/end of the workday (i.e. make coffee in the kitchen and take it to-go for a daily walk at 5:30 p.m.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep a set schedule<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Set a calendar of available work times<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

All my friends who worked from home before the crisis say that you should make it clear to anyone who you live with that at certain times during the day you are not available, just as you would when working in an office or a school. Obviously, if you have young children this is a challenge, but in that case, setting expectations with your housemates and coworkers can be very helpful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I saw a great calendar that was shared from one teacher to others with red and blue blocks labeled \u201cAvailable\u201d or \u201cUnavailable, trying to feed three children lunch.\u201d Being honest with colleagues about not being available 24\/7 is important. Your humanity is more important than your productivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Avoid blending work and personal activities<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you are teaching on the Internet, it can be tempting to blend your web browsing with your work and make your day a never-ending stream of emails at all hours from your phone. It\u2019s not a great idea and it will make your work quality suffer. The Internet may be on 24\/7, but you don\u2019t have to be!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jhonny
A class of online English students  <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Set an end-time for your workday and stick with it<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Designate a time that you \u201cgo home\u201d from your job and make it a clear boundary. If possible, keep it the same as what time you would normally be finished with work. If you have a lot of pressing emails in off-hours, set an automated response that says, \u201cThese are my working hours: M-F 9:00 – 5:00. I will respond to your email as soon as I can during those hours.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn to say no<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This is a key life skill and one that is often underappreciated. Your boss may tell you that you have to give up 40% of your pay overnight and want you to sign a contract amendment that\u2019s dodgy-looking. You may have colleagues asking to you pick up some of their grading. Your school may schedule you for almost double your normal amount of classes because a colleague unexpectedly quit. You may have a parent who spams the chat group for a class, asking why the class can\u2019t just meet for lessons anyway during the pandemic (yes, that happened to me in February).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A polite, but definitive, \u201cno\u201d is often a good answer to these sorts of situations. Your health and safety are the number one priority. That includes your mental health, which means that saying \u201cno\u201d to a massively increased schedule or unreasonable expectations for online lessons is key.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do things that feel productive but that aren\u2019t related to work <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Find a way to keep yourself busy and engaged that isn\u2019t in work. I find that a lot of people get bored in normal life (especially now) and simply think, \u201cWell, if I work overtime then I won\u2019t be bored.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even now, life is supposed to be about more than work. Find a book that you can read because you have the time to do so. Get involved in cooking in ways you haven\u2019t before. Find small crafts or big ones that you can work on and feel that you are making progress each day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For me, it\u2019s crochet with yarn. I work on the pattern each day when I\u2019m done with my teaching work. It has a physical and mental element, and it makes something tangible that I can see growing more complete each day. That way even if my online lessons hit the fan somehow and just aren\u2019t working, I have something that I feel I can \u201cshow\u201d for that day in isolation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ask for help and take action early on mental health<\/strong> <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This graphic, from Twitter, speaks to what is needed while we stay home and stay distant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Principles<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A lot of people are struggling mentally now. If you find that you are having thoughts that are intruding on your daily life or making you feel miserable, you need to ask for help. For ESL\/EFL teachers living in a foreign country during the crisis, the feeling of isolation and loneliness can be worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s normal to feel worried given the difficulty in the world at the moment, but if you start to feel down a lot of the time, feel physical aches and pains from stress, or experience disruptions to your ability to do basic life tasks, it\u2019s definitely time to ask for help. Even if you don\u2019t feel unable to do basic things, you may feel the need to talk to someone and just get an outsider perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many online resources for mental health exist:<\/p>\n\n\n\n