Working from home when everyone is home

A few months ago I was working on good practices for considerate colleagues in shared office spaces as my firm transitioned into our beautiful new open plan office in Toronto. Last week, as an 8 and 10 year old became my new work colleagues in our own shared ‘open plan office’, I decided to work on setting up a few of our own good practices to suit our new arrangement.

Working from home on a full time basis is the new reality for many. It could also mean sharing space with a partner, children, other family or house mates. This creates a range of challenges and distractions as we all settle into a new routine and establish boundaries while still meeting personal and family needs AND getting work done.

It isn't an easy journey but here are some of my tips for coping in your new home working situation.

1. Claim a dedicated work space for yourself. Maybe you already have an office or desk but if you don’t, identify a space in your home to set up shop. My desk is in my living room and I have set it up with all my work paraphernalia so that when I sit down there, I can get myself into my ‘work zone’ head space. It is also easier to set boundaries with your household if you have a particular area that you are claiming as your own.
2. Identify quiet times in your household. My children are enjoying sleeping a bit later and I am happy to let them do this. It means I can set my alarm and get a good few hours of uninterrupted work done early on in the day. A toddler’s nap time is another great opportunity. Standard work hours will continue to work for some but be open to varying your hours to suit your situation and meet your work and family commitments. Keep your manager, colleagues and stakeholders in the loop on your availability.
3. Carve out social or family time in the routine. One of the added bonuses of my new situation is that I get to sit down with my children for a meal. This is a wonderful opportunity to come together and connect device free and have a quality interaction. We have set mealtimes and I have posted a weekly meal plan on the fridge so that my kids know what we are eating. I prep a number of meals over the weekend to minimize the effort during the week but we all clean up together afterwards. If you have housemates, agree to have lunch or dinner together. You can also involve your household in exercise routines and do an online yoga class or try the 100-squats-a-day challenge together! Exercise is a great way to relieve stress and creates a fun and positive social interaction with members your household.
4. Discuss and agree boundaries. Boundaries are important to ensure that you are able to work interrupted when you need to. I had a conversation with my children that if they see my headset is on my head, it means that they will need to wait to speak to me. If it is urgent, they can email me from their kids Gmail accounts (just like real work colleagues!). We have agreed that each of us can listen to our own music but we will use earphones when we do. You may also want to agree boundaries with the adults in your household for the sake of information security, depending on the nature of your work.
5. Share the load. Meals, childcare and cleaning should not fall to just one person in the household. As we navigate uncertainty and try and safeguard our mental health, sharing these tasks with the whole household is a great way to support each other. Take turns cooking meals, tidying up and supporting home school or physical activities for your children. Help each other carve out some alone time for meditation, a long bath or solo exercise. If you have young children at home, you and your partner could alternate your dedicated work times and supervising your children.
6. Implement independent learning activities for your children. If you have children there is no doubt that you have had feelings of guilt over screen time. Screens are however very useful in helping you create uninterrupted work time. I have uploaded a range of educational apps, Google books and documentaries via my kids’ Google accounts. I have discussed and agreed goals with them about how much time they should spend on the education apps and books in order to ‘unlock’ a time allocation to spend on games and cartoons. I track it all on the Google Family time app and any bickering results in their devices being locked (also managed from the Family time app). It has created a couple more hours of quiet for me. Last week I also showed them how to create their own stop animation projects. Now they are independently working on creating new projects from their bedrooms (more quiet and no bickering!).

This is not an easy time for anyone but starting to agree some boundaries and routines that builds in quality time, physical activity and dedicated work/ independent activity time is helping my household manage our day and our mental health.

Sharing stories from 'the trenches' with my colleagues has helped me normalize my challenges. Seeing your colleague’s three year old on your video call or hearing dogs barking in the background is pretty common these days. We are in this together and experience the same challenges. I have found that there is a lot of empathy and understanding out there and this is an opportunity to build deeper and more meaningful connections with those you work with. If you are struggling or feel overwhelmed, reach out for help. Speak to your manager, a friend or someone you trust.

What are you doing to make home working work for your household? Send me a DM or drop a comment. I would love to hear more about what is going on for you!