I know these times are crazy, and it’s likely things will look a little differently for our businesses over the next few months. But before we go there, I want to focus on what’s immediately in front of us, and right now many of us are working from home.
Whether you’ve been working from home all along or you’ve resorted back to working from home to help flatten the curve, there’s one small yet big change to the situation for so many.
The kids are at home. Maybe the whole family is home.
It’s been a little while since I’ve worked from home and worked from home with kiddos, but here are a few tips that come to mind as we embrace the next few weeks together at home.
1. Establish a morning routine. Get up & get dressed. I keep the same routine as when I’m up & out, except now I’m up & in. I ask the same of the kids.
2. Sit at mealtime. I know this one hard for some because so often we eat while we work or eat in the car. But if there was ever a good reason to just sit & eat, your kids are a good reason. Doing something like this also helps keep mom-guilt at bay because you’re with them here and there through the day.
3. Set intentions for the day. Deliberately paying attention to what you’re going to give your time & attention to is great for you, and now you can ask your kids to do it too. If you use breakfast to set the intention, you can use lunch and dinner to check in with each other. Imagine the learning here, so good!
4. Try time blocking your day, aka time chunking. It’s the practice of focusing on one thing for a specific period of time. The uni-tasking helps with concentration and almost always produces a better outcome because you’re avoiding task-switching. I always suggest prioritizing your most important task at your most optimal time. You know, that window of day where you’re firing on on cylinders, that’s your optimal time! This is great for working at home with kids because you can use the blocks of time to switch up what the kids are doing too which should help minimize the “I’m bored!” call-outs.
5. Consider flex time for one or two days. Given the change all-around, and there’s no travel time to and from the office now, consider changing up your hours of work to accommodate for what works for you and your family. Where you might work a little longer some days and shorter others in an effort to adjust to working from home with the whole family home. Who knows, you might find you have a new optimal time that you’ll want to keep up post-COVID19!
I hope you’ve found these helpful. I would love to hear your feedback. I shared a post on this yesterday, would love for you to weigh in with your own tips.
Finally, what works today on Day 3, may not work on Day 7 or on Day 12 so channel being agile and embrace the ability to pivot while you keep going. Be kind to yourself. Try to stay in the moment, and look for the happy in those moments.
You got this! We got this!
