Advice for working from home
Some free unsolicited advice for people new to working from home, or who, like me, need the reminder and the external accountability:
1) Stick to routines, as much as possible: Even if you're just going to your living room, get up, shower, shave, put on pit stick, get dressed in your work clothes. Make a lunch and pack it. It helps with the mental switch into work mode and, more importantly, helps you switch out again. In the absence of the change of location, this will help keep boundaries between work and home life. It will mean something psychologically to change back into your PJs or sweats.
2) Use physical cues to help distinguish between "work" and "home" time: I don't have a home office or dedicated work space at home any more. It's literally my living room coffee table. When I'm working, my laptop stays open on the table, the dolphin sculpture and pile of lego magazines and personal books goes underneath and out of site, and my work bag and coat are out and visible, like they would be at my office. When work time is done, laptop, work bag, and jacket get put away, dolphin sculpture and fun books come out. The idea is to be able to sit in the same spot on the living room couch five minutes after "end of the work day," and feel like you're somewhere different.
You might even want to try taking down the office "props" at end of day, putting on your jacket, taking a walk around the block, and then coming home, hanging up your jacket, then putting the home decor back on the table.
3) Don't do house chores during office hours. This takes discipline. If you'd be twiddling your thumbs at work, twiddle your thumbs at home. The fact that you have time to twiddle your thumbs at work is an entirely different issue, which you should bring up with your employer. Or not. But just like you don't want work to bleed over into downtime in your home, don't let home bleed into work.
4) Most important: Give yourself a lot of grace. Especially if you're also parents of young kids. This is not a normal work-from-home situation. Try stuff out, see what works, do the best you can.
If you do have school-age kids in the mix, this can all maybe help with that too. Make it a game they can play along with... when there are work books on the table, daddy is at "the office." Everyone dressing up for work time. They become other workers needing to make appointments to see you, knocking on a pretend door before interrupting. Assign them house chores.
And then when work hours are done, everyone gets into PJs and they get a bigger share of your attention.
All that to say, we can figure this out and it's going to be okay. Feel free to reach out if you have questions or are looking for more suggestions specific to your situation!
