Working @ Home
It may look easy, but working from home can be a balancing act.
You’re working from home now. Everybody’s doing it.
And they make it look so cozy, like those commercials where supermodel-gorgeous people tap on their laptops while swilling umbrella drinks from a coconut shell on a tropical beach. (Seriously, who does that? It’s wrong-sick)
You may see the clues that your co-workers or clients are having a tough time, but you ignore those signs because you’re so focused on your own agita.
Look carefully, and you’ll see it: Your client pauses the camera and mutes the microphone for a minute or two. You can assume (if you don’t work for The New Yorker magazine) that a family member is now in range of the camera, demanding your client’s personal attention.
And yes, that is a bed in the background, behind your co-worker’s professional-looking “Zoom face.” (Ooh! Band name!) Plus, everyone’s kids and pets are trying to join your conference call at the same time. It’s pandemonium.
Distractions Are Everywhere
It’s also totally human. I don’t judge anyone. My kid is living at home, but is plenty old enough to respect my space. Our dog sleeps most of the day.
I don’t exactly have the ideal home office, either. I’ve been sitting at the dining room table with my laptop for six months. The wifi is good, and the background of framed photos is fairly neutral, but the lighting is not great, the table is too high, and the chair is too hard. I had a home office at one time, but my mother-in law moved in with us (long story) and it’s a bedroom now.
I’m not complaining. (Okay, maybe just a little.) My situation is easy to manage compared to those of you who have a small, restless child or a couple of bored, school-age kids on distance learning routines. Or a loud-talking partner/spouse who doesn’t fully respect your boundaries.
I feel for those people. I really do. And I don’t mind at all when they seem distracted or irritated during conference calls. It helps me to know them better, and I feel confident that we’ll all get our work done in spite of the interruptions.
Learn to Compartmentalize
Unfortunately, for lots of WFH-ers these days, the key to “getting it done” is to wait until the kids are in bed, or the spouse’s workday is over. The house is quiet, and you’re ready for all the non-meeting work — planning, writing, designing, reporting — and whatever requires a block of time with no interruptions.
If this describes your modus operandi in the work-from-home world, please stop it.
You need some downtime. Put the @#$&% laptop away. Have dinner with your family — or make a real meal for yourself, and eat it from a plate, with cutlery, while sitting at the table. Then hang out and relax for a couple of hours. After that, get some sleep. No, not on the couch. Go to bed already.
Don’t Ruin Your Evening
If you need more hours in the day, get up earlier in the morning. Your peeps are still in bed, you have no meetings scheduled, and you have the coffeepot all to yourself.
I’m not a morning person, and maybe you aren’t either. I’d sometimes stay at the office until 8:00 PM or later, when the place was deserted. I was building nice, friendly relationships with the cleaning crew, but I was neglecting my family. That wasn't a good trade-off.
I actually thought I did my best work at night. But then I started working from home, and instead of working through the evening, I took a break…then I found myself still prying my eyelids open at 3:00 AM to complete some project with an inflexible deadline. That was not a good solution, either
And guess what? It was not my best work. I didn’t make efficient use of that time, either, because I was too sleepy to think straight half the time. Plus, recovering from a single sleepless night reduced my productivity and creativity for the next few days, too.
Establish a Routine
So I made a deal with myself. I’d get up early every weekday morning, get dressed in some clothes that I’d actually wear to work pre-COVID (I also wear make-up every day — but that might not be your preference.) Then I feed the dog and brew a pot of coffee. Armed with a giant mugful of fresh, hot caffeine, I sit down at the table, open the laptop, and start my workday.
That’s my routine. Yours may be different, which is fine. Make it work for you. And if you happen to be a morning person, you can go ahead and smirk your way through the rest of this blog post. So much for you and your smug, self-satisfied attitude. Honey badger don’t care.
Anyway, this early work schedule did not turn me into a morning person. Yes, I’m sitting in front of a computer, but I’m still half asleep. So I usually start my day with passive tasks, e.g., reading. I go through my email inbox, I check out the morning news, maybe even research topics for upcoming projects, or whatever else I am fit to do before full caffeination kicks in.
After that, I can write a blog post to warm up, or I can do some editing-type work that requires attention to detail without fully engaging every last brain cell.
Make it Count
All the warm-ups are forgotten when I have an urgent project, however. When I’m on deadline (and I’ve procrastinated enough already) I’ll get up extra extra early. All the above rituals are still required, up to and including coffee, but after that, I get right down to work on that urgent project.
I find that a looming deadline helps me to focus like a laser beam, even if it’s 6:00 in the morning (or 5:00, G-d forbid.) When it’s that important, I don't even need an alarm clock — I wake myself up two or three times during the night to be sure I won’t be late. Weird, but true.
I’m incredibly proud of myself for starting work when it’s still dark outside, so I make every minute count. When I’m on top of my game, I can write an entire white paper or a good portion of a client’s website in just a few hours. And it’s good, solid work, even creative in its way.
What was I waiting for? I feel so relieved. The rest of the day flies by, and I have the evening free to just be a person, a wife, a mom, and a dog lover.
Life is good. I’ll start fresh tomorrow.
