Making social distancing and work-life balance really work!
Everyone is at home with the COVID-19 #StayAtHome #SaferAtHome requirements.Being at home all the time can be challenging. It's work and play and school and meals all in the same place. We did a quick brainstorming to make it all work and so far, so good! Here are our tips and tricks to keep you and the rest of your family sane, healthy, and smiling.
When you're working from home, create a dedicated workspace.
Not everyone has an office or separate computers. Dedicate a desk and some peripherals solely for work use. For example, when your laptop is hooked up to the monitor and external keyboard, it's work time. When it's on your lap, that's personal time.
Have a schedule for yourself.
Moving from a time-oriented work to a task-oriented work can be difficult or an absolute blessing. You can move your schedule around to accommodate this new environment. Do your best to maintain your regular hours, take breaks, and minimize distractions. Creating a new routine and sticking to it is the key.
Have a schedule for the kids.
They're used to it at school, so keep it up. We're treating this like a hybrid of summer camp and school, alternating study time and backyard time (a.k.a. "recess") and arts time. We got the kids involved and asked them what they wanted. It gave them a sense of control and ownership, which was super-empowering for them.
Mesh your schedules together.
The best part of being together all day is we're all doing stuff together. When we're working, the kids are studying. When we take a break, we do the fun stuff like art or going outside. Get creative! Yesterday, we learned about baking bread, using our breaks to mix, knead, proof, and bake (and we called it science).
Use that extra time you just received.
You just got all of that commuting time back. For some of us, that's significant. Use it for family time, school time, extended workouts, or other things. Here are the other things we've been doing:
Decluttering, organizing & cleaning
Trying new things, like yoga and cooking together
Reading out loud to each other
Fixing things and repainting rooms (some seriously overdue)
Researching home improvement ideas: kitchen trends, curb appeal, backyard gardening
And since we can't go out at night, we're planning an at-home date night, family game night, "Eat Two Desserts" night, and "Creature Double-Feature" movie night. We've also been considering our own adult late whiskey-tasting night, which will probably result in a "ZZZ-Machine" morning when we hope the kids sleep in.