“I could never work at home,” a teaching colleague once said to me. “I have to have a place to go.”
For many people the idea of working from home is disconcerting. Especially if you live in small quarters, with roommates, small children or an elderly person.
I have been working mostly from home for the past two years, when my contract at the school I was teaching at was not renewed. Whereas I went from going to one workplace every day, I suddenly found myself a member of the gig economy, with four part-time jobs on my hands.
While the very fact of having this many plates to juggle – to say nothing of the rest of life’s myriad responsibilities -- was crazy-making in itself, I will say that working from home turned out to be the least of the issues. With thought and organization, this can be a time to feel safe and grounded and even, if you’re lucky, a time to discover that creativity you may have been nurturing but never had the time to develop.
Here are some thoughts on how I’ve survived the work-at-home stage (thank God this happened at the start of our early spring, at least as long as we can go out):
If you live with others, the most important thing to do is to talk to them and come up with a plan. Are you a morning person? Do you live with a night bird? Being aware of the needs of those around you will make this process much more bearable. Some people are very chatty in the morning, while others are a little dazed. It’s really important to respect different personality types under one roof.
By the same token, introverts and extroverts will have challenges surviving in close quarters because introverts need a lot of personal space and down time and extroverts like to be surrounded by people and conversation. Again, talking to your housemates about a plan and/or schedule for using communal space and getting work done will help keep the lines of communication open and assure that everyone’s needs are met.
Getting organized is key. Cleaning up and getting any work spaces ready for the long haul gives you a sense of control and a feeling that you are in charge of your space, whether it is a desk, an armchair, or a coffee table. One thing I try to avoid is working in bed. All the Feng Shui wisdom I’ve heard is that a bed is for rest, and rest only. Oh, and the bed should be made, by 10 AM, at the latest.
And on a similar note, I feel it’s very important to get dressed in the morning. No sweats or PJs after a certain hour. This helps give the day definition.
I have always found that I have to write first thing in the morning because this is when it comes most naturally to me. I live by the 500-word-per-day rule (thank you Terry Pratchett and Graham Greene) and it is easier to get these words out in the morning than later in the day, when lethargy begins to creep over me and the weight of the day, if it is not a good one, takes over.
In a previously-perfect world I was swimming twice a week; this has now turned into a short morning Pilates workout, with some free weights and yoga mixed in for good measure.
Lesson prep for the teaching and tutoring work I do comes next. This is usually mid-morning work and is often done by 11 AM, at which time I walk Mr. Milo, our crazy Carolina dog. Back from the walk, there is still about an hour to get some more work done before the all-important period of rest. This is when the phone is turned off, the house line is disconnected, and I can actually close my eyes and experience a few minutes of desperately-needed bliss.
Back to reality means doing the errands until it’s time to leave the house for tutoring sessions. Spot cleaning, a load of laundry, picking up a few things from the grocery store, and paying a few bills, take place at this time.
By 5:30 I am done with my work day, and am able to move on to the dinner portion of the evening. After dinner, I am often found working on a sewing project or practicing the piano. Maybe even a few minutes of Russian on Duolingo.
This was life before the World Health Organization categorized Covid-19 as a pandemic. Now, everything has changed. But my routine, which keeps me sane, will not. Because the DOE has just announced it is closing and some of my tutoring sessions are on hold, I will have much less time out of the house, which will give me more time to devote to writing projects.
Which brings me to young children and their desperate need for routines – this is just one of the things school provides them. Creating routines from the start will give them, and you, a sense of order and control. Perhaps you take them for a long walk in the morning – as long as we can go out – to get their energy out – then settle in for some play time at home. A rest time in the middle of the day is crucial so that everyone stays sane. If children don’t want to sleep, they can stay in their bed and play quietly. This is what many preschool programs do – the children don’t have to sleep; they can look at a book or draw in a notebook with crayons or pencils until rest time is over. There is no talking during this period.
“I can’t get him to stop playing video games,” a father of a four-year-old once told me during a Parent Teacher conference. “There has to be a time frame,” I reminded him. When our children were little, they were allowed to watch one hour of TV after school and that was it. They knew that when the last show was over, they had to turn off the TV. In preschool classrooms, when children are expected to have a time frame for an activity and they have a hard time stopping, a timer is set, and they are told that they will have to stop when they hear the bell. Games, movies, and TV should be reserved for a certain portion of the day, and should absolutely have a time frame, for everyone’s sanity.
A word about worry: try not to. It will overwhelm you if you let it. There is more than enough negative new to go around. Measure your intake. One thing that helped us survive the days after 9/11 was not listening to or watching the news in front of our small children. We read the paper and listened to the radio when they were out of the room or resting. Deciding when and how much news to take in during the day can help gain a sense of control. And all the experts say not to read the news at night before going to bed.
Life at home can be very challenging during these sad, strange times, but it can also give us a chance to get really creative with the way we use our shared spaces together.