Due to COVID-19 my wife and I are working remotely as recommended by the companies we work for. The kids are home with us as well. So far, Disney+ and building blocks are saving our butts but doesn't seem like something to rely on for the weeks to come. So, to the coolest remotely run company around; have any tips on sharing the work day with your kids? @wesburke @theluthier @waylow are the ones coming to mind but if anyone else is working remotely with words of wisdom, feel free to chime in.
After 7 years working from home, almost 5 with children, I still don't feel like I have it figured out. My situation is a little different from yours in that my wife is a stay-at-home mom. So the self-quarantining hasn't actually changed much for our day-to-day. The only negative is my wife likes to go out and about with the kids which she can't do. Our kids are definitely showing signs of cabin-fever after a few days.
Consider that my wife is responsible for the kids while I work, I'm not sure how useful my tips will be. But here's 4 tips based on my experience:
1. Happy family environment = happy work environment. We try to strike a balance between these
I find that the days where we accomplish the balance everyone is happier and more satisfied with the day.
2. Noise cancelling headphones are a must. My office isn't close to being sound proof and I can get flustered by shrill / persistent noise. Zoning out the vast majority of that noise is crucial for me. Sometimes I'll simply work with the artificial [near] silence but most of the time I work with ambient music or podcast to better eliminate exterior noise.
3. Backup Plan. I haven't had to do this often but if family life is too disrupting to get meaningful work done during the day, my fallback is to work after kids go to bed. I'm more of a night owl and can easily work from 8pm to 12am. It's always jarring to my routine but I will work from 9 to noon when the kids are typically on their best behavior (morning) and then be dad from noon to bed time (kids worst behavior). Kids go to sleep and I have peace and quiet for 4+ hours.
4. Take walks. It's easy for me to get in my work zone and clam up day after day. I can get in weird moods as a result, kinda detaching from reality I guess. Unfortunately it can make me less patient with my family and lead to depressive states. Taking a walk at lunch time (or anytime during the day) is remarkably refreshing in my experience. If the family is able to go, connecting with them is great, but even by myself it's a great chance to get fresh air and clear my head.
My tips aren't relevant to everyone's situation but hopefully there's something there for you phoenix4690
Hi phoenix4690
First off stay safe and remember that this isn't going to be forever....hopefully.
However, I do think working from home is going to play more of a role in the 'normal' work place after covid-19.
Which is a little good that will come out of this.
I can't really add much to what @theluthier has said. He's 100% spot on.
But I will reiterate one key point.
Noise Cancelling headphones = a must.
In the past year I've found it really difficult to be able to do what I need to do at the time I need to do it. So what I've found works best is to have a bunch of different tasks ready to work on. At the moment that is 2 categories. Stuff where I need silence for (recording), and stuff that I can do with headphones while a kid is being a kid in the background (almost everything else).
So I try to get things prepared for the specific windows of opportunity I have. And then pull the trigger when the window opens. However, often the window of opportunity closes very suddenly or doesn't open at all (because someone doesn't want to nap or is sick so can't go to day care etc). That is where I have the other tasks to fall back on.
As for you and your wife working from home at the same time with kid(s). We make a plan and then tag team it. eg - I'm the morning manager so I've got him from wake up to the first nap, then my wife will take him after that until the next nap (or vice versa). This alternates according to who needs to do what more urgently.
I would recommend that you have 'work hours' and 'non work hours' when you work from home because it's dangerous for there never to be a knock off time. But in a time like this and your situation, it's really going to be a do what needs to be done whenever you can do it.
I've also accepted that some deadlines (either client imposed or self imposed) are going to be missed. It's not the end of the world, and if you can see it coming early enough, just let the people know. They will be more understanding these days rather than the "everything is urgent and needs to be done by 5pm today" which hopefully has been destroyed by covid-19. (we'll see haha)
Thank you @theluthier and @waylow for your responses. All very helpful tips. Day 1 went pretty well and we'll find our balance as the days go on. I honestly really enjoy working from home and hope, as Wayne said, there is a silver lining to this virus that it will prove to more companies that remote work....works. Gotta go shop for some headphones now. ;)
Cheers
Don't get cheap ones!
They will pay for themselves with added productivity. I'm wearing mine now while my kid is eating lunch in the other room.
Soft music will drown him out 100% but I'm liking that I can hear him laughing as he eats his yogurt.
(He loves yogurt more than his parents haha.)