A Few Tips for Working at Home

New York State, with more than half the nation's cases of coronavirus, just instituted strict new orders that take effect Sunday night. A lot of people are soon going to find themselves working from home.

I've worked from home for many years, and I raised my son alone, so I thought I'd share a few tips from my experience for those who suddenly find themselves working from home and aren't familiar with it.

1. If you're taking care of kids at the same time—it's difficult, yes. But years ago I lit upon a good solution that worked for us. I would work for 45 or 50 minutes, and then take a break by spending 10 or 15 minutes of focused quality time with my then two- to five-year-old son. As impulsive and demanding as we can be, humans are also time- and schedule-sensitive creatures, and you can take advantage of that. We "learn" schedules—intervals—even if we just sense them and don't understand them by the clock. I kept this 50/10 schedule strictly, studiously ignoring him while I worked (unless he hurt himself or really needed attention, of course) but then giving him all of my attention when it came time to. By keeping strictly to this schedule, what I found was that my son relaxed his demands on me during the time I was working, because he knew he was going to get his turn soon. (He also knew he wasn't going to get what he wanted when I was working.) I found if I played with him at indiscriminate intervals, he ramped up his demands on me if I turned my attention to work; on the flip side, if I left him to his own devices for too long (two hours, say), he would get peevish and tired and start to "lose it." It's very important, though, to give the kid your whole focus during his or her time. They'll learn. What would happen is that he would play quietly and happily by himself for the time I was working, and then we'd both enjoy the 10–15 minutes we spent together. Peaceful coexistence.

I found it's actually a nice way to connect with a kid, too, and get to know him better.

2. If you're not taking care of a kid, take frequent breaks anyway, and reserve personal tasks and activities for break time. You'll know your own proclivities much better than I do, but there are far fewer constraints at home, and some people find the lack of structure disconcerting. Some people can't keep at work—they go off and do laundry or make personal phone calls or other things they wouldn't have done at the office. But the opposite can be just as much of a problem—you'll sit at the computer for marathon sessions and only stand up for a stretch after many hours hunched over the screen. That way lies...well, not madness maybe, but eyestrain, carpal tunnel syndrome, back and neck aches, and that bleary, "underwater" feeling. Schedule your breaks, then take them—be sure to move around, stretch, drink some water, and stand up for a bit. Do some jumping jacks. Touch your toes. If you're fit enough, do the NYT 7-Minute Exercise.

3. Eat real meals, and don't snack at your desk. As I'm sure you know, our bodies take "set points"—weights our metabolisms seek to maintain. For years I weighed 240. Then I discovered that I could skip meals and eat cheese sticks by the wheelbarrow-full at my desk, without having to take a break from working. Very convenient. (Let's just say I was not into health food back then.) Big mistake, though. I "broke" my former set point and quickly headed for 260 lbs. I cut out the string cheese once I realized what was happening, but too late—260 became the new normal, for a number of years.

3. You'll find you are more attached to the phone at home, not less, so it's good to devise a contact protocol. Even if you're not at your desk, if your jacket is on the back of your office chair and you're known by one and all to be "at work," then it doesn't matter if you're in the bathroom or down the hall gabbing with a colleague or in the break room scrounging for leftover doughnuts. You're still "at work." And nobody's getting agitated about you. When you're at home, though, let the boss or a colleague call you once when you can't answer, and right away their imaginations will run wild—in their minds, you're off skylarking, eating bon-bons and binge-watching old HBO shows. Cat's away, mouse will play, that's the sort of thing that jumps into their jealous minds. So I'd suggest devising a sensible phone policy that lets you ignore phone calls when you have to, but that makes it clear you're working. (As a number of my friends know, I often ignore phone calls during the day. You can't both concentrate on writing or reading and talk on the phone at the same time. A 20-minute phone call might not seem like much, but there is only room for 24 of them in an entire eight-hour day.) If your boss is "home worker insecure," and contacts you frequently just to confirm that you're working, you might have to have a talk and gently remind him that you won't get much else done if you're always responding to him.

4. Be sure to "turn it off" when it's time to. Yeah, working at home is great because you're always at home! Yay. But you're always at work, too. I used to wake up at 2:00 a.m. with insomnia and think, well, I might as well work. I'd get up at 6 a.m., put on my robe, wake up my son, fix my coffee, and sit down to work. Then sometimes I wouldn't even get dressed until the UPS guy came in late afternoon! That's no way to live. The problem is that work leaks into every hour of the day and night. It's important to set limits and schedules and then resist working when you're not working. A friend who has worked from home for many years wouldn't even look at email on the weekends. He scheduled his "off" time as strictly as he scheduled his "work" time. It's not the easiest thing to do if you're overworked anyway, but be sure to reserve—and observe—"not-at-work time," too.

Working at home works...it just takes some getting used to. Even if you end up not liking it, or liking it far less than being at your workplace, you should be able to make it work just fine for however long the contagion crisis lasts. It feels worse at first than it really is. Hang in there!

Solidarity,

Mike

Original contents copyright 2020 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Scott: "Required, hilarious reading for those of us who work from home."

Gaspar Heurtley: "A friend of mine is a web designer that works from home (he’s done it his whole life) and always tried to keep work and life as far apart as possible. A few years back he moved away from his little apartment to a much bigger house and set his office in a spare bedroom. He wouldn’t take personal calls, didn’t tweet, etc. while he was in there. When his daily hours of work were done, he got out and actually locked the door till next morning."

Mike replies: My friend Nick, after working at home for ten years, rented an office in an office building downtown and got dressed and arrived at his office every morning at the same time, leaving for the day on schedule as well. It was a corner office with great views and cost a pretty penny I'm sure, but work was work and home was home once again for him!

Lynn: "Timely advice for many Mike, thanks. I was listening to ABC Radio here in Sydney earlier this week on the same topic. A female presenter who often worked at home with young children in the house shared her technique: when the kids knocked on the door to her home office, she would ask (through the closed door), 'are you bleeding?' If the answer was yes, the door was opened. Otherwise it was wait for scheduled break time. Worked for her...."

Nigel James Robinson: "If you're two adults, and are taking care of more than one kid at the same time, split your days. One looks after the kids, the other works. You might get in half a days work each. Don't try working in parallel; the productivity then halves."

Mike replies: Great tip. Thanks.

Comments

[Jeff]

Do you still use/recommend a stand-up desk or other desk-bound tips?

[Eolake]

Thank you.
Tidbits has made a free short ebook about working from home temporarily:

https://tidbits.com/2020/03/16/get-take-control-of-working-from-home-temporarily-for-free/

[Roger Bradbury]

More wise words, Mike, though I must admit I've just been licking a blog post into shape, and it's 7:30 pm here.

Note to self:
Must. Keep. Regular. Hours.

[Dave Stewart]

Thank you Mike. Last week I had to use Google to find out, what was the acronym WFH (working from home). On Monday I and my many colleagues will commence this way of working. Interesting times, that will likely change the way very many people live and work henceforth, and not just for the pandemic period.

[Tom Burke]

I worked at home for the last 13 years of my career (I’m retired now) and what you say makes sense. I used to have some particular routines: I always made my lunchtime sandwich immediately after breakfast and then wrapped it up - I’d “taken it to work”. I also had mugs that I only used for tea/coffee while I was upstairs working. And in summer, when the weather was good, I would sometimes walk around the block - it would help with getting my “work head” on.

But all that is behind me now. I’ve got used in the last 5 years to living a very relaxed life at home, just pottering around. I’m OK to continue doing that if the degree of recommended isolation increases. For me the key thing will be to be able to get out of the house occasionally for fresh air and exercise. I’m fortunate to live on the edge of the country, and I know any number of walks along footpaths that will keep me away from other people but will give me exercise, fresh air, and maybe even photo opportunities.

[Matt Kallio]

Good tips. But you need exercise, too. I recommend Gerald Undone's clever video that's full of great advice for idle photographers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV9LnWWHtug

[mcomfort]

Excellent set of points, Mike. By the way, you should think about offering online photography classes. People are 'moving' online now in ways they haven't before, and you're in the exact right place to help them with this.

[Marc Gibeault]

But we have to consider that we currently are in a special situation. I found these advices very valuable (translated from French):

"Dear parents with school age children

You may be inclined to create a minute-by-minute schedule for your children. You have high hopes for hours of learning, including online activities, science experiments and book reports. You limit technology until everything is done! But here's the thing ...

Our children are as afraid as we are right now. Our children not only can hear everything that is going on around them, but they feel our constant tension and anxiety. They have never experienced anything like this before. Although the idea of ​​not going to school for 4 weeks sounds great, they probably imagine a fun time like summer vacation, not the reality of being trapped at home and not seeing their friends.

Over the next few weeks, you will see an increase in behavioral problems with your children. Whether it's anxiety, anger or protest that they can't do things normally - it will happen. You will see more seizures, tantrums and oppositional behaviors in the coming weeks. This is normal and expected under these circumstances.

What children need right now is to feel comforted and loved. Feel that everything will be fine. And it could mean that you're tearing your schedule apart and loving your kids a little more. Play outside and go for a walk. Bake cookies and paint pictures. Play board games and watch movies. Do a science experiment together or find virtual trips to the zoo. Start a book and read together as a family. Snuggle up under warm blankets and do nothing.

Don't worry that they are going backwards at school. Each child is in this boat and everything will be fine. When we are back in class, we will all correct the course and meet them where they are. Teachers are subject matter experts! Don't choose fights with your kids because they don't want to do math. Don't yell at your kids not to follow the program. Do not impose 2 hours of learning time if they resist it.

If I can leave you with one thing, it is this: at the end of it all, our children's mental health will be more important than their academic skills. And what they felt during this period will remain with them long after the memory of what they did during these 4 weeks has long since disappeared. Keep this in mind, every day.

Stay safe"

Text by Murielle Double, www.psychoeducation.be

[MikeR]

Mike, thank you for this. I forwarded the link to family members who are not accustomed to the WFH regimen. You have done a public service.

I sincerely hope that you can stay in touch with others in your support group. Dealing with both isolation and staying sober can be daunting.

https://wapo.st/3a8l8Ns video on Washington Post re this subject.

[Mike Ferron]

We have to put a lot of blame on the money whores who outsourced our manufacturing to other countries. I wish all other countries the very best but when "they" made a few extra bucks having nations like China produce our necessities then the problem has to be recognized for what it is. A huge damn mistake.

My wife is immune compromised and on 8 prescription medications. A few of these come from China. Because of her rare condition 3 of these medications are life dependent. Without them she dies in a week or less. We all need a better way than what has been given us.

[Lars Jansen]

I'm stuck with a six year old who has to be homeschooled too. And as my wife's not feeling well and I'm part of a support desk (irregular phonecalls and stuff), this is a bit of a struggle. Although I must say I do enjoy the company of my daughter in my homeoffice. We're lucky she mostly enjoys doing her homework sitting next to us. No motivational speeches necessary.

Biggest issue is getting her out of the door for some fresh air. The weather is wonderful: blue skies all day, so I try to get her outside for a short walk (or step in her case) at least three times a day.

Normal routine is an important factor in this as well: this is not a holiday, so we get up at normal hours, fully dress, and are ready for the day before nine in the morning. All stuff that's allowed in the weekend stays there. Normality rules to help feeling ok.

It's a good thing I'm quite good at that social distancing; not dissimilar to our every day life. I can only hope the rest of the population is getting the message before a full lockdown is necessary and we cannot even go out for a run, bikeride or walk. That is my biggest fear currently.

[Dave Stewart]

Okay, okay, WFH is not an acronym, it's an initialism, which was a new word to me, in your following post. Have never claimed to be a wordsmith.