How To Survive Working From Home … With Your Family

It feels like doomsday today. The alert of the spreading of the coronavirus is here. School, offices are closing. Here we are in stay home mode.

All over social media everyone is talking that they are working from home. I have friends that never worked from home and even though they were excited to work on their fuzzy sleepers, by afternoon hours they were lonely of not having human interaction.

True working from home can be not only lonely, but the gateway to slacking off too if you do not pay attention.

I have worked home for the many, many years and want to share with you how not to get lonely and stay productive and dodge most hazards coming at you.

Working from home can be challenging mainly for us moms. Every chore, dishes, and laundry are calling your name. Do not listen to them. They will stray you from your day.

Set up your home office as you would your work office. Pick a dedicated place in your house. Make sure it has all the power cords accessible nearby. The last thing you want is for a flying computer because you stepped on the cord.

Do what you do every day as you would when you go to work. Do not change your routine at all, ok maybe you do not need to dress up as much or put a full face of makeup. But still, dress.

Even though those fuzzy sleepers are cute and comfy, how do you feel when you are at your computer and talk to a customer for instance. Do you feel professional? if the answer is no, then you know where the sleepers go. If yes, you are a special breed and my hat to you. I admire you for it. I never was able to. Silly I know, but it is a mind game that plays with me.

Another hazard of working from home is your kitchen. Your refrigerator and pantry have powers and they exert those powers over you like nobody business. Stay away from the kitchen until it is lunchtime. Trust me. If this will continue on and we all are stuck at home with no workout gym on sight, all those cute small almonds will accumulate to lots of unwanted pounds. Or a fruit here, a drink there. Not only you are grazing more than a cow, but you are also not productive.

Pets. So thrilled to be home with them. How happy you maybe be, they do not share the same enthusiasm. You are actually encroaching on their turf. Dogs may sleep all day in their bed mad at you because they cannot be on the couch. Cats will come and they will look puzzled as to why you are working at your desk when they should be the one taking a nap on your desk. And if you think the cat will come to you, think again, you are disturbing his precious home alone time.

If you are home most likely your child is too. That is a predicament. As you, the parent, see it as a juggling act to get it all done, your little one sees it as the great opportunity to approvingly playing hooky. The wake-up call must be expressed, you need to work, they need to study. You each have your corners in the house to work. Hopefully, you can see them more than they can see you.

You are not a short staff cook. The kitchen is the cafeteria and their lunch sits on the refrigerator shelf as it would at school.

Almost forgot, this rule applies to your spouse too. Trust me they are the first in line to ask for you to make them something to eat. So before you get mad and utter words that should never be mutter by your lips, sit everyone down and share the new-stay at home rules.

Somehow when you as a mom work from home everyone thinks you are at their becking call. Nope, you are not! Put your foot down.

Most importantly you will have a co-worker in the same situation as you, working from home and having all the stress and loneliness that you have. Make it a point to set up a coffee phone chat date during the day. It is beneficial to you both and neither one of you will feel so cut off from the world.

Being alone surrounded by your four walls is not for the faint of heart. And if you always worked in a busy office with lots of interaction, the changement is abrupt and painful.

Stay calm, stay brave and stay in control.

xoxo