LIFE

How to Cope with Working from Home During COVID-19

Be flexible with your routine, be kind, and take breaks.

How many mornings have you shut off that alarm, wishing you could work from home in your PJs? Well, for more than a few months now, many of us are getting our wish thanks to COVID-19.

While, in theory working from home may seem ideal, the reality for many of us is that it is, well, kind of pain, particularly if you have young children home from school that you now have to teach while still keeping productive at work.

The fact is, this sudden and unexpected disruption to our daily lives has many of us feeling stressed!

I have found that some of the following ways have helped me cope with working from home for the unforeseeable future.

1. Get Your Space Right

If you can set up a dedicated home office space — great — do this!

If, like the majority of us, you don’t have a dedicated home office; it is still helpful to think about a specific space that you would go to during your work time — do this ASAP. Having the right space at home will help you focus on the tasks at hand. It will also automatically set boundaries with family.

Do you have a spare room you can use? Is there an area in your finished basement that could work? If not, clear off the dining table and set up there. It can feel like this is one more thing you have to add to your already busy schedule, but this helps — try it!

2. Keep Your Regular Schedule

It is tempting to treat the next few months as a sort of family vacation with everyone home, but it’s best if you and the kids stick to your regular routines.

That means following up schooldays schedule — getting up and going to bed at the same time, showering, getting dressed, and having breakfast as you normally would. Straying from routine will demotivate you to complete the work that needs to get done.

3. Take Advantage of the Flexibility

While it is important to keep to your routines, it does not mean you can not take advantage of having more family time on your hands.

Instead of spending an hour plus on a commute each day, you could use that time to catch up on home projects that have been on your to-do list for a while. Remember, staying home for all three meals also means more house chores to reckon with, so remain flexible with your expectations.

You can also use the added time to reconnect with your family. Perhaps, Wednesday night movie is a thing or mid-day snack break with your kids. Instead of structuring your previous routine at home, be flexible with how you use your time.

4. Give Your Kids Structure

Kids need structure, so give them some each day. Have a routine that works around their schoolwork and create some “downtime” for everyone. It helps to plan some activities that do not require supervision. It would necessarily be dependent on their age groups.

For instance, babies will give you a breather during nap times, and you can rely on swings and bouncy chairs or put on music or Baby Einstein. For toddlers and grade-schoolers, you might need to create activity boxes that contain games and puzzles that require minimal adult supervision. They can also be kept busy with trustworthy apps and their favorite shows.

Essentially, providing the kids daily structure involves giving them two or three options for spending the afternoon: taking a nap, playing with Legos in the living room, watching a movie, or quiet reading in their bedrooms.

It also helps to take a break from work every couple of hours to check in with your kids to answer any questions they may have. Lord knows they ALWAYS have some!

5. Get Some (Virtual) Babysitters

It helps plan for days when you anticipate having many meetings and need specific tasks with priority to get done. If you and your partner can switch off days — this would be ideal. You can plan on “on” days and “off” days. On your ‘off” days, you are still working, but you could be the primary on-call parent for helping kids.

If such an arrangement with your partner is impossible, consider reaching out to family and friends to arrange virtual playdates with the kids. Thanks to Skype, Zoom, and FaceTime, your virtual babysitters can read, play games, and interact with your kids online while you get some important work done.

6. Schedule your own time

It is easy to forget our own needs to manage the days and weeks for kids and family. Make some efforts to schedule some breaks for yourself — morning tea before the kids wake up, scheduling time for lunch, and any time you can get, even 10- to 15-minute breaks throughout the day to take a walk, meditate, breathe, or move your muscles.

Even small movement breaks help; these do not require you to move away from your desk — just drop your hands from your keyboard to your lap and move your upper body (roll your shoulders, gently roll your neck, twist at the waist to the right and left, stretch). Do this every 15 to 30 minutes.

If you can make this happen — Large movement breaks are great as require you to stand up and walk away from your desk. This could be a brief walk, check-in with the kids, or do some full body stretches. Try to take large movement breaks every 1.5 to 2 hours. This will keep your muscles feeling better and provide you with a bit more energy and ability to focus.

7. Plan for a Wind-down

Once your workday is over, give yourself permission to step away and actually be done. Take stock of what went well throughout the day and what you might want to do differently tomorrow. Spend time with those around you. And after the kids are off to bed, make time to wind down, perhaps watch some TV, read a book, catch up with your partner or another adult virtually even if you have to and get some sleep.

It is not easy to manage kids and work from home, and I have found planning for and reaching out to others helps. Don’t think about doing it all, or even doing it right — just manage right now. These are weird times, and do what you can!

If you find you are getting a bit squirrelly, even after following these tips, you can always reach out to a mental healthcare provider who can help you more precisely and give you more ideas on managing the stress.

Most Importantly, take one day at a time. Please take good care, be kind to yourself, and give yourself a pat in the back — You made it!