Co-Working—and Learning—From Home With a Spouse and Children

Even those accustomed to working from home might struggle with the new realities of shelter-in-place orders. Co-working spaces are closed, and you can no longer pop into your favorite coffee shop for a latte and a change of scenery. 

If you're working remotely for the first time, this transition can be even more challenging to adapt to. Now toss in children who are schooling from home and the need for you and your spouse to be productive employees—while also balancing your responsibility as parents—and it can feel a bit overwhelming.

Here is some advice for making the transition go a little more smoothly. 

Carve Out Your Territory

Ideally, each person will have a separate place to work and study. If you can’t designate individual rooms for each person, you can still get creative with your space. 

For instance, taking the doors off of an empty closet can create a private nook, or perhaps there’s a corner in the kitchen that can be retrofitted to serve as a comfortable work or homework station temporarily.

Create a Shared Calendar and Communicate

Many families won’t be able to create individual offices for each member of the household. Making sure there’s at least one room set up as a dedicated home office can go a long way in ensuring everyone can complete their tasks.

In these instances, it’s vital to communicate who is doing what, when, and for how long. A shared Google calendar is easy to update with scheduled conference calls, teaching lessons, and deadline reminders. It can help avoid confusion over who is using the office at various points in the day.

Set the Kids Up for Success

When working from home while caring for children, you'll likely be tag-teaming with your partner. In addition to looking at scheduled work obligations, it might help to consider what time of the day each partner is at their best. For example, if one of you is at their brightest in the morning and the other doesn't get going until after lunch, let the early bird work during the first few hours of the day and then watch the children in the afternoon. 

When you have a rough idea of what your day will look like, let your boss and colleagues know when they will realistically be able to reach you and when you'll be offline.

With parks and other popular attractions closed, your children will likely be spending more time in front of screens than they ordinarily would, but free educational programs like Khan Academy Kids can make you feel less guilty — maybe even good — about it.

Stick to Your Schedule

It’s easy to get sucked into the “one more email” mindset. Don’t. Even if you’re working from home, you don’t want to feel like you live at work. It needs to be out of sight and out of mind. 

Set parameters for when the workday starts and stops and stick to them. It’s easy enough to close an office door at the end of the day. But for workstations set up in more visible parts of the house, use the end of the day to tuck away laptops, keyboards, and paperwork.

To further establish a sense of work time vs. relaxation time, it helps to continue regular routines like showering and getting dressed each morning. You might not be wearing a suit in your home office, but changing in and out of work clothes can help you mentally transition from one time of the day to another.

Schedule Time Together, and Apart

According to some predictions, we might be working from home for several more years or longer, making relationship-building and bonding more critical than ever. 

Planning activities that everyone enjoys — watching a new Netflix series, playing board games or backyard sports, trying new hobbies like cooking or crafting — can help facilitate a better sense of togetherness.

With everyone living, working, and learning under one roof – all the time – staying focused, efficient, and effectively managing your time and attention can be challenging. 

These are extraordinary times, but they are temporary, and implementing some of these tips will help make this new normal, well, a little more normal.

Stay safe, and please feel free to share any other tips or advice that you might have!