Work From Home Tips: How to Set Effective Ground Rules With the People in your Space

Working from home can be both a blessing and a curse. It comes with its own rewards and challenges. To enjoy the rewards, you must face its inevitable challenges appropriately. Facing the challenges might include listing some helpful work-from-home tips upfront before you can actually get on the go.

For some, working from home is a peril to the safely guarded work-life balance. Living with your family? Living with your kids? Or living with a roommate? With the threat of COVID-19 infection, you are stuck with these people at your home that makes it a lot harder. Stop fretting and start setting boundaries between your work and the people you share your space with.

An effective formula you can do is setting clear and strict guidelines to everyone sharing the home with you, not just to the children but including the adults. Tell them and gently explain the profound need to do so.

If your children are younger and more in the daycare zone, you need to set your rules looser by setting up a determined playtime schedule while you're working. If your kids are engaged in remote schooling, you may need to synchronize your time most reasonably. If your kids are old enough, that doesn't mean they don't need your attention. You can less look after them while you focus on your job, and they take care of their own needs. Planning out their day as much as possible can help minimize the interruptions from children. Take little breaks during the day to check if nothing faulty is going. Also, you can get help if you can. Whether it's a member of your family or a hired child caregiver, just make sure to follow COVID-19 precautionary measures.

If you're living with adults, the plight of interruption and productivity can be curtailed. Sticking to your ground rules strictly and holding the line on responding to disruptions are also great solutions. Though it takes a lot more courage to set boundaries to them, the gift of bounty is a lot more rewarding.

Now, you can fight the threats of COVID-19 and the work-life imbalance.

Allen Yagjian