In this Episode, Angela talks about – How to set boundaries of time and space with the family. Click below to listen to Episode 22 – Working at Home with Family and Establishing a Flow!
Patti discusses establishing a work schedule to help you move into a flow and getting things done; working from home can be challenging, especially when the family doesn’t understand your work demands, work obligations, or time constraints with deadlines.
Patti: Established set work hours and communicating them to family and friends. Here are the hours and days I am working this week. Another way to communicate is to post your calendar/diary on the wall/door or give family viewable access to your digital schedule that reflects availability. Another approach you can make a daily or weekly calendar post in view (maybe kitchen) or text your unavailability for that day to the whole family. There are lots of creative ways to communicate you are working and unavailable. Sit down as a family and ask them how they want you to let them know. This way, everyone is part of the decision making. Do you want a daily text or a do not disturb sign on the door?
Angela said, I found the sign really official and makes it clear for others not to knock. In my building I used to live in, we had a lot of traffic going past my front door. People who delivered parcels would knock on the front door, which would be picked up on my calls or recordings. However, the worst thing about knocking on the front door was when I was doing meditation. Sounds and knocks during meditation can actually be dangerous to your body if you are in deep meditation and give you a heart attack. That forced me to make a sign to post on my front door, “please don’t knock, meditation in progress, if possible leave parcels.” The sign also allowed some people in the building the idea to be quiet when passing the front door too (if they read the sign!) I’m going to use another sign to the door in my office at home to be really clear about meditation time or when I’m recording, as people may have no idea what you are doing in the office and the sign makes people more aware about the noise.
Angela: When working at home with family these days, it is really valuable to look at your physical workspace. Do you have a space that’s appropriate to do your work? Do your kids have a space that’s appropriate to focus on learning? And space is not just physical like a desk; it includes sound and light. I’ve seen a lot of people being really creative with working at the kitchen bench, buying a fold away desk for the bedroom, and other bits of furniture like a screen or divider to section off spaces in the house or to create workspaces.
Sometimes, you won’t be able to really have a work space that is quiet, and people are more forgiving in these times if they hear kids and the kitchen in the background, but how does this affect you?
Are there changes you need to make without necessarily spending a lot of money, but perhaps using your house differently?
What could be something that gives you flow naturally that you need to put in your schedule to help you flow with the changes that we are now facing?
For Angela it’s definitely movement and I will be sharing some of the results of my movement classes in the coming months as I plan to share these classes for more people to discover their own natural rhythm.
You can stay in touch with Angela’s gentle movement classes by signing up to the newsletter.
For more work-life balance strategies from Patti go to www.CoachingforInspirationwithPatti.com
We will have this question below in our Building Better Relationships at Home and Work Facebook group relating to this episode.
We would love to see your answer to the question.
Here is a short audio clip of Episode 22
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