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Writer's pictureTamer Afifi

Working from Home Tips & Challenges During COVID-19

Updated: Mar 10, 2021

With COVID-19 many of us are home with kids, partners, and pets—and trying to put in a day’s work as well. Whether you’re an employer, employee, or student, most of us working from home today were not expecting to be doing so just a few weeks ago. For many of us, working from home feels different, but our working from home challenges are similar and we can help each other to tackle them! Here are some working from home tips that are particularly applicable to the current climate:


Tips for Working at Home with Kids

Usually working from home means peace and quiet. For those with kids at home, the distractions can be endless. If you and your partner are both working from home, designate times during the work day when each of you is responsible for attending to children’s needs, so you can each count on a block of uninterrupted time.

If you’re not usually the “go-to” parent, step up your game and exercise this muscle. Create a daily schedule and post it in clear sight so everyone is in the loop. Consider having lunch together as a family, so your kids know there’s a time each day where they’ll have dedicated access to you. This will make it easier for kids to adhere to boundaries around work times.



Tips for Students at Home

No matter the age, from pre-schoolers to college kids, learning’s happening at home at this point. For students engaging in on-line learning, they may be in the same situation as their parents: needing dedicated space, and adjusting to new technology and protocols. Make sure each of your children has a dedicated spot for uninterrupted learning, and ear buds or equivalent equipment to allow participating in on-line lectures while you’re engaged in conference calls and customer calls of your own.


Working from Home with Cats and Dogs

Family pets can be a port in the storm during these uncertain times, but they can also cause stress when you’re trying to collaborate with coworkers and customers remotely. Feed your attention-seeking pets just before getting on a conference call. If you have an enclosed yard, plan their outside time to coincide with client and co-worker calls. Although a barking dog can be a nuisance during a conference call or client meeting, cut yourself some slack as many families have pets, and most of those families are working from home right along with you and yours.


Productivity Tips for Working at Home

If your biggest working from home challenge is productivity, know that even if you’re not hitting home runs right off the bat, your productivity WILL get better. There’s a lot to adjust to, including kids, partners, pets, and most of all, general uncertainty. Like starting a new job where you have to figure out where the bathroom is and how to get the coffee machine to work and how to tune out the guy next to you slurping his coffee all morning, you’ll figure out quickly what works best for you in a home work environment.

For some of us, it’ll be a precise start and stop time, plus showering and putting on work clothes each day. For others it will involve multi-tasking such as caring for little kids, working while they’re napping or when things settle down at night. Be open to whatever path that works for you and your family.


Setting Up Monitors for Remote Workspace

Many of us aren’t used to the hardware challenges of working from home, and transforming a bedroom desk or a living room coffee table into a home office takes some adjustments. Multiple monitors won’t always fit on surfaces meant for other things, like eating dinner, paying bills, sorting laundry, or attempting homeschooling to name just a few.

Give yourself some time to get used to a smaller space including fewer monitors and other peripherals. Prepare to go more slowly at first, until constant toggling between windows is the new norm and “Alt Tab” becomes a no brainer.


Home Exercise Challenges & Tips

In many areas across the country, at precisely the time we need stress relief and strength, gyms are closed and group exercise is on hold, affecting both you and your kids if you have them. Don’t add pressure to your working from home challenges by expecting that your exercise routine will be identical or uninterrupted, but do embrace new and different opportunities to move your body.

YouTube offers tons of free work-out programs. Google “YouTube workouts for free.” Include terms like “no equipment, yoga, strength and recovery, weight training, barre method, cardio, pilates” to get some good ones. Take walks if you can. Breathe deeply.


Managing Expectations

It may take a little time to get accustomed to this ever-changing normal. Prioritize your most important tasks for your most productive period of the day, whether that’s early in the morning before the house is awake, mid-afternoon when babies are napping, or during the night if that’s when you feel focused. Don’t expect too much, too soon. And remember to make sure you carve out dedicated down time from work, for your own sake and that of the others in your home.



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