Drawing the line – use a pencil
By and large, we’re all working from home now. This will have changed your productivity levels. Some of you for the better, some …not so much.
The children, the tv and the fridge may mean that you’re getting a lot less done in the day.
Or …you might be someone who without the everyday distractions of the office – the meetings, the phone calls, the chat – is actually getting much more done now than you normally would.
Either way the balance has changed. For most of us this will probably change again, as this new state of affairs becomes more ‘normal’. That could mean that you’ll work out a way to resist the fridge and the tv and manage the noisy small people that haven’t quite grasped the working-from-home concept yet.
Or it could mean you actually take a few more breaks between 9am and 7pm – have a coffee or two, eat lunch, talk to your family. Either way, you’ve got to draw a new line… because the line where work ends and home/family begins is in a little bit of a knot for most of us right now.
So the message is a simple one. Do draw a line. But draw it with pencil, so you can rub it out and redraw it. It doesn’t have to be a straight line either.
Draw a line that says my working day starts here and ends here, but within that time there is room for crayons, for chasing spots of light on the wall with the cat, for cuddling the dog, for taking the time to have a coffee with your significant other. But let the line be flexible. Redraw it if you need to.
You’ve seen it said in a million different places, but these are strange times. So yes, adapt – but don’t be too hard on yourself. Now, more than ever before, your working day can work around you a bit more, instead of the other way around.
Get everything done that you need to get done, but on a schedule that works for you, for your family, your animals and your relatives beyond the house – because they might want to check in at irregular times at the moment.
And honestly… so what? Let them. If they want to hear your voice or see your face – even if it’s to nag at you or tell you to brush your hair even though you’re a fully grown adult. Let them.
If it provides them with comfort, normality, a laugh, then it’s just as important as your work schedule.
All the little bits that make up your day now – Skype, Zoom, home schooling and all the rest – let them happen, make them work for you, but above all remember what’s important. Because if nothing else this odd situation has brought in to focus what really matters.
Stay Safe.
