What Makes My Work From Home Work?

This latest post is the first in a series on working from home, a collaborative effort from three professional organizers and KonMari Consultants. 

Sandy Park, of Tidy with SPARK in Orange County, California is a mother of two kids and part-time CPA who fights the good fight against perfectionism and debt.  Devin VonderHaar, aka The Modern Minimalist, lives in Portland, Oregon where she champions minimalism, sustainability, and the rebirth of the modern matriarch. Kelley Jonkoff of Organize with Kelley lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she advocates addressing the clutter in your heart and in your home.

We are friends and colleagues who are leaning on each other more than ever in these socially-distanced times.  The second stay-at-home orders hit, we upped our regular Zoom calls together from twice a month to once or twice a week.  Having a regular check-in has been so helpful for keeping our spirits up about life and our businesses while we all figure out how to navigate our present and prepare for the future.

Here are some practices and perspectives that have been helping us out these past few weeks.  We offer them up with the hope that what helps us might help you too.

Devin VonderHaar, The Modern Minimalist

Create a morning routine 

Make it enjoyable as much as possible. Turn on your favorite music first thing. Meditate, put your diffuser on, make your favorite coffee or tea. Incorporate all the little things to look forward to. Set an intention each day. 

Get dressed

How you feel about yourself is impacted by how you look. If you get dressed for your day, you will train your brain to get into work mode. Maintaining normal showering schedule can also help create a sense of order to break up the monotony of WFH life. 

Set a timer

A great way to keep yourself focused for small tasks is to set a timer for 25 minutes, break for 5 minutes, and reset. By blocking time out this way, it will make the day go by faster, and help you streamline the workday. 

Use a written + digital calendar 

Now is the time to create digital calendars, color coded for family, personal + work. This is a great way to reinforce communicating with a spouse or partner while coworking, especially if you’re getting creative with space. I recommend using google or ical. 

I also like using my planner to physically write out my intentions each day. I try to keep it to 5 tasks, so that I don’t get completely overwhelmed. 

Meal prep 

Creating a plan for breakfasts, snacks, lunches and dinners can streamline your grocery runs, help you stay on budget, and save time during the work day. Prep dips for snacks, a breakfast you can eat each day, and a simple lunch. I like doing a smoothie or overnight oats for breakfast, and  protein bowls for lunch, using vegetables, greens, a grain and a protein based on what we have in the fridge. For dinner you can prep sauces, pre cut veggies + portions. For families, it might be a great time to incorporate meal kit delivery services like hello fresh to simplify even further. 

Create a separate area for work 

Use what you have + get creative. Maybe you have an office that you will divide up time and share. Maybe the bedroom will become your office. Whatever the case is, its important to visually create a separation between what is home + work space. Create a distinction between the beginning + end of the work day, even if its simply unplugging your laptop and putting it away to signify the end of your workday. Create surroundings that will allow you to have calm, quiet and minimal visual distractions. Being near a window, plants, and a diffuser are things that help me focus. 

Set boundaries with family/housemates 

Create + communicate a plan for the workday. Set do not disturb hours, designate a spot for video calls, arrange child + pet care, ways to best communicate while working etc. 

Block out time for self care 

Make sure you’re making time for movement - whether that be a morning dance party with your family, a lunchtime workout video, or a nightly walk with your dogs. Movement + getting outside is incredibly important to our mental space right now. 

Meditate every morning or evening

Even if you only have 10 minutes, meditation can make such a difference in staying grounded throughout the many stressors right now. Guided meditations are a great place to start - and apps like headspace, calm or insight timer all offering free options during quarantine. 

Sandy Park, Tidy with SPARK

With two young children, my days start bright and early. The days of sleeping in or even waking up to an alarm are long gone. After getting out of bed I signal the start to my day by making the bed. Sheets are pulled taut and pillows are perfectly aligned. It doesn’t matter that throughout the day the kids will inevitably tackle each other on the bed, creating a mess on the made bed; for a moment there is order to my day before organized chaos ensues.

Coffee is my next attempt at slowing the pace of my morning. I take the time, like a ritual, to grind fresh beans, froth hot milk and create a homemade latte. Hot is my preferred choice because I’m forced to enjoy my beverage slowly and deliberately.

The small act of pulling out my wireless keyboard and mouse signals the start to my work day. It’s also the same routine that signals the end of my work day when I put these items away back into my desk drawer.

Outside of the tasks that guide my morning routine, the rest of life has shifted in great proportions.  Life is forever changed with COVID-19. As the world around us has changed, it doesn’t make sense that the same behaviors that existed before would look the same after covid.  Our lives have been uprooted and while many of us are at home, with seemingly ample time to stream movies and find projects around the home, my plate is actually fuller than before.

Managing the schedule of two young kids, while juggling my own work demands in coordination with my partner’s work schedule is a feat in itself. Layer on homeschooling, with more homemade meals, and more laundry and more cleaning, it’s not difficult to see how the hours in the day are accounted for.

With more of everything my husband and I decided to have realistic expectations of what can be done and what can be accomplished within our family unit. This prioritization exercise looks differently for everyone. While there is no right or wrong answer, here is what we chose in our family.  

One or two dishes piled up in the sink before the onset of the pandemic.  Today, as my family of 4 is navigating the world of sheltering in place, more than a few dishes are piling up and we are letting that happen without guilt or shame.

Overnight we became homeschool parents and every day is teacher appreciation day. The demands of homeschool far exceeded our expectations given our limited resources of time. My husband and I do what we can to manage the homeschool process, but we don’t beat ourselves up for turning in assignments late or not at all.

We focus on the short list of what is important to us. Our priorities are providing for our family financially, caring for each other lovingly and keeping each other safe and healthy during a pandemic.   

Kelley Jonkoff, Organize with Kelley

Completing/Accomplishing Small Tasks

When the whole world feels uncertain and confusing, when the future doesn’t look like I’d planned, when I am confronted with the fact that I am not in control...these are the moments when I take comfort in the small ways I can achieve a sense of order.  By nature, humans seek control and certainty. When we know what will happen, when we understand things, we feel safe.

Reminding myself of this biological truth gives me a feeling of ease.  I’m able to put my anxiety over these uncertain times into a greater context.  My body is responding to the uncertainty, even as my mind wishes to settle down and weather this moment with positivity.  

I enhance this feeling of calm by focusing on what I CAN control, like the dirty dishes.  Like patching a wall. Like organizing my inbox. Like watering my plants. Making my bed.  Cooking anything. Cleaning anything.

Taking Stock of What I HAVE Done

Some days, it’s all too easy to get caught up in the doing and end the day with a sense of futility instead of accomplishment.  Those times feel like I’ll never get anything done, like my to-do list is never-ending. Like I’m a failure for not being as productive as I wish.

It’s no coincidence that when I’m feeling this way, I’ve often been crazy productive, I just haven’t recognized all I’ve done.  It's not enough to complete tasks; I need to also take stock of all those little accomplishments. So, I sit down and write a “Have Done” list, instead of a “To-Do” list.  

I write down every single little thing I accomplished that day, even if it’s, “Got stain out of shirt” instead of “Redesigned my entire website”.  Our minds love to dwell on how we’re not measuring up, what we don’t have, and what we can’t do instead of what we have done, what we are blessed to have, and what we are capable of achieving.   

Permission to Rest

As our minds get caught up in the doing, so do our bodies.  While we’ve all received the message that movement is vital for health, many of us haven’t yet heard that rest is too.  Without rest, our bodies cannot repair themselves. Without rest, our nervous systems stay in a state of stress, on high alert.  Without rest, our minds never settle and keep unhelpful thoughts on repeat. Without rest, we cannot recharge.

Doing Nothing

Sometimes rest looks like doing absolutely nothing.  Sitting on the couch and staring at the wall. Laying down on the floor with eyes closed.  Sitting on the porch and watching cars go by. Lying in bed.  

We spend so much of our days expecting performance and productivity from ourselves.  Even if only for five minutes, I enjoy the change of nothingness. No expectations. No demands.  No “I should….” Just nothing.

Moving with Mindfulness

For many, doing nothing translates to a seated meditation practice. I am not one of those people. I love the idea of meditation and have enjoyed it sometimes, but I access mindfulness more readily through moving meditation.

These days, my moving meditation is mindfully doing household tasks.  I let myself settle into the pleasure of washing a dish, noticing all I can about that process, from the weight of the dish, the slipperiness of the soap, the size of the suds, to the roughness of the sponge.

I’m going to do these tasks anyway as part of taking care of my household, so why not slow myself down to appreciate them, to notice all aspects of what these “chores” entail?  In the end, they are not chores, but welcome ways to support my life, my home, and my family.

Looking at Nature

Staring at screens all day is hard on the body in a number of ways, most obviously on the eyes and neck.  Sometimes it’s physically necessary to disconnect your eyes from all screens (computer, TV, phone, and smart watches included!) and gaze upon something else.  The muscles of the eyes weren’t made to only look at things a few inches to feet in front of our faces. Our eyes were made to see over distances, open plains, and sweeping views.  

When I feel eye strain, I take a break and look out my window at the farthest thing I can see – usually the tops of a far away tree. This practice gives my physical body some relief, while also lifting my spirits.  Gazing upon nature of any kind – squirrels in the yard, birds, leaves in the breeze, clouds – all of these lend a feeling of peace. They ground us back to nature, to the Earth. They calm the buzzing need to do.  

Self-Soothing

Some days, the thing we need the most is a little self-soothing.  Self-soothing can be anything that you know eases your soul. A slow stroll.  Binge-watching. Cooking. Crafting. Gardening. Painting. Organizing your finances in an Excel spreadsheet.  Cleaning out a drawer. Playing with your kids. Calling a friend. Playing video games. Eating “junk” food. Napping.  A bubble bath. Reading a book. Whatever soothes, go for it.

As you can see, we all have different approaches.  That is, in part, because we all have different needs.  There are so many voices out there telling us how to make the best of this situation. We feel it's important to remember there is no one right way.  We hope we’ve inspired you to notice your own needs and make space for them to be met.

Curious about making your wfh space more productive? Continue with part 2 of the series with desk + office organization tips, here. Part 3, coworking from home here.

Where to find us:

Devin VonderHaar, The Modern Minimalist, Instagram: @themodernminimalist

Sandy Park, Tidy with SPARK, Instagram: @tidywithspark

Kelley Jonkoff, Organize with Kelley, Instagram: @organizewithkelley