Top tips for working at home with your family in tow

It’s Monday and we’re starting another week of working remotely with children in tow. The parents among us in the Paperstone team have learned a lot these last couple of weeks. We’ve gathered a few tips on how to work from home when juggling children. We hope you find them useful.

Create space

Find a space in your home which you can dedicate to work. This will help your children recognise when you are ‘at work’. Once you decide where you’re going to work make sure you have a comfy office chair and if you have space a desk. The built-in laptop keyboard and mouse are irritating after a while so we recommend separate mice and keyboards.

If you need a new chair we’ve created a handy guide and chair sector tool to help you choose. It’s worth investing now to save back and bottom ache later on. And, to save your floors we stock a range of chair mats to prevent your chair damaging your carpets or wooden floors.

Prioritise & Plan

What do you need to achieve this week? What can wait? What can’t?

Don’t expect to achieve what you normally would. We’re not working in ‘normal’ circumstances and you simply can’t manage interruptions from children in the same way you would a teammate in the office.

We recommend writing to-do lists and highlighting your key tasks to achieve each day. Think about what will have the greatest impact on your business’ success both now and in the future.

Another great tool is the Eisenhower matrix which helps you identify which tasks are urgent/important and what to tackle first.

Bitesize bursts

Work in shorter bursts of time – aim for 30 minute blocks. Set your children up with an activity (scroll down for some ideas) and set to work yourself. Allow break times throughout the day where you dedicate your time and full attention to your children and give yourself a breather.

We’ve found our better work is done later in the day when we’ve worn the children out with a walk to spot rainbows/teddy bears/collect sticks. You’ll feel less guilty as you know you’ve given them your time.

Keep talking

Although we’re physically distancing ourselves – don’t socially isolate yourself from your teammates. We’ve added ‘water cooler Wednesday’ and ‘beer o’clock Fridays’ to our Teams calendar. This means we all catch up and check in on how everyone’s feeling, and coping, as well as a business performance update. Children. pets, partners all pop up on screen and that’s cool with us.

We use Microsoft Teams. You can also try Zoom which is rapidly becoming a household name for large group video calls.

Ideas to entertain your children

1. Joe Wicks – PE with Joe – say no more – 9am every weekday
2. Draw with Rob Biddulph
3. Set up an obstacle course
4. 30 days of Lego challenge
5. Blue Planet Live lessons
6. Set up a reading corner/make a den and encourage some quiet reading time
7. Junk modelling – you could re-purpose your Paperstone delivery box
8. Bring back pen pals – write to a friend or family member
9. Jigsaws, sticker books, drawing, sticking, painting, collages…
10. And snacks, plenty of snacks! We now stock a range of food products to keep you going.

We’d love to hear your tips – please send them to hello@paperstone.co.uk or share on our Facebook page. Be kind and don’t expect too much of yourselves. Stay safe and healthy.