Work from Home Struggles & Successes

Earlier this week, I asked about work from home struggles on successes on my Instagram account. Not surprisingly, I found we share many of the same struggles and successes. Working from home (especially if you are also homeschooling your kids) is hard work! There have been good days and bad days. Now that we’ve been at it for over a month, we’re beginning to see what we are doing well…and what we are doing not so well. Let’s take a look.

We are eating too much.

By far, the comment that showed up the most for work at home struggles was that we are eating too much. Many of us depleted our quarantine snacks within the first week. Why? It’s easy, and we are bored.

But we are snuggling more.

While eating more is not the best habit to embrace during this season, we are also spending our extra time at home snuggling our kids more. We are spending far more time with our families than before and surprising ourselves with how much we enjoy the extra snuggle time.

We aren’t getting dressed up.

As a whole, we are also struggling with getting dressed. Many of us have slipped into a nice routine of wearing pajamas to work. And for those who feel fancy, they are wearing yoga pants on bottom and dress shirts on top. We are wearing far less makeup (if any), and we aren’t doing our hair.

But we are getting more sleep.

A major perk of not spending as long on our appearance also means we are getting more sleep. We no longer feel the need to wake up extra early to shower and do the whole makeup and hair routine. We can roll out of bed and start our day. That may be hard to give up when the return to normal begins!

We are struggling with new routines.

At the same time, we are struggling with new routines. Many of us are creatures of habit – even in the office. And home does not work like the office, so there is a steep adjustment. Plus, those of us who are trying to work from home and homeschool our kids at the same time are struggling. It is a whole new routine – and it doesn’t work every day.

But we are still working out.

One routine we aren’t neglecting is our need to work out. While the gyms are closed, we are still finding ways to stay active and healthy. Whether we are working out in our backyards with the whole family or alone in front of a screen, we are doing what we can to work off all the extra calories we have been consuming.

We have too many distractions.

We are also finding many ways to distract ourselves and keep us from doing everything but work. Whether it is our kids or simply all of our own stuff, we are distracted and lacking focus.

But we are getting stuff done.

Yet, with all of the distractions, we are getting stuff done! Some of us are getting things done because of the distractions. Our dirty baseboards are distracted, so we’ve cleaned them! Our kids are distracting us, so we give them attention.

At the end of the day, whether we did a little or a lot, we can rest easier knowing we survived another day working from home during the COVID-19 lockdown.