Business Daily Media

The Times Real Estate

.

it's about flexibility and boundaries

  • Written by Ruchi Sinha, Senior Lecturer, Organisational Behaviour & Management, University of South Australia

It’s hard enough juggling a job with parenthood when you’ve got young kids. But what do you do when social-distancing policies mean you’ve all been sent home?

This is the reality many families now face. Schools have been shut in Britain[1], France[2], Germany[3], South Korea[4] and all but five US states[5]. In Australia, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory are closing schools this week, with more states likely to follow.

Read more: COVID-19: what closing schools and childcare centres would mean for parents and casual staff[6]

To entertain and home school your children while working from home is going to take self-awareness, planning, communication and technology to stop the boundaries between the work and family from fraying and ripping.

Here are six strategies to survive.

1. Be flexible

Working parents often develop routines around work (8am-4pm) and family time (4pm-8pm). Even if you prefer to stick to your routine and keep work to regular work hours, you may need to re-evaluate. The new normal is likely to involve combining greater flexibility with plans and schedules for non-standard working and family time.

To plan successfully, it is critical your know your own style and work preferences. Research shows[7] some people are “integrators”, who cope well with multitasking and switching between work and personal tasks, while “segmenters” prefer to keep things separate and have strong boundaries.

Read more: Women aren't better multitaskers than men – they're just doing more work[8]

2. Make a plan

Make a daily work and childcare schedule that you, your partner and (to a large extent) your kids agree on.

It is crucial to schedule things as it gives you a realistic understanding of what is possible and what you may have to give up versus what you need to claim as essential.

Here is my personal schedule for my partner and I working from home with our six-year-old daughter.

image Ruchi Sinha, Author provided It’s a manic schedule and we are trying to adapt it each day to make it work. But to have it in the first place made us realise how to share home duties and educational responsibilities while carving out work and personal time. Have a family meeting and lay down what you think is critical for the health of your family and for your productivity at work. Use that understanding to identify workload-sharing plans. Try different scheduling for a week and meet as a family to discuss what does not work and what could work. For example, try a two-hour work block for two days and see how your partner and kids react to it. Or swap activity times or roles twice a week or every other day. Once you have a plan, it is critical to communicate the same with colleagues in a way that ensures they are supportive and can work with your constraints and capabilities. Be genuine about your struggles and ask others at work about how they manage their schedules. They will be able to empathise and appreciate you being upfront. image A separate work space can help you mentally separate roles and boundaries even if the kids are still close. Shutterstock 4. Create a work space Research shows[9] working from home is less stressful when you have a dedicated work area. This helps you mentally and physically separate roles and boundaries. With younger kids, you may want to have a symbolic boundary, such as a bookshelf or a room divider, so you can still see and hear them. Invest in a good noise-cancelling headset and an ergonomically designed desk and table. Read more: Working at home to avoid coronavirus? This tech lets you (almost) replicate the office[10] Make small traffic-light signs to indicate to young ones when they can and cannot interrupt. Use alarms to give you 10-minute reminders before you need to change gear from work to parenting. When you are about to transition, write a note on what you want to do when you come back. This will help reduce the spillover of those incomplete tasks into your next activity. 5. Build a community Gather every human and virtual resource you can find to aid mental well-being and efficiency. You, your partner and your kids will need social stimulation beyond each other. Organise virtual play dates through video chat. Reach out to the parents of your child’s classmates to help share the load. Another parent doing a video music class or a virtual art class might free up precious time for you to do something else. Read more: Kids at home because of coronavirus? Here are 4 ways to keep them happy (without resorting to Netflix)[11] 6. Look after yourself Don’t forget you also need some time to unwind. This is the time to shed guilt and be generous to yourself. Don’t beat yourself up for mistakes and missed targets. You are working in a brave new world and it will take time to adjust. Be patient. Learn from each day by taking note of what worked and what didn’t. With time you will find a rhythm that works for you, your partner, your colleagues and the young ones at home.

Authors: Ruchi Sinha, Senior Lecturer, Organisational Behaviour & Management, University of South Australia

Read more https://theconversation.com/6-strategies-to-juggle-work-and-young-kids-at-home-its-about-flexibility-and-boundaries-134138

Little known law offers savvy Kiwis the opportunity to supercharge their retirement savings

A little-known legal amendment is being leveraged by savvy New Zealanders and expat Brits to supercharge their retirement savings. Not many peop...

Cutting edge AI technology designed for doctors to reduce patient wait times launched in NZ

New Zealand specialist doctors now have access to Artificial Intelligence technology to help reduce patient wait times and experts say it could be...

Launchd Takes Off: Former AFL Stars Lead Tech-Powered Platform Set to Disrupt Talent and Influencer Marketing

Backed by Institutional Capital, Launchd Combines Five Leading Agencies and Smart Technology to Deliver Measurable Results Influencer marketing i...

Meet the Australian fintech unlocking rewards for small businesses

Small businesses make up 98 per cent of all businesses in Australia, yet they continue to bear the brunt of economic uncertainty. According to Credi...

Teleperformance (TP) Business Insights Report Reveals Key Shifts in Consumer Behaviour

TP’s Business Insights report  into consumer behaviors and preferences, taking in more than 57,000 respondents across 19 sectors, is shedding new li...

HubSpot launches platform-wide AI tools to help businesses close the adoption gap

HubSpot today unveiled more than 200 updates across its customer platform to help businesses grow better. The release introduces smarter tools, new AI...

Sell by LayBy